This disc is part of a delightful series on England's Saydisc label, originally recorded in the 1980s and covering various regional traditions of the British Isles -- change ringing, hurdy-gurdy music, and tunes from Victorian music boxes, for a start. Northumbrian small pipes are a bagpipe variety from Northumberland, on the English-Scottish border, and they have a sound distinctly different from that of Scots pipes -- brisker, more focused on the melody as compared with the drone tones, and capable of greater variety of articulation, including almost-staccato notes. The Perfect Triangle referred to in the album title is a group of three pipers from the early twentieth century -- Tom Clough, Billy Pigg, and Jack Armstrong -- to whom this release was an homage. The names mean nothing to listeners not versed in lore of the pipes, and the music is introduced rather elliptically in the booklet: for example, the entire explication given for track 1, Madame Bonaparte, consists of the text "presumably Napoleon's wife." For the ballad tune Chevy Chase, one of two tunes heard as a medley on track 12, the listener is helpfully told that "an American actor and an area of New York both also bear the name Chevy Chase." Crooked Bawbee, from track 10, is "a tune about a bent coin of little value, and possibly counterfeit . . . often played both by Jack [Armstrong] and Billy Pigg." Of course this reticence adds ot the charm rather than otherwise, and the program is attractively varied in melody and mood, with a set of variations ("the famous variations as played and written by Tom Clough") on the children's tune Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be breaking up more ethereal pieces. A delightful slice of Britain's's exotic traditions, especially recommended to travelers to the country's northern regions and to bagpipe aficionados.