Big Big Train: Review of Merchants of Light

The Merchants of Light live concert album was released by Big Big Train on July 27, 2018 and reveals a seldom equaled level of live playing and recording. This 2 CD (3 LP) live concert, recorded at Cadogan Hall, UK in 2017, delivers over two hours of powerful and moving music. One of the strongest features of Big Big Train is their stylistically varied songwriting. The compositions on this CD move seamlessly from history to folklore to personal experience by focusing on the human emotions involved, while the musical styles of the songs move through the complexity of progressive rock, the reel of Celtic music, the sophistication of jazz harmonies and the cinematic quality of symphonic development. These songs are so artfully wrought, played and sung that they move nimbly between these many styles of music while rocking the audience with their depth of thought and musicality. The net effect is an uplifting feeling for the total experience: I experienced a lump-in-the-throat feeling for the huge effort involved to create this music. The energy and the uplift of this live concert has been beautifully captured on Merchants of Light with a sound quality that is by turns delicate, detailed, massive and worth hearing many times over even if you should have previous Big Big Train albums that include these songs.

Reinforcing the strength of the compositions on Merchants of Light is the fact that Big Big Train is a large band with eight core members and five auxiliary players who provide a brass section for some songs. There is not only the ‘strength in numbers’ of a thirteen piece band but there is a flexibility to cover a wide variety of sounds and styles. This is part of the delight of the music and the changing sonic landscape found in many pieces. You can look to the details of the credits for the specifics of who plays what, but you will seldom find a band with the live instrumental capacity of two keyboards, two lead guitars, violin, flute, drums and bass guitar. An additional strength of Big Big Train is that virtually every one of the eight core band members plays more than one instrument and fulfills more than one role. The drummer, Nick Divirgilio, the guitarist (and third keyboard player) Rikard Sjoblom, and the violin player, Rachel Hall, all sing strong harmony vocals and have lead vocal capacity. The subtle beauty of having even one female voice in the mix gives Big Big Train a range of vocal timbres that enhances their studio work and gives this live Merchants of Light album additional musical impact.

When you listen to Merchants of Light you can hear the quality of the work. Holding the package in your hand with its dozens of onstage pictures you will get a unique sense of how much these musicians and how much the entire Big Big Train organization puts into every aspect of their work. This maximum quality effort in each aspect is both rare and heartwarming, because it represents the efforts of people who are striving to deliver intelligent, uplifting and deeply human music in a fashion that always puts art and music first and foremost. Merchants of Light rocks in the best sense of the word; and on all 13 (and more) cylinders.

Listen here:
https://bigbigtrain.bandcamp.com/album/merchants-of-light

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