Short Reviews [Chantelle Smith & Richard Wileman - 2024 - "Wychwood"]

I have been writing about Richard’s music for 30 years, firstly as Lives & Times, then Karda Estra, until finally he was releasing music under his own name. There were also a few studio only collaborations, but here we find him with Chantelle Smith as a duo who have been performing their folk/horror, weird tales and myths project live for just over a year, containing songs written by both of them plus storytelling and improvisations. On this four-track EP, songs 1 and 3 are written by Chantelle, 2 and 4 by Richard, while Chantelle provides vocals, harp, guitar, shruti box and Richard guitar, guitar synth, keyboards, bass, percussion, vocals, accordion. With proper vocals as opposed to the wordless improvisations of Karda Estra, and a much stronger move into folk with harp and stringed instruments having a very important part, this is quite a departure to what I would normally expect from Richard. However, when one looks at Chantelle’s history of working in the tradition one can see where these influences are coming from. The two song-writing styles are quite different, yet pulled together by the guitars with the beginning of “Wheel of Fortune”, which is not only quite Floydian in its approach but is a revisit to a song recorded by Richard on his 2020 solo album ‘Arcana’. Chantelle is very rooted in folk, and is providing Richard with a different musical foil, the result being something which is ethereal and quite beautiful. Let us hope it is not too long before the two of them combine to produce an album as the combination of talents and background are making for very interesting music indeed, with prog folk being very much the order of the day.