Classical Music

Antonio Forcione, Seckou Keita and Adriano Adewale Itauna come from three different continents - Europe, South America and Africa. All virtuosos in their own right, they grew up in three different landscapes, speaking three different languages, and were formed by three different cultures and musical traditions. All these differences have converged in AKA Trio, and the product is 'JOY'. Italian guitarist-composer Antonio Forcione has been travelling the world for over two decades, releasing twenty albums and collaborating with many major artists along the way, including such names as Charlie Haden, Trilok Gurtu, Angélique Kidjo and the Bulgarian Voices, amongst many others. Seckou Keita from Senegal is one of the world’s foremost kora players, involved in many international projects including his ground-breaking duo with Welsh harpist Catrin Finch, Africa Express with Damon Albarn and his Transparent Water project with Cuban pianist Omar Sosa. Brazilian percussionist and composer Adriano Adewale has collaborated with Bobby McFerrin, Joanna McGregor and Benjamin Taubkin and has composed music for orchestras and dance theatre.

Al Qantara

En El Amor is a fascinating new project that brings together two well-known jazz musicians, Michel Godard (serpent) and Jarrod Cagwin (percussion) with the Bosnian singer Natasa Mirkovic, a truly versatile vocalist who became known internationally with her theme song for Angelina Jolie’s “In the land of blood and honey,” as well as for her recording of Schubert’s “Winterreise.” On this album, the singer performs songs from her childhood in Bosnia: Ancient Sephardic traditionals, that are still being sung by the people of the Balkan area today. She clearly draws inspiration from her ancestral roots, while at the same time the three musicians arrange these old songs in a new and experimental context, creating a magical soundscape that transcends time, culture and tradition. Recorded in the breathtaking acoustics of the former synagogue of St. Polten in Austria, this album becomes a total work of art fusing ancient and new, religious and secular, traditional and modern artistic expression.

Writer, poet and musician Gwyneth Glyn releases her new album Tro on the bendigedig label on September 29. Tro, which is Welsh for ‘turn,’ is the first major solo album from one of Wales’ most intriguing and talented artists, with a passion for language, who applies her delicate craft and exquisite gift to this compelling new album. Tro also geatures Senegal’s acclaimed kora player Seckou Keita and BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winner Rowan Rheingans. Elegant and deliciously emotional, dark and poignant, the songs are united by a consistent quality and beautiful, poetic lyrics rooted in Gwyneth’s language and culture. Tro is the first album to release on the new label bendigedig, an independent partnership between Theatr Mwldan and ARC Music Productions. “Her lyrics have a simplicity of language and imagery: there’s a poet here who is able to leave words and images hanging in the memory… She has a fine feel for the art of song writing as well as the wind, trees and landscape of Wales that inform her music and emotions.” (LCWL1) “…molasses-sweet tones…” (Buzz Magazine)

Classical Music

Brussels group Kel Assouf, is back with their second album that will shake the Touareg scene even more. After detours toward Afrobeat, reggae and funk, Anana and the new team now turn their attention to Led Zeppelin and today’s rock. Kel Assouf means both “those with nostalgia” and “sons of eternity” in the Touareg language Tamasheq. The group came together around the exiled Touareg musician Anana Harouna in 2006. From the beginning the group built its identity around two central ideas: the promotion of Touareg culture and the struggle against discrimination. For this new release, Kel Assouf wants to express the stupefaction and perplexity created by a world where war, injustice and pollution are running rampant. With one foot in the desert and the other in the urban jungle, Anana writes about the Sahara, Niger, and everyday life both there and in Europe. Using short phrases similar to Japanese haikus, Anana sings his poetry about humanity and respect. The result is a powerful sound.

