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fRoots 45
The latest in our series of sought-after compilations, which you can download to enjoy on your computer or mp3 player or burn to CD –the download includes artwork for a slimline case and label.
H
ere’s the latest in our long series of carefully crafted and sought-after compilations. They’re designed to let you hear the music – mostly on
small independent labels – that our writ- ers get enthusiastic about in the pages of fRoots. Mainstream radio and press largely ignores the majority of this, so we urge you to support the artists and labels by buying the original CDs.
This isn’t the first time we’ve featured the voice of the wonderful Leah Abramson on a fRoots compilation, and I wouldn’t take bets on it being the last! Previously in The Crooked Jades and Dyad, now fronting The Abramson Singers in an earwormy piece of classic folk rock.
Originally from Brittany where they’ve collaborated with the likes of Erik Marc- hand, Thierry ‘Titi’ Robin and Ross Daly, and for the last four years in Istanbul, singer Simone Alves & multi-instrumentalist Yann Gourvil bring a fiery new edge to their blend of traditions.
Guitar maestro and multi-Folk Award
winner Martin Simpson celebrates his 60th birthday – how did that happen? – by eschewing collaborations and bands and delivering a fabulous, truly solo album recorded up close and personal. It may just be the CD you wanted him to make.
Two Italian groups, Orchestra Bailam & Compagnia Di Canto Trallalero unite to celebrate the Galata region of Istanbul which has been a Genoese enclave for cen- turies. That fabulous trallalero singing (from the longshoremen of Genoa) meets an accomplished band.
Featured on the cover of last month’s
fRoots and with an album and tour lined up from October, you’ll be hearing a lot more of the inspired pairing of harp queen Catrin Finch and kora maestro Seckou Keita. We’re privileged to bring you an exclusive preview of their genius.
Produced by and featuring the violin of the rather clever Griselda Sanderson, the second album by UK-resident Senegalese songwriter, guitarist and percussionist Amadou Diagne is startlingly good. His debut didn’t hint that he was about to produce something this major!
The Balearic Folk Orchestra featur- ing Olivia Chaney track is an alternative mix of one made for a Qmagazine Amy Winehouse tribute, where Olivia complete- ly reinvented Amy’s song. This is part of fRoots’ continuing campaign to assist Chaney completists in absence of an album.
Indeed we continue that project with
the Memory Band track, in which the eagle-eared will detect Olivia Chaney’s voice floating in there among Stephen Cracknell’s chums as they evoke the ancient Harrow Way as it wends across the landscape of Southern England.
D'en Haut (Thomas Baudoin and Romain Colautti) are an excitingly inven- tive duo from Gascony in the south of France who sing in Occitan and play every- thing from double bass and percussion to flutes, Tibetan bowls, shruti box and the bonkers Hurgytoy (Google it…)
The remarkable album Baul-Fakir Gostho Lila: Conversations Between Ma Joshoda & The Cowherds from which the track featured here by Fakir Gonjer Shah
is taken, is a wonderful set of field record- ing of Baul music from Bengal and, in this case, Bangladesh.
When Devonian singer Jim Causley set about putting the poems of celebrated Cornish poet Charles Causley to music, he had no idea that they were distantly relat- ed. The album was recorded in Charles’ Launceston home, Cyprus Well, using the late poet’s own piano.
Radio Cos are led by two famous pandeireteiros and field recordists from Galicia, Xurxo Fernandes and Quique Peón, blending traditional music with all sorts of local roots influences. It’s a vibrant, gutsy sound that reflects the richness and joy of the region’s music.
Formerly of Uncle Earl, fiddler and
singer Rayna Gellert is deeply rooted in the landscape and sounds of mountain string band music. Her album Old Light mixes up old ballads remembered from her childhood with new songs and settings that generate deep atmosphere.
Fofoulah are an Anglo/ Senegalese/ Gambian band based in London who com- bine the Senegalese vocals of Biram Seck and West African percussion grooves – sabars to the fore – with dub basslines, sci- fi synths, jazz values and rawly inventive guitars. No prisoners taken!
With fiddlers from Shetland (Catriona Macdonald) and Scotland (Patsy Reid) and a Nordic mandola player from Norway (Marit Falt), Vammare one of the most exciting and original acoustic instrumental group to come out of northern parts in quite a while. So there!
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