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ful string quartet accompaniment. The tradi- tional Ebbe Braha Polska conjures a spooky, haunted sound, with plaintive, unsettling high notes on the fiddle, which then switches into Rona’s glorious, uplifting Kilmartin Glen.
The album was produced by musician and broadcaster Mary Ann Kennedy, and recorded on her Watercolour label, which is devoted to brave new ideas in Gaelic music. This music is brave, original and full of new ideas.
www.maritandrona.co.uk Paul Matheson
ADRIAN RASO AND FANFARE CIOCARLIA Devil’s Tail Asphalt Tango CD-ATR 4414
Romanian brass ensemble Fanfare Ciocarlia are masters of musical re-invention. “How many times do I want to hear breakneck-paced brass blowouts” I always wonder when each new release from them hoves into view. And yet they always
find a way to add new ingredients to their basic recipe, whilst remaining resolutely themselves. (Tinariwen manage a similar trick with their rolling desert blues.)
And they’ve done it again with Devil’s
Tail, which finds the twelve-piece trekking over to chilly Toronto for musical discussions with French Canadian jazz guitarist Adrian Raso (a new name to me). Don’t let the word ‘jazz’ put you off the scent, Raso is no noodler. His roots are in the gypsy jazz stylings of Django Reinhardt. So we’re look- ing at a gypsy-brass-meets-gypsy-strings musi- cal summit here.
The opening Urn St Tavern totally wrong-footed me with its stately pace and New Orleans/St James Infirmary feel. Howev- er Fanfare do get to up the throttle on the pacy Swing Sagrese and C’est La Vie, while at other points there are echoes of Spaghetti Western soundtracks, funk and Southern Ital- ian tarantella. But the twin pulses running through all twelve tracks are the bubbling brass of FC and Raso’s swinging guitar. Guests include guitarist Rodrigo (of ‘
...and Gabriela’ fame) and accordeon man Florin Ionita, who adds some tasty manouche-style playing to Charlatan’s Waltz.
Adrian Raso
A fine album then and one which makes me eager to discover more about Monsieur Raso and find out how Fanfare Ciocarlia plan to pull off that great reinvention trick next time round.
www.asphalt-tango-de Jamie Renton
THE ALISTAIR ANDERSON BAND
A Lindisfarne Gospel White Meadow WMR2013CD
When Alistair Anderson first set foot outside the High Level Ranters to try his luck as a solo act a million years ago, there were chortles of incomprehension at the very notion of one non-singing bloke and his concertina getting folk club bookings in the first place, let alone then holding the attention of vociferous audiences over the course of an entire evening. Long since then, of course, Ander- son has become an influential institution, not merely raising the profile and demonstrating the versatility of the humble concertina beyond all previous recognition; but also doing wonders for Northumbrian music and inspiring generations of young musicians through both his own wonderful music and his commitment to tutoring young musicians through Folkworks and the Newcastle folk degree course.
A Lindisfarne Gospel is one of Anderson’s most heartwarming creations, a carefully weighted and beautifully structured continu- ous instrumental piece composed to mark the return of the 1300-year-old Lindisfarne Gospels to Northumberland. Originally creat- ed to honour “the glory of God and St Cuth- bert” by Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne from 715 to 721, the medieval manuscripts are nor- mally housed at the British Library in London but were returned to the North East for a special exhibition in Durham last summer.
Anderson was commissioned to write music appropriate to the occasion and, as you might expect from such a master craftsman (whose previous gems include the gloriously atmospheric On Cheviot Hills and the modern folk classic Steel Skies), he nails the mood magnificently. At times the music feels grave and profound, but there’s enough of the zestful nature of the man himself to avoid any grandiose overtones. A strong churchy,
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