Five things - duos

As Mies van der Rohe once noted, less is more. Sometimes (perhaps more often than we realise) we need very little. Sometimes just two things together is perfect: a glass of port and a slice of Christmas cake, a sofa and a good book, bread and cheese. It's not that the sofa and the book wouldn't benefit from the addition of a cup of tea, or maybe a glass of wine, or that a slick of butter and a pickled onion don't enhance bread and cheese, but in themselves, just as two, these things are good together.

Similarly in music. I am happy to hear the full works, I love an orchestra, but Bach cello suites played by a single cello and nothing else...perfection. I love a full trad band. But sometimes I want simplicity, just two things. These are the CDs I go to.

Doubling. Shouty Records. 2013.
This is a little bit of a cheat because although it's just Anna and Mairearad they manage to pack in a range of instruments. Mairearad plays box, pipes and piano, while Anna provides guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and, according to the CD blurb, percussion and hand clap/thigh slaps. If you see them live Anna also provides the jokes.

Dermot Byrne and Florian Blanke. 2012.
Dermot and Florian play mainly one box and one harp, although a piano, voice, and some guest musicians sneak in from time to time. A mix of French and Irish.

Single Track Road Trip. Living Tradition. 2010.
I saw this pair at Folk at the Oak. Martin plays both guitar and banjo, Carol plays fiddle. It's just the two of them playing pipe tunes and others, new and old, all in the best Scottish tradition, and you can't beat it.

Deadly Buzz. Mick O'Brien and Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh. Irish Music Net. 2011.
Kitty Lie Over. Mick O'Brien and Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh. ACM. 2003.
Irish pipes, this time, with hardanger fiddle. They throw in various pipes, a flute, a standard fiddle. Deadly Buzz is probably my favourite Irish music CD.

Welcome Here Again. Martin Hayes and Denis Cahill.Compass. 2008.
Or possibly this one is my favourite. Traditional jigs and reels taken slow and easy on fiddle accompanied very sensitively indeed by guitar. Despite my usual reservations about backing/rhythm instruments/strummy string things there is no point at all on this CD where I feel that someone ought to ask the guitarist to remove himself from the room.

And, just for the record, there is no way to improve on a glass of port and a slice of Christmas cake, except with another piece of cake and maybe just the teeniest drop more port. Cheers.