Celtic music can be found in some surprising places. Spain, for instance, and North Carolina.
Spain’s Galicia region is home to some curiously dislocated vestiges of Celtic culture and music. From Llan de Cubel, which hews pretty closely to the traditional line, to the electrifying jazzy folk-rock of Carlos Nunez, Galician music pretty much covers all the bases of Celtic-style music. Keympa’s Reviralo is somewhere in between those two ends of the spectrum.
This octet plays mostly acoustic music, with some occasional electric bass tossed in on the more uptempo numbers. The 11 tracks on the disc alternate between instrumental sets and songs, sung mostly by Sandra Córcoles. Most of the music was written by members of the group, but there are also some traditional works arranged by the band.
Córcoles has a nasal soprano that I find grating on some of the slower songs like the opening “Fisterra,” but it is well-suited to songs like “Ojos Negros” and “O Xeito,” both of which have an intriguing blend of North African rhythms and Gypsy tonal influences.
Stringed instruments dominate, with layered violins, cellos, and 12-string guitars augmented by flutes and an occasional accordion. Guest Nuria Molto adds Celtic harp to the enchanting “No hay palabras (There are no words)” and Esteban Campo plays pipes on the rousing final jig, “Cuatro esquinas.” Reviralo takes Celtic sounds in some interesting directions.
(Picap, 2002)
Cucanandy is a North Carolina-based quartet that features the fancy footwork of step-dancer Malke Rosenfeld. A member of the Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, Rosenfeld in Cucanandy also plays flutes and whistles, as does Mike Casey; Jason Cade plays mostly fiddle with a little mandolin, and Stephanie Johnston sings and plays guitar and percussion, with a little step-dancing tossed in. They’re a delightful and highly visual live act, as they demonstrated at this year’s Celtic Colours festival on Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island.
Contented Minds doesn’t entirely capture the combo’s true strengths, but it’s hard to imagine any audio recording doing justice to an act that so prominently features step-dancing.
The disc has 12 tracks, including five songs, plus some singing on parts of other tracks. Johnston has a lovely lilting singing voice, which is expecially effective on the Gaelic-language “Tha Mi Sgith Dhan Fhogair Seo.” This was actually written in North Carolina in the late 1700s by a displaced Scot, and was a big hit at Celtic Colours. Johnston’s mouth music contribution to the sparkling Quebecois set, “L’Esquimaux,” is also notable.
Throughout, the CD has a lot of nice interplay between fiddle and flutes. Cade’s reel, “The Hunt for Wild Flora,” is a good fiddle workout, and the “Hunters Moon” jig set is cool and jazzy, incorporating a string bass into the tune that features mandolin, flute and feet. Casey’s flute and whistle playing is very nice on “Yon Green Valley,” a pretty Shetland song with some nice double-tracked vocals from Johnston, and a swell contemporary reel at the end.
If I have any criticism for Contented Minds, it’s that it’s lacking the controlled abandon that is so apparent in their live sets. But Cucanandy is an impressive and personable young band, chock-full of talent and alight with an obvious passion for the music.
(Milky Way, 2001)
