Ode to William Blake, Volume 2 is, as its name suggests, is a follow up to Fernand Péna's first set of recordings of Blake's poems. This was released in 2010 and you can read the original review of it here; as with the earlier CD, this one includes a lavishly-illustrated and somewhat idiosyncratic booklet that includes the various Blake poems as well as Péna's interpretations of Blake's life and work (many sections of which appear to have been carried over from the original CD).
As with the first collection, there are eighteen tracks although the Dylanesque and Doors-inspired influences feel as though they have been added to here. This is evident on the first song on the album - "Never pain to tell thy love" - which is a strong start and reminded me a lot of late Bowie. Blackstar, Bowie's last album, was probably released too late to be an immediate influence, but other releases such as The Next Day may have inspired Péna, as on "The Little Girl Lost" and "The Little Girl Found" and "Earth's Answer".
Lest this began to imply that the album is a tribute - even to such a great artist as Bowie - what is particularly impressive about Ode to William Blake is the variety of Péna's styles. Thus "The Land of Dreams" uses classical-style guitar to great effect to create a much more melodic style (and for me was superior to the preceding, rock-oriented track, "Mary"). Elsewhere, Péna's work is strongly reminiscent of Dylan and Tom Waites, as in the delightful "My Spectre Around Me Night and Day" and "The Ecchoing Green", or "Fayette", which is offered as a duet. It's with some of the straight rock numbers, particularly "Night" and "Long John Brown & Little Mary Bell" that I found myself less inspired, although the guitar on "The Crystal Cabinet" is exceptional and demonstrates Péna's abilities to a much greater degree.
More unusual contributions include "A Fairy Skip'd Upon My Knee", an almost psychedelic piece that matches the delightfully strange subject matter, while "When Kloptstock England Defied" is a bluesy number that, once again, suits the humorous content (and also was another which had echoes of Tom Waites for me). Less successful for me was the slight reggae style of "On Another's Sorrow", although that tone, with 10cc undercurrents, works very well on "The Fly", which approaches the subject of death in a joyful fashion rather than despondency and despair. Finally, Péna deserves credit for his version of "The Tyger" - always a tough one because it is so well known. My own personal favourite version of this remains John Tavener's choral rendition, but the heavily syncopated rhythm of this track - along with prog rock elements that are perhaps reminiscent of Tangerine Dream or even Simon Thaur - make this an unusual, memorable and very listenable adaptation.
While Péna has crafted an entire album devoted to Blake, the other two parts of this review deal with single tracks on other albums. The first of these, "Cradle Song", is by Grammy-award winner, Shawn Colvin. Colvin's own influences and career have included folk singer-songwriters such as Pete Seeger and various Broadway musicals, and both feed through into her latest album, The Starlighter, which takes its immediate source of inspiration a children's book, Lullabies and Night Songs. Colvin's work has been described as "soothing and sophisticated at once", which sums up her sound for me. Certainly her melodic skills are superb, and this particular version of Blake's poem - one of the most popular pieces to be set to music with versions going back to the nineteenth century - is gentle and tender.
The final track to be considered is "Holy Thursday (Ég heyrði allt án þess að hlusta)" by Jóhann Jóhannsson and which was released on the album Englabörn & Variations in March this year. Johansson, who had composed widely for cinema and theatre (most famously working with Denis Villeneuve, although not on Blade Runner 2049) and who died suddenly in the month before Englabörn & Variations was released, was famous for combining traditional orchestration with electronic and ambient influences, and this is very much in evidence on his last album. Bringing together a beautiful harmony of voices via the Theatre of Voices, this is in many respects a simpler piece than some of the other tracks on Englabörn but one that deserves recognition, in my opinion, as one of the finest settings of Blake to have been produced.
Fernand Péna - Ode to William Blake, Volume 2 - available from https://odetowilliamblake.bandcamp.com/releases.
Shawn Colvin - The Starlighter, SLC Recordings.
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Englabörn & Variations, Deutsche Grammaphon.