Robin Borneman - Folklore III: The Cradle Tree (2019)

Robin Borneman spends about five years as a singer with the Trans Siberian Orchestra, during the winter months he is part of the Trans Siberian Orchestra, an extensive company that combines rock and symphonic conditions in a pompous crossover. The spectacle show fills the stadiums in the US and in this way Borneman reaches a dizzying number of visitors by Dutch standards with TSO.

In 2012, the singer-songwriter from Osse self-released Home, when Borneman retires to the studio far away from the hectic touristic conditions, he builds his own musical universe. In 2015, The Waving Days, the first experimental part of Folkore. The ambitious triptych narrates the experiences of the traveler in search of his identity, which lonely quest is continued on The Phantom Wail, a dark episode in the story.

The third, closing part was created in the studio of Wouter Budé. In contrast to the more layered orchestration on the previous episodes, The Cradle relies on more compact song work that shuttles between folk and prog rock. Borneman is assisted superbly by his old friends of Navarone. The Stormcrow with esoteric strings and The Boatman, a beautifully constructed ballad, are beautiful illustrations of that collaboration.

In I've Been Around, the resigned groans of the lonely vagabond who sense the imminent end echo the raw voice timbre on a compelling organ carousel. Latter Mile is a nice listening song, the wanderings come to an end in this fragile, acoustic lullaby. The title track is a soundtrack composed of melodies from the earlier volumes of Folklore. Spoken word passages create a dreamy atmosphere in the symphonic instrumentation and round off the story nicely.