Sorry this part has no English translation

„The Iron Stone“ is the third of Scottish singer/songwriter Robin Williamson’s explorations of sung poetry on ECM and follows „The Seed-At-Zero“ (2000) and „Skirting the River Road“ (2002), the first a meditation on Dylan Thomas and other Welsh writers, the second including settings of the visionary poetry of William Blake and Walt Whitman. The new album has a wider embrace, with verse of Walter Raleigh, Thomas Wyatt, John Clare and Ralph Waldo Emerson, plus traditional folk music, and improvisations – as well as Williamson’s own poetry and songs, including two titles he once sung with the Incredible String Band in their most creative period: „The Iron Stone“ and „The Yellow Snake“, both from 1968. Robin Williamson’s ISB, one of the most wildly original ensembles of its era, continues to be a touchstone for consecutive generation of musicians, currently cited as an inspiration by singers and groups of the new folk movement (which the mainstream press is variously calling psychedelic folk or freak folk) on both sides of the Atlantic. Williamson himself, though, has moved on – into increasingly fascinating collaborations with musicians from other idioms, particularly from the worlds of jazz and free improvised music, players fully capable of matching his wayward imagination to create songs in the moment or of joining him in the renewal of traditional forms (as on an extraordinary interpretation of the medieval Scots ballad „Sir Patrick Spens“ here). Recorded in Abergavenny, Wales, (in the loft of an 18th century mill house, maintained as a studio by folk musician – and assistant engineer here – Dylan Fowler), „The Iron Stone“ continues the association begun with viola player Mat Maneri and multi-instrumentalist Ale Möller on „Skirting the River Road“, and adds to the group the great bassist Barre Phillips, who quickly gets to the heart of things. Phillips and Mat Maneri have often worked together (as on their ECM discs with saxophonist Joe Maneri) and have developed a near-telepathic musical understanding. Interweaving their sounds and lines or framing the arpeggios of Williamson’s Celtic harp they develop the group as an improvising chamber ensemble with a reach from folk-baroque („Even Such Is Time“, „Loftus Jones“) to ‘abstract’ spontaneous composition („There Is A Music“, „Henceforth“ and more). Ale Möller, meanwhile, is more than a colourist par excellence, a crafter of moods and atmospheres with his many flutes and whistles, his accordion, mandola and more... (Pressetext)