(2-CD set) Silk-stringed instruments & Chines Storytelling with music

Imagine discovering the cello, Bach, and Pablo Casals at the same time. Hearing LI Xiangting play the qin is just that kind of experience: extremely refined compositions, both rich and contrasting, in a climate of total dedication to the service of this repertoire, over a thousand years old. What is so amazing with qin music, is the way it can be immediately and universally appreciated even beyond it's very rich and specifically Chinese context. The sensuality of it's sound is heightened by complex variations in which virtuosity is at all times for expressive effect. In spite of the many upheavals that China has undergone, the art of the qin remains timeless, faithfully handed down from master to disciple from generation to generation, mainly in writing. Each link in the chain is indispensable and in this respect LI Xiangting occupies a privileged place, being the direct descendant of the greatest masters: Zha Fuxi (1895-1976) and Wu Jinglue (1907-1987). So he has become a professional in the broadest sense, incorporation historical tradition and bringing together the best schools of the young generation. Born in Manchuria in 1940, he is the most prestigious teacher at the Peking Central Music Conservatoire. He is also a fabulous performer of the xiao, the vertical flute, the only instrument along with the human voice ever to be admitted into close contact with the qin.

Jindo is the third largest of many islands situated to the south-west of the Korean peninsula. It had long preserved a unique traditional culture until a bridge was built, connecting the island to the mainland in 1984. Thanks to it's temperate climate, Jindo Island is rich in agricultural and maritime resources. Of it's nine intangible cultural assets, three- ganggangsullae song and dance, nongak community band of music, dance and rituals, and arirang singing- have been classified by UNESCO as Intangible World Cultural Heritage. The island is renowned for it's artistic activities and achievement. Part of the cultural wealth of Jindo is featured on this release, and includes recorded performances of shamanic and funeral rites which, in surpassing sadness, become occasions for communal rejoicing.

For a long time, Indian music has essentially been known as a solo art form with a percussion and tempura accompaniment, which, however important, does not determine either the melody or the rhythm. However, in musical forms based on breathing, the voice and wind instruments, a type of duet is performed, which could be described as an “accompanied solo”: one of the musicians, acting as soloist, takes the initiative of choosing the pieces, their developments, their tempo and even the time of his interventions, whereas his fellow musician, most often a disciple, is there to ensure continuity which the soloist would have difficulty in sustaining. By some improbable chance, three of the best musicians in India today happen to have developed, in addition to their own individual talents, the ability to play true ensemble music. An encounter such as theirs is exceptional in that it has required a combination of elements which are rarely found together. This trio is offering us an unusual way of reviving a particular aspect of tradition.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This disc focuses on the unique music of the Colombian gaitas ensemble (flutes accompanied by alegre, llamador and tambora drums). It displays the genre at it's most lively and dynamic, preserving it's original expressiveness and revitalizing it with his own sensibility. The style is a direct descendant of the interaction of Colombia's three major peoples (Whites, Blacks and Indians).

Flora Molton arrived at the blues by way of her religious faith. But with Molton, faith was always more important than music. Born in 1908, she began preaching at the age of seventeen, and didn't take up the guitar until 1943. Molton supported herself playing guitar in the streets of Washington, DC. Eventually, she began playing in folk clubs and toured Europe. This album features eighteen tracks of gospel songs, accompanied by Molton's capable slide guitar.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Flamenco can be traced back several centuries although the exact point in time at which it began to evolve is unknown. History shows, however, a diverse background of cultural roots and influences including Indian, Jewish, Byzantine, Arabic, and South American. At certain times throughout the history of the Iberian Peninsula, people from these various cultures have passed through and settled in Andalusia and in so doing forged their own particular characteristics upon the development of this southern region of Spain. At the fall of their last stronghold in Granada in 1492 after the occupation of southern Spain for seven hundred years, the Moors left behind a cultural heritage so strong and of such magnitude that five centuries later, the impact of their influence is still very much apparent. In this diverse cultural melting pot of so many different races, the seeds of flamenco were sown and there emerged a new form of musical expression. Flamenco has been evolving continuously and today the three principal elements of singing, dancing and guitar playing have reached a peak of unsurpassed technical virtuosity and musical sophistication. To understand and retain the purity of style and spontaneity of this art form, however, we must look into the way of life of the flamenco people whose roots were buried centuries ago deep in the soil of Andalusia. It is from this way of life that the very essence of flamenco has grown.

Sufi songs from India and Iran' contains field recordings of traditional Sofi music made in 1955 1979 and 1999.

IRELAND, MOTHER IRELAND TOO-R

Abduvali Abdurashidov, master of the sato (bowed tanbur), belongs to a great line of Tajik art music performers. As refined, sinuous lines of the sato blend with singing, dotar lute and occasional doyra percussion, the elegance of this music evokes an ancient courtly art.