Ellen Gibling is a harpist based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She refers to the city in her liner notes as K'jipuktuk, the Mi'kmaq name for the region, and -- although she comes from a family with Scottish and English origins -- she obviously holds the native population in high regard ... enough that she donates a portion of her proceeds from every album sale to a music program in Eskasoni, a Mi'kmaq region in Cape Breton. (I've been there, and I've enjoyed performances at several Celtic Colours festivals by the Eskasoni Fiddlers, a group of native Mi'kmaq musicians.)

In any case, that's all background and not really related to a review of this CD, which is a collection of Irish traditional and Nova Scotian original tunes for the harp.

The album offers more than 50 minutes of music, spread over 12 tracks. There are jigs and polkas, waltzes and reels, hornpipes, slides and airs. I won't name them all here, simply because it would take too much time to type them all out, but it's a lovely and varied collection that harp fans will surely enjoy. Gibling has a light touch on the strings, her fingers delicately dancing from note to note with assurance and grace.

According to her website, Gibling is currently part of classical flute and harp duo called Conundrum, an environmental improvisation ensemble New Hermitage, the orchestral pop band The Heavy Blinkers and Sile, an Irish traditional trio. She has performed with Symphony Nova Scotia, the World Youth Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, as well as an Irish traditional duo with Erin Dempsey known as Ragged Robin.

Solo harp recordings aren't for everyone, but the musicianship evident on The Bend in the Light should make anyone listening to it sit up and take notice. This is a beautiful recording, and it deserves to be heard.

[ visit Ellen Gibling online ]