Robert Wyatt, an avant-pop Englishman, and the transgender singer-songwriter Antony Hegarty are, in their way, folk composers, drawing from the same territory as Britain's greatest public-domain songs: class, struggle and identity. On this wonderful live album, the acclaimed British group led by Rachel and Becky Unthanks interprets Wyatt's forlorn "Sea Song" and the fragile pledge of Antony's "You Are My Sister" with spare grit and a silvery deceptive spine running through the sisters' Earth-angel voices. The subtitle, Diversions Vol. 1, suggests further provocative explorations are in store.

Listen to "Sea Song":

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• Photos: Random Notes

“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”