Homeward Bound: Sea Songs, Ballads, and Chanteys

The inspiration for this musical shindig springs from the foggy mists of mid-nineteenth century Appalachia. With tunes hailing from Kentucky to Mississippi, McCamy's Old-Time Rendez-vous resurrects the shadows of dueling gentlemen, lovers lost and cash on the barrel-head, taking US to the very heart of a musical culture steeped in old Europe and an enslaved African past. Vintage Americana is an invitation to a country hoedown and a journey to the heart of popular American music. Coming from a Scots/American background Ian McCamy's roots are deeply anchored in musical traditions from both sides of the Atlantic: From Scotland to Tennessee's Smoky Mountains, these ancestral paths are the core of his inspiration and are directly reflected in his personal style of fiddling.

Saydisc presents this double album of traditional songs from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The tracks have been curated from Saydisc's extensive catalog, and only the very best have been included. Native and traditional musicians are featured on this release, offering up an authentic experience, with artists such as The McPeake Family Trio, Ray Fisher, Margaret Barry, Siwsann George, Thomas Hardy, and others performing. Lyrics to all of these songs are included in the liner notes, as well as translations for songs performed in traditional Welsh and Gaelic languages.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Njinga ruled 17th century Ndongo - now Angola - as 'king' because tribal custom forbade her to rule as a woman. Flowing freely between time periods, the play traces the diaspora of Njinga's people to Brazil and the United States.

Gef Lucena writes of this release: “I have been singing most of these songs on and off since around 1962. Up until about 1970 this was as half of The Crofters, the Bristol based folk duo who performed regularly at folk clubs mainly in the West of England and on radio and TV. We both sang and I played mainly mandola, autoharp, banjo and recorder and my singing partner, Martin Pyman, played guitar. My singing career was put on hold for some 30 years after all my instruments fell out of the boot of my car and were squashed en route to a folk club booking when going up a 1 in 4 (25%) hill out of Waterley Bottom near Wottonunder-Edge in Gloucestershire…Then in 2016, following a burst of poesy, I released a book and CD of 32 of my mostly recent poems on wildlife, history and some funny stuff. All these recent recordings were made in my home studio in our cottage in the wilds of South Gloucestershire where we have lived since 1968…”

Folkmusik i Frack II.

Ellika Frisell and Solo Cissokho first met in Stockholm in 1998. After two prize winning albums and receiving the BBC World Music Award, they take a further step by including master percussionist Rafael Sida in the group. This recording features music from Sweden, Senegal and Mexico in a mix that highlights the strong musical individuality of each musician.

Classical Music

Med lust och f�gring stor or "With Joy and Beauty Great" includes folk songs and ley songs, love songs and lullabies, selected and performed by the choir Ymna. The works were arranged by conductor Johanna Thur and violinist Mia Marin is featured in the pieces. The album includes songs sung and inherited by women over centuries, as well as songs that have just recently entered the world. This music holds beauty, joy, warmth, longing, sorrow, and comfort. The choir Ymna has worked extensively with folk music for many years. Johanna Thur continuously writes new arrangements for the choir. Mia Marin is a well-known name in the both traditional and contemporary folk genres. Her signature style is energetic and improvisational, and she tours all over the world playing in different venues.

Gef Lucena writes: "1962 marked the year of the traditional folk revival in Bristol and surrounding counties. I was half of the folk duo, The Crofters, the other half being Martin Pyman and the formation of our duo coincided with the 'Centre 42' movement initiated by London playwright Arnold Wesker whose aim it was to 'bring folk music back to the people'. This objective was not entirely successful, but it helped to eventually bring about the formation of a number of folk clubs in the area. For us it was of immense importance as we were being sent out to very unlikely pubs to sing alongside the likes of Francis McPeake, Louis Killen, Bob Davenport, Cyril Tawney and other top traditional singers of the day. I started songwriting around this time - songs mostly now long forgotten. The ITV station of the day (TWW - Television Wales and the West) picked up on this 'new' music and ran the series 'At the Cider Apple' and The Crofters were fortunate to be on each programme. The TWW connection lead to a commission for me to write a song to commemorate the opening of the first Severn Bridge crossing in 1966 which we performed on the day and the scratchy old version with it's bucket reverb reproduced on this album is probably that very performance. Apart from the three early songs mentioned above, most of the remainder of the songs are 2017 to 2019 compositions with some based on early drafts from around 1985."

