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Lula Pena
LULA PENA Archivo Pittoresco Crammed Discs CRAM270
The fact that Pena’s third album in nineteen years is named for a fairly obscure 19th Century art movement in her native Portugal offers a hint that she’s not chasing after huge commercial suc- cess. But the title also offers a broad hint to her musical
approach, exploring the landscape of the soul and the mind, just one woman with her voice and guitar on a journey through the interior. It’s a disc that floats on soft beauty, meander- ing through six languages, taking in poems and songs from mediæval times to the pre- sent day, although she’s penned very few of the words herself. Pena’s unusual guitar style creates constant, light percussion behind melodies which offer hints of Brazil, of ‘phado’ (her very deliberate spelling of the word), flamenco, a nod to chanson in her deep voice, and more. She offers a broad landscape, one to travel time and again. Often one tracks flows into the next, a step that turns a corner and opens up a fresh view. Closing with a song from the Twilight Zone TV show called Come Wander With Me (the piece she generally uses to start her concerts), it’s as if the invitation is there to begin all over again. Somehow, with such basic ingre- dients, Pena has achieved that rarest alchemy of turning words and notes into art, some- thing far more than the sum of its parts. It transcends language, goes beyond style, and works its gentle magic.
lulapena.com Chris Nickson
Aurelio
AURELIO Darandi Real World CDRW216
Following a performance at WOMAD UK back in 2015, Aurelio Martinez (the finest living exponent of the music of the Garufina people of Central America’s Caribbean coast) took his five-piece band and trio of backing singers over en-masse to
nearby Real World Studios, set up in one room and recorded a collection of the best- known songs from his 30-year career. The result is this, his fourth album and, while an artist re-recording material from their back catalogue usually suggests a need to fulfil contractual obligations and a dearth of cre- ativity, this is an absolute joy. A celebration of a sound that’s well worth celebrating.
Best known thanks to the late and much missed Andy Palacio from Belize, the distinctive Garifuna musical blend of sweet, aching vocal harmonies, skittering rhythms and the twangiest of guitars has found a worthy champion in Honduran singer, gui- tarist, songwriter and activist Aurelio and recording live without overdubs suits him well, bringing the high quality of his voice and the fiery precision playing of his road- tested band into sharp focus. Full marks to Aurelio and co-producers Alejandro Colinas and Ivan Duran for capturing such a bright and lively sound,
This is a lovely package too, with the CD nestling in a 24-page hardback book, featur- ing fulsome text providing historical context on both Aurelio and the Garifuna, alongside all sorts of photos and drawings.
Aurelio, apparently, sees this album as an end of an era, close of this chapter in his musical career type of thing. I’ve no idea where he plans to take things next, but it’s bound to be worth listening out for.
realworld.com/aurelio Jamie Renton VARIOUS ARTISTS
Stick In The Wheel Present From Here: English Folk Field Recordings From Here Records SITW005
I first heard murmurings of this project via Peta Webb and Ken Hall, who told me that they’d been recently vis- ited by Stick In The Wheel’s Nicola Keary and Ian Carter. “We just chatted and sang and they took the recordings away – we’ve no idea what
they’re going to do to them…”
The answer, it happily transpires, is pret- ty much nothing at all. Nicola and Ian’s stated intention is that in listening to the perform- ers on these recordings “you feel like you’re in the room with them”.
For anyone who’s recently seen the likes
of Peta & Ken (Just A Note/Wild Wild Whiskey) or John Kirkpatrick (Here’s Adieu To Old Eng- land) in any one of Britain’s venerable tradi- tional folk clubs, much of this record will be reassuringly familiar. Those clubs, however, are now few in number and one is more likely to first encounter English traditional music through the PA system of an Arts Centre, or via recordings produced to sit comfortably among the sonic output of mainstream radio.
Photo: York Tillyer
Photo: Lucile Dizier
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