Teyr: Estren

First published in the June-July 2021 edition of Folk London Magazine

Folk trio Teyr (Cornish for “three”) released their second album Estren on 30 April, nearly five years after

their 2016 debut Far From the Tree. It was well worth the wait.

Sometimes described as “high octane folk,” Teyr’s sound is the marriage of pipes and accordion dancing

over a fire of rhythmic guitar, at once deeply traditional and entirely new.

Despite a five-year hiatus, Estren flows as a natural successor to the band’s debut, the rich sound of Far

From the Tree finding a home here as the loom on which a tapestry of new arrangements is woven. The

albums are, by design, joined with Estren’s driving opening tracks "Shannon Frisk Arrivals" and "Shannon

Frisk Departures," which place pipes and accordion once again on center stage before later allowing them

to flirt in and out of the tight vocal harmonies that are the hallmark of this album.

Estren - Cornish for “stranger” - serves as title and theme alike, notably in the title track, a retelling of a

19th century ballad about Cornish emigration first collected from Mary Treese of Menheniot in East

Cornwall in 1891. The song has taken many forms in the intervening years, and Teyr embraces a variety

of influences to tell a story about the universality of human movement and the feelings of otherness it can

create. Hilary Coleman - a legend of Cornish folk music and a major figure in the revival of clarinet as a

traditional Cornish instrument - introduced the band to Estren and also provides clarinet and vocals for

the track.

Other notable tracks include "La Bestia," described by the band as “a curious Bayou waltz with a Spanish

name,” which features award-winning cellist Abel Selaocoe (Kabantu, Chesaba) in his native Sesotho

tongue, and "The Drummer," an old song with a Watersons-inspired setting, given new life with saucy

vocals from Irish singer Ruth Corey (NYX Electronic Drone Choir).

Joining Coleman, Selaocoe, and Corey are a bevy of Teyr’s other talented friends: fiddler and composer

Alastair Caplin (Band of Burns, The Langan Band); Sid Goldsmith (Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith,

Awake Arise); violinist Holly Harman (Twisted Twenty, Pennyfiddle Records); violist Amy Jane Hosken

(Rad Orchestra); bodhran player Tad Sargent (Crossharbour, Matt Tighe & Tad Sargent); violinist Flora Curzon (Fran & Flora, Gaia Duo); and bassist Nina Harries (Akram Khan, London Electronic Orchestra).

Both Estren and Far From the Tree can be purchased at: https://teyr.bandcamp.com/