The twelve volumes comprising The Complete Songs of Robert Burns remain the benchmark of all Burns songs recordings. This groundbreaking series took seven years to complete and involved over 80 musicians. Encompassing ballads and bawdy songs, patriotic and political anthems plus songs which bring Scottish people and places to life, these volumes touch all aspects of human nature and represent a vigorous folk tradition past and present. ‘...a delightful cornucopia of excellent, often hauntingly authentic performances.’ (BBC Music Magazine)

Folk music is often the inspiration of keyboard music. Fabiana Ciampi and Fabio Triconi offer a fine anthology of folk music, - a veritable source of 'sap' for centuries, since crosscurrents between art music preserved by oral tradition have long been very common, and to the benefit of both. Organist, pianist, and harpsichordist Fabiana Ciampi attended the Royal Academy of Music in London where she received a diploma in Early Music Studies. She has been invited to perform in numerous festivals both as a soloist and in ensembles, and has collaborated with Giorgio Piombini on his organ show “Organistic iteneraries in the province of Bologna,” now in its 30th edition. She is president of the Arsarmonica Association, founded with the aim of protecting the precious heritage of ancient organs in the Bologna area and disseminating the musical culture in the provincial territory.

What makes a vintage year? What does the 2016 vintage of Swiss folk music taste like? 27 hours of live recordings from the Zurich Tonhalle have been put in the wine press and have here been reduced to 80 minutes of music - 20 tracks by 19 different ensembles are the result. Folk music is a cultural heritage that has grown up over thousands of years, nourished by the topography of Switzerland and by the life and love for music of our predecessors. Every generation passes on the fruits of the generations before it, and adds its own life experiences to the mix. All kinds of things are tried out and tested, and even the blues is ground up among the glaciers until it comes out singing à la Suisse. Here, then, are the main characteristics of 2016.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Tune playing on handbells has been practiced in England for many hundreds of years, originally on small sets of about twelve bells intended primarily for change ringing. Later, much larger sets of at least five octaves were used to thrill Victorian audiences with selections from operetta, oratorio and the popular music of the day. The art of playing music on large sets of bells I snow little known although, in it's heyday, handbell ringing was as popular as brass band playing and in some parts of the North of England almost every village could boast a team. The works on this release were compiled from three previous Saydisc albums: 'Ringing Clear- the Art of Handbell Ringing,' 'Church Bells of England,' and 'Church Bells of Britain.' The pieces include "off the table" style works, "four in hand" style works, "change ringing," and "carillons."

Gef Lucena writes of this new release featuring a compilation of Irish and British dance music curated from previous Saydisc albums and the catalog of Peter Kennedy: "It will probably be a brave or dedicated listener who plays all of these tracks at one sitting. However, drawing on our extensive archives of this genre we have arranged the dances with the greatest variety of instrumentation, provenance and periods of history. Many of the tracks are from Peter Kennedy's renowned mono recordings from the 1950s and 60s with the remainder from Saydisc's own stereo and digital recordings over the decades. Dip into this exhilarating selection or go for the long haul, but, however you listen, we hope that you enjoy the rich heritage of sound from the British and Irish traditions."

John Metcalfe, who arranges songs for big names such as Coldplay, Simple Minds and The Pretenders, has produced albums with Peter Gabriel and has been touring for decades as a member of the Duke Quartet. Now he releases his debut album on the Neue Meister label. Metcalfe has always been surrounded by music. As a child, he would listen to his father sing opera, before a love of Kraftwerk and Joy Division led to a stint as a drummer in a high school band. But it was a move to Manchester that really accelerated his development as an artist, and led to him finding his true calling. Joining cult band The Durutti Column, then signed to legendary label Factory Records, brought him into the orbit of Tony Wilson and the Ha�ienda, formative events that would help foster his renegade spirit. Unimpressed with the strictures demanded by the classical recording industry, Metcalfe persuaded Wilson to launch the ground-breaking Factory Classical Label, aimed at unearthing exciting - and unconventional - new British talent. It was here that Metcalfe found a home, and the group that would come to define his musical career; the Duke Quartet. For nearly 30 years, they've existed at the vanguard of contemporary British music, innovating and delighting in equal measure. As a solo artist, Metcalfe explores electro-classical soundscapes and the boundaries between genres. His finely tuned compositions are neat yet grand in scale, both in terms of sound and the conceptual ideas underpinning them. Absence, the fifth record to bear his own name, is something of a departure for Metcalfe, framing bold images and themes with some of the most conventional song structures he's ever employed. But it's also his most affecting, deconstructing a subject he's been interested in since his childhood in New Zealand: Dealing with loss.

