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Grex > Oldmusic > #35: Folk & Roots: Continental Europe and the Mediterranean | |
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micklpkl
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Folk & Roots: Continental Europe and the Mediterranean
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Sep 18 06:03 UTC 2001 |
I've been going back and forth on this with Ken, and we decided to separate
out the roots music of the folk of Continental Europe from the broader "folk"
genre. As a general guideline, this means to me: any of the traditional music
or modern music inspired by the cultures of non-English speaking Europe and
the Mediterranean, with the exception of Scandinavia (which should have its
own busy item).
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| 11 responses total. |
micklpkl
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response 1 of 11:
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Sep 18 06:10 UTC 2001 |
I spent some time this evening translating a short blurb from the liner notes
of Susana Seivane's second CD, just released in Spain. Any grammatical errors
are all mine, a result of my rusty Spanish.
From the Commentary - Boa Music presents ALMA DE BUXO, the anticipated new
disc of gaitera Susana Seivane, in which the traditional is joined with the
contemporary, and which confirms her solidity and talent as one of the stars
of international folk. The title of of this album, ALMA DE BUXO, translates
to
"Core/Soul of boxwood", the material which the punteiros [literally,
"chiselers"] of the gaitas put through a slow and prolonged process of drying,
in the factory that Seivane family runs in Cambre (A Coruna), a process that
can take up to several years and that begins with the cutting of this shrub
in
certain definite lunar phases. In a similar manner, Susana Seivane also has
taken her time in the processing of the compositions that conform her new
disc. The previous and only producer of her first recording, Rodrigo Romanm,
one of the founders of Milladoiro, collaborates again, although the new
development is that his own instrumentalist has become totally involved in
this second production, with the aid of Brais Maceiras and Xurxo Churches,
components of the band that accompanies to the gaitera all over Europe.
Altogether six musicians support this beautiful Gallega in this second
delivery: Beto Niebla (percussion), Brais Maceiras (accordeon), Carlos Freire
(percussion), Ivan Laxe (electric bass), Xavier Gastaqaduy
(acoustic guitar) y Xurxo Iglesias (bouzouki).
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micklpkl
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response 2 of 11:
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Sep 28 02:51 UTC 2001 |
Here's another interesting announcement about Susana Seivane, this one from
the folks at discosbits.com ....
From this Friday, 28th September until 12 October, will we be broadcasting
the new disc from Susana Seivane (ALMA DE BUXO), in honour of its release.
This series of netcasts will be at 19:00, Spanish time. [12:00 CDT, 1pm
Eastern]
The playlist will be the following:
From 18:30 to 19:00 -- several tracks from Na Lua's new CD [12:30EDT/11:30CDT]
Starting at 19:00 --- the new CD from Susana Seivane will play *two* times,
consecutively, heard in this order:
1. Vai de polcas (3:48)
2. A farandula (2:53)
3. Samnza-Riofrmo (4:06)
4. Roseiras de Abril (4:01)
5. Xoaniqa (3:00)
6. Rumba para Susi (3:00)
7. Vals Bretsn.-Muiqeira picada (4:51)
8. Na terra de Trasancos (3:22)
9. Muiqeira de Alin (2:31)
10. Ti e mais eu (3:14)
11. Chao Curuxeiras.- Xosi Manuel Seivane (3:06)
12. Chao Curuxeiras.-Susana Seivane (3:25)
13. Marcha procesional dos Cinco de Galicia (4:34)
[oops. ascii doesn't do those diacritical marks, and I'm not correcting]
To listen to these songs, you will need software compatible with internet
radio transmission protocol (winamp, Windows Media player, realaudio,
quicktime) The program will be broadcast at the address
http://64.152.82.191:20588
*************
They go on to say that since this is the first time they've ever tried this,
don't expect everything to be perfect. I might try to remember to tune in to
find out how her sophomore effort sounds.
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krj
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response 3 of 11:
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Sep 9 20:10 UTC 2002 |
(Susana Seivane, mentioned in Mickey's old responses above, plays the
Ark in Ann Arbor in about a week.)
I went looking for any recent information about Greece's wonderful
Kristi Stassinopoulou on the web. No new album releases are being
mentioned anywhere, but she's actively touring: she was in
New York and Washington DC this summer.
A promo page for her Central Park appearance compares her to
Patti Smith, Jefferson Airplane and Fairport Convention; no wonder
I like her so much. :)
I found a one hour Real video of her Washington DC performance
on the web at:
http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/archive072002.html
This didn't play too well at 56K; have to try it at a higher bandwidth
location to see how good the fidelity is. There is a stock of other
shows from the Kennedy Center at this site.
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krj
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response 4 of 11:
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Sep 18 02:38 UTC 2002 |
*Great* concert at the Ark tonight by Susana Seivane and her band.
