Partners In Crime, Ross Ainslie & Jarlath Henderson

(Vertical Records)

NOT TOO much sparing the horses in what must surely be a unique pairing of Irish uilleann pipes and Border pipes, played with smeddum by two young pipers, each of whom is making a name for himself in his own right (LBPS members might remember their spirited performance at the collogue a few years ago).

Jarlath Henderson was three times All-Ireland uilleann pipes champion by the time he was 19, and in 2003 became the first Irish winner of the BBC Young Folk Musician of the Year. Ainslie, a protege of the late Gordon Duncan, has paid his dues with the Vale of Atholl pipe band and with outfits such as Flook, the Dougie McLean Band and Salsa Celtica.

This album, on Donald Shaw's Vertical label, packs plenty of youthful energy, as suggested by the opening track of three classic traditional Irish reels, The 0ld Bush, The Jolly Tinker and Richard Dwyer's, which they take at an exuberant pelt, propelled by a squad of accompanists including guitarist Ali Hutton, drummer James Mackintosh and former LBPS chairman Nigel Richard (whose pipes Ainslie plays) on cittern.

What is of particular interest here is the way in which the two pipes manage to blend so seamlessly, despite their very different characteristics, the theoretically more “limited” nine- note Border chanter apparently holding its own with the more fluid tone and greater note range of the Irish instrument - listen, for instance, to the tight duetting in Henderson's own composition, The Slow Train. There is much contemporary material here - self-penned and by others including Gordon Duncan, and a cracking set which has the two pipe chanters, suddenly unaccompanied, dancing along together in piquant harmony before shifting into R S MacDonald's idiosyncratic reel Good Drying.

There's a fetching air by Ainslie, Jenna Drever oƒ Kirkwall. Elsewhere, however, as with so many tunes being produced in such profusion at the moment, one can't help wondering how enduring they will be, although perfectly enjoyable. Overall, though, this is an album of considerable and infectious zest.