I have always had an affinity with choirs, with my mum singing in various different ones as did I when I was a younger, but I think the real reason I enjoy choirs is that I would not have been born without the Brixham Male Orpheus Voice Choir. My maternal grandad was the founder and conductor, and given my mum was an accompanist as well as a professionally trained singer, she often played the piano with them. When my dad arrived in Brixham to follow his family upon leaving the navy he knew no-one and when another mechanic asked if he could sing, it was then suggested he join the choir to meet people and make friends. No-one expected him to marry the accompanist!
Anyway, I have long been friends with the wonderful duo of Cath Mundy and Jay Turner, and choirs have been a major passion of hers for many years. When Cath and Jay relocated back to Australia from the UK, she started up some choirs, and here we find Freedom Train with their album ‘ISO’. One of the reasons this is intriguing is that this album was recorded entirely on mobile phones, with each member recording their own part, following conductor videos from Cath and Jay. All the files were then sent to Jay to pull it together in the studio, with Cath and Jay also adding additional instrumentation. The song selection is incredibly broad, looking back as far as Leadbelly, moving to South Africa and Cuba, bringing in pop alongside folk and blues, also using different languages so that not everything is in English.
As one would expect from a choir we have multi-part harmonies, and the accompaniment is just that, rarely taking centre stage. This is a relaxing enjoyable album which never purports to be anything more than what it is, a community choir performing some very different songs, all arranged in a manner which makes them a cohesive whole. It is an album that is very different to what I normally listen to, and in many ways, it gave my ears a nice clean out and reset. It certainly never sounds as if those involved were never in the same room, and the result is pleasant and restful.
Rating: 6/10
