By Ed Dyer Buswell is a fluid collective of musicians who gather round the creative axis that is Shaun Buswell, an auteur in the truest sense, and a man given to asking as many questions as he answers within his various musical ventures (mainly altruistic challenges involving creating orchestras from strangers to play his music at places like Glastonbury Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe). If you have followed Buswell’s adventures of the last 10 years or so as this record was developed, it will be everything you wanted it to be – epic in scope and sound, but underneath the orchestral ‘sturm und drang’, possessed of a heart and soul straight from the best that modern folk has to offer. For at the core of this album is a collection of songs that have a character all of their own, commentaries on life, love and the world about us as Shaun equally tries to understand and guide the listener around the world. Musically this album is vast – the simple seeming folk-pop songs augmented with layer upon layer of real orchestration, not synths. Lush sweeping strings, punchy brass and emotive woodwind surround the core guitar, percussion and piano that are the songs foundations, building them up into epic, grand journeys that push and pull at your emotions. It is here, when you start considering the vast number of instruments and musicians involved that you understand that this album is as much about them as it is Buswell himself. The people are the true heart and soul of the record, even the cover is given over to polaroid style pictures of everyone involved in the making of the piece. Buswell understands the value of musical talent, and how a project as complex as this is only as good as the component parts, the team involved. So, Stitched Shoes & An Irish Wristwatch (try saying that quickly) is something very rare indeed. It is not often you are privileged to hear such an accomplished piece of music. This gem of a folk-pop record blended with such lavish cinematic pretentions is stunning indeed.