Tim Hughes looks forward to an anniversary show by adventurous string quartet Methera

IT was a love of sheep that brought folk four-piece Methera together. And their fondness for the woolly animals, and their historical importance to our islands’ history gave them their name.

“The name Methera comes from an old northern sheep-counting system and means four,” says fiddler Emma Reid

“At one of our recent gigs we were given four beautifully hand-crochet sheep by a member of the audience!”

Now celebrating 10 years together, the string quartet are recognised for their unique swirling sound which draws on influences from here to Scandinavia.

They are an exhilarating ensemble, young, bold and interesting – a world apart from the woolly jumper-clad tankard-bothering traditional group, or the stuffy chamber quartet, of popular imagination.

Emma and bandmates Lucy Deakin (cello), John Dipper (fiddle) and Miranda Rutter (viola) combine a deep knowledge of traditional music with a wide range of other influences and a deep sense of musical interaction.

Newly composed pieces sit alongside timeless traditional material, making their music both sophisticated and earthy, groundbreaking and familiar, enchanting and thrilling – chamber folk at its best.

The group met, suitably enough, at the heart of sheep country, in Stroud, in the Cotswolds.

“Our paths first crossed at the EAC summer school which is held at the magical Ruskin Mill College every summer,” says fiddle player Emma.

“The course founder, Chris Wood, has been a big influence with his approach to discovering the individual voice inside all of us.

“Viola player Miranda then brought Methera together out of a longing to explore the sound palette of the string quartet through the medium of the traditional music we were all passionate about.”

The group are marking their anniversary with the launch of their third album Vortex and a national tour which brings them to the stunning new auditorium at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, next Thursday.

“Our last performance in Oxford was in 2010 at the Holywell Music Room and we had a great night with a lovely audience,” says Emma.

“We’re really excited to be returning to Oxford as part of our 10th anniversary album launch tour, to such a beautiful venue.

“We always play in the round, in a close inward-facing circle. It means we hear every detail of the collective sound and can bounce off each others ideas in real time.”

And it promises to be a one-off show.

“The individual notes we play are rarely set in stone; rather they are influenced by the room, the acoustic, the audience and what we are hearing in the moment.

“In the first years we would spend days on end playing around with one tune, experimenting with the sound and format a folk string quartet could take.

“Sometimes we used arrangements by our contemporaries as a starting point, with the manuscript pegged up on a washing line.

“We found ourselves distracted by paper and props, and the method was quickly replaced by time-consuming but extremely satisfying democratic arranging as a group.

“Back in the day we were all conveniently based in England, but for the majority of our existence I have been in Sweden, John in Quebec and Miranda on a narrowboat.

“Now, 10 years, eight babies, innumerable house-moves and so many lovely, memorable gigs down the line, we have a tighter schedule, which has resulted in condensed, inspired rehearsals with slightly less cake!”

In the best folk tradition, the group are not averse to teaming up with other folkies to pool talents.

“We have had several influential collaborations over the years,” says Emma. “In 2009 we did a double bill tour with Kerr Fagan Harbron and it was lovely to discover the soundscapes we could make when accompanying singing.

“Another is a collaboration with Swedish storyteller Mats Rehnman for a show that explores the body language and voices of the string quartet and the rhythm and dance of the narrator.

“It has been an ear-opener for Methera to work across different art forms. Several of the pieces on our new album have stemmed from working with Mats.”

So what makes them different? “I think we stand out from the crowd because of the connection our music has to the room, atmosphere and audience, giving a unique and memorable performance,” says Emma.

“We have been performing in the round since the birth of Methera, and have stubbornly stuck to it even though some venues would prefer otherwise.

“It always pays off though; in our gig book, audiences write ‘so magical to see and feel your interaction’ and ‘you create a vortex of sound that spirals out of the circle’, which sums up what we are trying to convey.”

It’s that trademark sound which inspires the album Vortex, and which sees them spinning off, and refusing to follow the flock.

  • Methera play Corpus Christi, Oxford, next Thursday.
  • Tickets cost £10 or £8 concs or in advance from wegottickets.com
  • Album Vortex is out now