65 f
Despite its name meaning ‘the 30’, it seems to have been a quartet, a fraternal trio de gaitas – gaita, bass drum and gut-snare side drum – plus clarinet, and much of its repertoire came from the arrangements and compositions of a musical director called Ricardo Courtier. It appears he was working with just the limited possibilities of that pair of monophonic (well, plus drone) melody instruments, so his arrangements presumably just provided the basis for the expanded harmonic possibilities brought by Romero’s accordeon, and Roberto Somoza’s orchestrations for the 40 or so strong La Banda Municipal.
The CD comes with a DVD of a 2011 con- cert at A Coruña’s opera house by the trio with the Banda Municipal. No further enlightenment on the DVD about the music or the elusive Os Trintas, just the concert video, and while the music sounds fine, visu- ally they go in for bouts of laboured, infant- level clowning, including pantomimic blonde wig for the zarzuela number, that diminish the mental imagery evoked by the audio. Stick with the CD.
www.folmusica.com Andrew Cronshaw
ÁGNES HERCZKU Guarding Fire Fonó FA 274-2
Ágnes Herczku is a leading exponent of that special edgy, emotive yet simultaneously magnetically calm and focused female Hun- garian vocal.
After diverse collaborations, including
2007’s Szájról Szájra vocal trio with Szilvia Bognár and Ági Szalóki, on this her second solo album she’s backed by top players includ- ing fiddler Tamás Gombai and cimbalist Sán- dor Ürmös, making the characteristic wild, stirring, stretching, swirling, wiggly táncház sound on fiddles, viola, cimbalom and chug- ging bass. On one track the accompaniment is just the patter and thump of a tin jug, the Hungarian Roma equivalent of the Indian clay-pot ghatam.
All the songs are traditional, learned from archives and her own meetings with vil- lage singers including Józsefné Maneszes, who appears on one track, and there are a couple of sparky duets with a new tradition- bearer, the impressively feisty 11-year-old Boglárka Fekete.
The music well justifies its well-designed packaging, a 60-plus page hardback book with atmospheric photos, full notes and all the lyrics in English and Hungarian.
www.fono.hu Andrew Cronshaw
KATE DENNY Closer To Home Lapwing LRCD0001
The Kittiwakes produced one of 2009’s most mesmerising records, the folk concept album Lofoten Calling. Kate, one third of that trio, now launches out on a solo career with this rather special disc containing 12 of her own compositions (11 songs and a Scandinavian- inflected instrumental piece), which manages to be at once upfront in the method with which she establishes her distinctive musical personality and inclusive in its portrayal of subject matter which almost always has a per- sonal relevance and connection (ie it concerns matters that are also literally closer to home for Kate than the Norway of Lofoten).
But Kate’s songwriting has no truck with narcissistic introspection; instead, through keen exploration of her own heritage, Kate affords insights into the lives of her ancestors. By telling and evocative use of language, she re-imagines and comments on the harsh experiences of great-uncle Billy in World War
One and ponders the impact of the suicide- by-drowning of great-grandmother Nellie Follett, while Beverley reflects on, and cele- brates, the life of Kate’s husband’s sister, who died in 2010. Kate’s childhood reading pro- vides the inspiration for William And The Boat (which recounts an incident from Wordsworth’s Prelude), and a devilishly quirky Scottish fairy tale forms the basis for the unexpectedly chirpy The Milk White Dove. A local West Midlands legend is retold with relish on The Sisters Of Jacob’s Hall, whereas Getting By concerns the hardship faced by Greenwich residents in the early years of the 20th Century.
Best of all, though, are those songs where the universal collides with the person- al, as on the atmospheric drone-accompanied Brittle Boned, which was inspired by experi- ence of extremes of weather during a stay on Skye; here Kate meditates on the permanen- cy of the mountains in time and the land- scape, and its closing pipe-tune coda contin- ues onward into the succeeding track, Almost Forever, a charming celebration of all the things we love. The hopeful, positive message of Fear and the welcoming hearthside- waltzer title song then leave the listener with a warm glow.