CONZASIEGGE is an expression in the dialect of Molfetta (a town in Apulia), indicating an ancient craftsman: the man who repaired chairs. Vincenzo Valente (1830-1908) was inspired by the “chant” of those trying to draw the attention of this craftsman, when he created his funeral march that he therefore called “Conzasiegge”. This record collects five of the most beautiful marches that animate the Holy Week processions in Molfetta, introduced by the typical sound of the “Ti te” that opens every procession. The original feature of this repertoire in the album is its version for mandolins that in the 1940s saw the barbers, especially Sabino Andriani, as refined and cultured amateurial players.

AVAST is the debut album of the Soballera, a research project on traditional music from Southern Italy. It is made up of nine tracks, both original compositions and new interpretations of traditional songs. This record offers a fascinating sound journey, throughout the Apulia region to the Lucania one. Children’s songs and ancient but forgotten works from this inland area and the sunny “Capitanata” gain a new light thanks to these new interpretations and original melodic lines. When listening to them, you are delighted by the excellent melodic textures of the acoustic guitar and the chime, the accordion and the drums and the dense gloom. This is the atmosphere you breathe with "Accummenza a candA", the heart-breaking love song "Damme Nu Ricciu" or "Pizzica Avvelanta" and "Tammurriata", giving to the record a final overwhelming rhythmic vibe.

Active for over a decade, De Calamus is a large ensemble that consists of nine musicians, from different as much as rich musical, united by the desire to rediscover, protect and enhance the musical traditions of the Comito Valley, linked to the use of the zampogna and of the organetto by many itinerant musicians, who used to cross this beautiful valley, located in the heart of central Italy, between Rome and Naples. To characterize the musical approach of the group is the rigorous research carried out in the field and on traditional sources, combined with the use of traditional instruments such as zampogna, ciaramella, organetto, ocarina, chitarra battente, accordion, pastoral flutes and fram drums to which is joined a particular attention to the voices, with the presence of three singers in the formation.

�kervinda share a deep love of folk music, and give new life to the Scandinavian folk tunes in their original and modern interpretations. The group's name is inspired by a Swedish wildflower whose roots spread far and wide like rivers under the ground. Like the flower, gracefully entwining melodies, rock solid groove, and ever intriguing harmonies will take root in your mind. Like the flower, they will be impossible to remove.

Gef Lucena writes: “1962 marked the year of a traditional folk revival in Bristol and surrounding counties. I was half of the folk duo, The Crofters, the other half being Martin Pyman and the formation of our duo coincided with the ‘Centre 42’ movement initiated by London playwright Arnold Wesker whose aim it was to ‘bring folk music back to the people’. This objective was not entirely successful, but it helped to eventually bring about the formation of a number of folk clubs in the area. For us it was of immense importance as we were being sent out to very unlikely pubs to sing alongside the likes of Francis McPeake, Louis Killen, Bob Davenport, Cyril Tawney and other top traditional singers of the day. I started songwriting around this time – songs mostly now long forgotten. The ITV station of the day (TWW – Television Wales and the West) picked up on this ‘new’ music and ran the series ‘At the Cider Apple’ and The Crofters were fortunate to be on each programme. The TWW connection lead to a commission for me to write a song to commemorate the opening of the first Severn Bridge crossing in 1966 which we performed on the day and the scratchy old version with its bucket reverb reproduced on this album is probably that very performance. Apart from three early songs most of the remainder of the songs are 2017 to 2019 compositions with some based on early drafts from around 1985.”