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journeys through history and the Mediter- ranean – in tradition, original composition and improvisation.
Yad Anuga, sourced in Bedouin tradi- tions, is typical, starting in a serene and mysti- cal slowness, before slowing down yet fur- ther, almost to nothing, almost to dejection. The result is timeless real trance, allowing appropriate space in which to be ruminative, poetic, distressed and unfashionable, to the point of murmur rather than end. There’s a minimal array of intriguing instrumentation, from the expected spare middle eastern per- cussion to accordeon and the bowed sonorous beauty of the Iranian kamancheh, showcased by Zhubin Kalhor.
The most important instrument, howev-
er, the focal point, is the voice of Talya GA Solan, imploring through the miles and cen- turies, personalising a wide breadth of historic material while also evoking an international modern sentiment. The Ladino song, A Sinyo- ra Novia, through drawn-out and haunting strings, presents vocals unquestionably empty of hope, resigned into poetic sigh, the palpa- ble beauty of emptiness in its fade. There’s a sense of the journeys that flow through the project in the irregularities of tribal chant and free improvisation. In Dos Amantes Tengo, La Mi Mama, abrasive accordeon plays a shad- owy narrative, fascinating next to wider expanses. The percussion, though, from a Hason influenced by his new worlds and by the music of both Iran and India, is an unchanging centre of dissonant sameness. Tiyul Leini, however, is an unruly confusion, a manic trill of joy and sadness, in a story of two lovers falling into the Israeli landscape, a point of poetic madness within the otherwise beguiling lyricism of this album.
www.cpl-music.de John Pheby STRUILEAG
Children Of The Smoke La Banda Records, LBCD001
Children Of The Smoke is an original, contem- porary stage musical about the Scottish Gael- ic diaspora. New Gaelic poetry was commis- sioned from various poets, put to music by composer Jim Sutherland, and made into a musical. Scotland’s best Gaelic singers and musicians then performed it during Glas- gow’s Commonwealth Games. The singers include Kathleen MacInnes, Fiona MacKen- zie, Alasdair Whyte, Joy Dunlop, Brian Ó hEadhra and Allan MacDonald, accompanied by string section, pipes, fiddles, guitars, bass, whistles, harp, keyboards, accordeon, saxo- phone, horn, percussion. The range of musi- cal material is wide. There’s traditional- sounding balladry such as Coire Na Mòrair (sung by Allan MacDonald). But there’s also O Mo Dhùthaich? (O My Country?), an angry Gaelic rap accompanied by heavy drum’n’bass and intoned vehemently by Van- couver hip-hop MC Dave ‘Corvid’ McCallum. The rap samples a well-known traditional Gaelic emigrant song (that praises the High- lands and its people) and, with a shocking twist, subverts it:
“O my country, o my country, though I
don’t know what my country is. / O Canada, Ireland, Scotland – O somefuckingplace 4 ever / Somewhere where we will be tricked, By lies and dirty promises / Of money, progress, right, privilege – / Handcuffs as tight as a noose, disappointments as bitter as harpies, / Bastards who grind to oatmeal, the dreams, balls and marrow of people like me”.
To get an audio-visual sense of the show,
there’s a film of the live performance on
www.struileag.com. In terms of this CD as a listening experience, the singers who emerge most strongly are Kathleen MacInnes, Fiona Mackenzie and Alasdair Whyte. MacInnes’s
throaty, bluesy vocals on Salm Na Mara (Psalm of the Sea) and Blasad Nan Deur (Tast- ing Tears) are among the highlights of the album. Like Barbara Dickson, Kathleen MacInnes has a perfect voice for musical the- atre. Another standout vocalist is young new- comer Alasdair Whyte, whose clear, tender vocal on Duan an Fhògaraich (The Refugee’s Plea) is a thing of beauty. Fiona Mackenzie’s vivid, spectral voice lifts the hairs on the back of your neck during her haunting renditions of An Cuan (The Ocean) and the saxophone- accompanied Clann a’ Cheò (Children Of The Smoke).
www.codamusic.co.uk
Paul Matheson
TAREK ABDALLAH & ADEL SHAMS EL-DIN Wasla Buda Records 4704634
Since the 1990s there has been a renaissance in authentic Arabic oud music. Prior to this the oud had no real place in the European style big bands which disregarded the modes and quarter tones which were the essence of Arabic music in general and oud music in par- ticular. The oud is both ancestor and contem- porary of the guitar, lute and bouzouki and in Tarek Abdallah’s playing you will hear echoes of flamenco, rembetica and blues music. This is not contrived, more an indica- tion of common rootstock.