The lineup: cittern (or similar 8-stringed thing); electric bass;
Susana on pipes; a drummer who switched between bass drum and
a drum kit; accordion player who also switched to snare drum
when the bass drum was being played. Vanessa Salya (?), the
main drummer, got some wonderful percussion lines going at
times. Susana sang one song but other than that it was
a purely instrumental evening. Quite loud, and Carol and I
were in the second row with no one in front of us, so my ears
are still ringing. I kind of regret that her touring band is
different than her recording band.
(see resp:1 and 2 for more about Susana. Her second album
is now out on Green Linnet, finally.)
Only about 30 enthusiastic people in the audience. I should have
twisted a few more arms to get people out to the show.
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mcnally
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response 5 of 11:
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Sep 18 04:22 UTC 2002 |
Had I not already driven 10 hours today to reach Muskegon,
I'd've been inclined to drive to AA to see that show.
The low turnout sounds quite unfortunate..
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krj
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response 6 of 11:
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Sep 28 14:41 UTC 2002 |
Ann Arbor concert preview:
Monday at the Ark is Lo'Jo, a "world music" band from France.
Denis Pean croaks his vocals in a chanson style, a Gallic Tom Waits
perhaps, while sisters Nadia & Yamina Nid El Nourid sing sweet
harmonies in counterpoint. Lots of fiddle and accordion, some
African kora (sort of a harp?) in the instrumental mix.
I didn't grasp their 2000 album BOHEME DE CRISTAL at all until
I saw them live at the Detroit Festival of the Arts, and then it
all made sense and the album went on to become an enduring favorite
from that period. So far I don't like their 2002 release as much,
but I'm hoping that seeing the band live will be as illuminating
this time as it was in 2000. (The 2002 release has two different
titles; A LUNE DE SIENS in France, AU CABARET SAUVAGE in the USA.)
The band's website is at http://www.lojo.org
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krj
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response 7 of 11:
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Oct 7 02:30 UTC 2002 |
Interesting Lo'Jo show on Monday, not great. The violinist might have
had some intonation problems for part of the show, but when sisters
Nadia and Yamina sang together, all was forgiven.
Small notes: the instrument I thought of as a small kora, which is
played by Yamina, is actually called a ngoni. The fiddler played
something which might have been a full-sized kora, I'm not sure.
He also had an African fiddle-like instrument, a one-stringed thing
with a gourd for its soundbox. And, some of the sounds from the
new album which I thought came from a guest electric guitar are
apparently produced on the fiddle, though I can't imagine how.
Turnout was atrocious. About 20 people in the audience; probably
five of them were volunteers, and I was responsible for
another 4 people being there. I guess I shouldn't expect to
see the band back at the Ark for a while.
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orinoco
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response 8 of 11:
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Oct 9 00:02 UTC 2002 |
On some Dave Matthews Band albums, according to my DMB-fanatic younger
brother, there's an electric fiddle playing what would usually be the rhythm
guitar part. Apparently, a scratchy fiddle playing open fifths isn't so far
off from a distorted guitar playing power chords.
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krj
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response 9 of 11:
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Oct 11 19:22 UTC 2002 |
(interesting, Dan, thanks for the technical description...)
The November issue of FRoots magazine (just in) contains a listing
for a new album by Kristi Stassinopoulou. "The Secrets of the Rocks,"
on the Hitch-Hyke label. FRoots offers no further information, and
web searches on Kristi and the title don't turn up anything about
the new CD. Hitch-Hyke appears to be a Greek label. I will have to
write to the Greek music specialist in Britain, who furnished my
copies of the previous Kristi albums. Kristi's last album,
ECHOTROPEA, was my favorite from 2000.
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krj
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response 10 of 11:
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Sep 21 19:34 UTC 2003 |
In "Now Playing" item #135, mcnally wrote:
#111 of 111: by Mike McNally (mcnally) on Sat, Sep 20, 2003 (03:52):
re #108: If you like fado you'd probably also like the related
Cabo Verdean form known as morna. The Ann Arbor library has
(or had) an excellent collection of Cabo Verdean music called
"The Soul of Cape Verde", which I highly recommend.
Meanwhile I'd be interested in any fado recommendations you might
have..
The big new heavily promoted name in Fado right now, at least in BBC-land,
is Mariza, with two albums out, FADO EN MIM and FADO CURVO. Fado has
always bored my socks off in the past, so Mariza's the first fado singer
to really catch my attention -- I bought her first album.
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mcnally
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response 11 of 11:
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Sep 22 01:15 UTC 2003 |
I haven't had much success yet with my experiments in fado listening,
so I may be in the same boat as Ken. However, I really like Cabo Verdean
mornas, which are noticably similar, so I'm thinking that if I find the
right fado it might appeal to me. I should probably be starting with
Amalia Rodriguez, the recently deceased unchallenged queen of the genre.
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