Seosaimhín Ní Bheaglaoich is a traditional singer from the Corca Dhuibhne area of West Kerry (Ireland) and performs here a fine example of a macaronic song (with lyrics both in English and Gaelic). Whereas similar pieces or sean-nós songs are usually unaccompanied or sparsely arranged, this rendition of Cailín na nUrla Donn (the brown-haired woman) gets an almost […]
Folk
Susanna Wallumrød: Who by fire
Released in 2011 on the ECM record label, If Grief Could Wait is a remarkable cross-genre recording featuring indie pop and jazz Norwegian singer Susanna Wallumrød, Swiss Baroque harp player Giovanna Pessi, Italian nyckelharpa (the Swedish keyed fiddle) player Marco Ambrosini and Swiss-based viola de gamba player Jane Achtman. Concentrating primarily on a repertoire of 17th century songs […]
Dave Brubeck: Piano Blues
Dave Brubeck (1920-2012) will of course be remembered as a brilliant musical explorer, a virtuoso improviser, a prolific composer with a fondness for odd time signatures and a great ambassador for jazz music in general. Yet, Dave Brubeck still regarded himself simply as “a composer who plays the piano”. The pianist is also often quoted as saying: One of […]
Sufjan Stevens: Coventry Carol
On the back of 42 songs over the five volumes of Songs for Christmas (2006), Indie Folk singer Sufjan Stevens released last month Silver and Gold: Songs for Christmas – Vol. 6-10, adding 58 more songs to the collection. Like the previous opus, Silver and Gold is a miscellany of old carols, hymns and new songs. The […]
Brad Mehldau: River Man
Any version of Nick Drake’s River man will always stop me in my tracks. The unusual time signature and the eerie contemporary classical arrangements to the original song make it such a rich ground for covers. If Norma Waterson’s version introduced me to the song, it is Brad Mehldau’s cover I keep coming back to. […]
About Spellbinding Music
Why is it that a particular piece of music, a tune or a song will move us in such a way that it will stop us in our tracks, send shivers up our spine or give us goose bumps? Spiritual or secular musical traditions such as Sufi music, Gnawa music, plainchant, gospel, blues etc. all […]