Kate’s fresh, bracing singing voice is underscored by deft accompaniment from her own handcrafted viola and Charlie Skel- ton’s guitar (or violin or smallpipes), with occasional embellishment from Phil Under- wood (anglo concertina or melodeon) and either Mark Hutchinson or Peter Dunhill (gui- tar on one track apiece). A limpid aural tapestry which yields a gently poignant and increasingly haunting musical delight.
www.katedenny.com
David Kidman VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Rough Guide To Celtic Women World Music Network RGNET127CD
RÚN
Sé: Songs From The Six Celtic Nations Own Label no catalogue number
Much as one might expect from one of these Rough Guide compilations, many of the cur- rent usual suspects are here. There’s Cara Dil- lon, Julie Fowlis, Karan Casey, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and Karen Matheson, Tríona and Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill and others. However, the choice of artists is restricted to singers: even the Susana Seivane track has her singing rather than highlighting her splendid piping, while Sharon Shannon’s features some alt country vocals from Carol Keogh rather than her inimitable box playing.
And there’s a bit of problem: each track is decent and stands perfectly well on its own, but despite the potential of the stellar cast there’s a similar overall feel to most of the arrangements, so the album as whole ends up sounding a bit one-dimensional. The only track that really stands out as different is Karine Polwart singing What Are You Waiting For? and some might not really consider her as resident in the pigeonhole labelled ‘Celtic’. Quite why Canadian compiler Dan Rosenberg didn’t pick (say) an unaccompanied ballad, or some puirt-a-beul is a bit of mystery. Perhaps a case of ‘don’t frighten the natives’ but surely a missed opportunity when compared to the variety of (say) the excellent recent Rough Guide To English Folk. The series’ usual decent sleevenotes and packaging come complete with a bonus CD: Canadian “vocal explorer” Teresa Doyle’s 2004 album of ancient spiritual Gaelic songs Orrachan, which strays decidedly more towards the ethereal/meditative Enya- reena stereotype.
www.worldmusic.net
Rún are four London-based women singers Alli Buhagiar, Sonja Byrne, Ciara Hol- land and Brona McVittie. They sing songs drawn from the Irish and Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Manx and Breton traditions in close harmony, either a cappella or with a light harp accompaniment from Brona McVittie. It’s all pretty gentle and (like the previous album) each track passes pleasantly enough, but with the overall similarity of their voices there isn’t quite enough light and shade or variation in arrangement to really hold the attention from start to finish. A promising debut, nonetheless.
www.runceol.com Bob Walton
VUSI MAHLASELA Say AfricaWrasse WRASS300
I’ve previously found the music of South African singer-guitarist Vusi Mahlasela a lit- tle too easy on the ear for my taste, so what’s different about this new album? Ah right – “produced by Taj Mahal” – that would explain it. What we have here is African blues of a decidedly different stripe, strongly South African in flavour, easy- going at times, but mostly delivered with passion and an appealing smokiness of tone (a quality shared by the voices of Mahlasela and Mahal). The rawness of the township and the blues is frequently present, but there are other elements too. Mahlasela’s quartet (a rhythm section plus an electric guitarist to complement the leader’s acous- tic) are, on various tracks, augmented by accordeon, brass, a groaning male vocal chorus, flute and violin. Mahal chips in with guitar and banjo, duets with Vusi on the down-home In Anyway; Angelique Kidjo adds vocals to Nakupemwa Africa, demon- strating what a great soul voice she’s got when the production’s spare enough to allow her to shine, while the title track is the sort of thing that could give uplifting tunes with big choruses a good name. In truth the album ends a little too treacly for my ears, but there’s more than enough of the fine stuff here to merit investigation.
vusimahlasela.com
Jamie Renton Vusi Mahlasela
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