Pentangle released six albums between 1968 and 1972, but the wealth of bonus material here expands this fine collection to a mammoth 14 discs of vinyl. Out-takes, live tracks and material cherry-picked from contemporaneous solo albums by the group’s esteemed guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn all feature.
And with 20,000 words of sleeve notes and six different music journalists each writing an essay specific to one of the half-dozen Pentangle albums revisited, it’s hard to imagine a more thorough or inviting introduction to the band’s key releases.
Given the group’s heady confluence of talent and later influence, it’s extraordinary to think that Transatlantic – the imprint that would go on to release Pentangle’s first five albums – weren’t keen at first. Label boss Nat Joseph had released Jansch and Renbourn’s 1966 LP Bert And John and wanted more solo works.
But when mellifluous-voiced jazz fan Jacqui McShee sang with them at their London folk club The Horseshoe, with double bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox standing in, a five-pointed star was born.
The band’s complex, imaginative sound was immediately striking on tunes such as Bells and Waltz from 1968’s debut The Pentangle; but for many their greatest album is 1969’s Basket Of Light, home to intricate prog-folk masterpiece Light Flight, the sitar-imbued Once I Had A Sweetheart, and the haunting acid-folk of Hunting Song.
Elsewhere, acts of daring – such as Danny Thompson’s brilliant solo bass composition Haitian Fight Song (from 1968’s part-live double set, Sweet Child) and Jack Orion, the 19-minute tale of a servant using an enchanted fiddle to seduce his master’s sweetheart (from 1970’s Cruel Sister) – support Renbourn’s contention that, while on Transatlantic, Pentangle were free to do whatever they pleased.
This licence fired their experimental approach as they took folk in jazzier, often part-improvised directions. Witness their gorgeously languid version of Charles Mingus’s famed instrumental Goodbye Pork Pie Hat at the Royal Festival Hall in June 1968.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jacqui McShee’s favourite Pentangle LP is 1972’s Solomon’s Seal, wherein succinct, bewitching trad folk songs such as The Cherry Tree Carol – rather than extended instrumental passages – take the fore.
According to Jim Wirth’s fine accompanying essay, the LP was off catalogue for 30 years “until master tapes were found propping up a wobbly table leg in Renbourn’s house.”
Solomon’s Seal was last released on vinyl in 1977. Together with the rest of these often masterful LP’s, it’s great to see it revisited, re-evaluated and expanded.
The Albums: 1968-1972 is on sale now via Svart Records.