T Abdallah and his partner Adel Shams El-Din (on the tambourine-like riq) mix tradi- tional set pieces with original compositions which typically incorporate song tunes build- ing into suites which include an improvised taqsim followed by a lyrical song tune, or Wasla, and then a change of key and rhythm built on the original song tune.
The nature of the oud, fretless and strung with gut or nylon strings, encourages reflectiveness in the music. If you are used to the showy taqsims of Greek or Turkish music then be prepared for something much more subtle. Tarek’s playing is controlled, fluid, vir- tuosic and dynamic whilst the interplay with the riq is mesmerising and sure-footed and has the hallmarks of a great partnership reminding me at times of the great interplay between the Indian musicians Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha.
This CD is of supreme historical signifi- cance as it revives traditional oud playing whilst significantly expanding its repertoire via the groundbreaking incorporation of Wasla song tunes. Brilliantly executed, it takes the music in a new direction whilst retaining traditional values.
Timeless and enthralling I expect to be still listening to this in years to come. Dis- tributed in the UK by Universal.
www.budamusique.com Mark T
INGE THOMSON Da Fishing Hands Own label IT002
Inge Thomson looks and sounds like a magical spirit from Nordic folklore. She comes from the tiny, isolated island of Fair Isle, between Shetland and Orkney. Her family are promi- nent exponents of folk and traditional music and she learned piano-keyed accordeon at an early age. Her distinctive voice, her darkly- brooding accordeon and her creative elec- tronica have become well-known through her work with the Karine Polwart Trio and the folk band Harem Scarem. On Da Fishing Hands Inge is joined by Steven Polwart (guitars, vocals), Fraser Fifield (saxophone, kaval, whis- tles), Sarah Hayes (flute, vocals) and Graeme Smillie (bass). The music is all original (by Inge), as are the lyrics (by Inge and her now sadly-departed cousin Lise Sinclair).
DAN WALSH
Incidents And Accidents Rooksmere RRCD115
Dan proves he’s more than just a banjo wiz on this follow-up to The Same But Different, his widely-acclaimed earlier offering. Inci- dents And Accidents contains seven songs and four instrumental tracks, this ratio indi- cating a necessary shift in focus towards the importance of lyrics; at the same time, happi- ly, there’s no sense of playing down the con- tribution his ever-brilliant banjo playing makes to the total experience, so much more than accompaniment. Here, Dan’s keen feel for texture is exemplified by the refreshingly uncluttered feel of the recording, making the whole quite full-sounding. He selectively deploys a very limited complement of guest musicians, Patsy Reid on fiddle, Nic Zuppardi on mandolin, Mark Hutchinson on percussion and Meaghan Blanchard on vocals.
Inge Thomson
This highly original album uses a folk cabaret idiom to paint a vivid musical portrait of the immemorial connection between the people of Fair Isle and the surrounding sea. It’s wonderfully theatrical material. The atmo- spheric first track, Here We’ve Landed, opens the album like the first rays of dawn breaking the night: accordeon drone, solitary voice, spine-tingling vocal harmonies. Paper Sea has a sinuous, hypnotic maritime accordeon riff underpinned by punchy rhythm guitar.
The songs on this album have that rare quality of sounding simultaneously avant- garde and ancient, innovative yet simple, sur- real but also childlike. The total effect is a bit like putting the poetry of George Mackay Brown to the music of Jan Garbarek and the Incredible String Band. The lyrics are deeply poetic: “You stippled the sky, like a snow- storm of angels”; “We come and go like a breath that flickers for a moment on the ocean’s face”; “We share meat, we share light. We share wind and weather”. This music has a shivery Scandinavian quality; the clever elec- tronic effects let you hear the seals and the gulls, and feel the cold. Inge’s songs contem- plate the unnerving beauty and remoteness of her sea-surrounded island as a metaphor for the human condition. “The island is as lonely as the earth she is in space. Stretch out our hands into the blind, dark deeps”.
www.ingethomson.com Paul Matheson
Photo: Archie MacFarlane
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