Adrian Barker and Ben Stephenson
Saturday 8 July 2006
Fiddler Adrian Barker and flutist Ben Stephenson are skilled, lively and sensitive young players, mostly of Irish or Irish-connected music. [more...]

Racheal Cogan
Sunday 9 July 2006
The recorder can be a much ‘bigger’, a much more ‘adult’ & a much more ‘worldly’ instrument than many people imagine. Racheal Cogan is a virtuoso Australian player who’s traveled widely & explored deeply. Sojourn is the CD fruit of an intense 18 months in Greece, where she learned from & performed with its other players – Ross Daly, Kelly Thomas & Angeliki Xekalaki. The repertoire is varied, but inclines to the eastern end of the Mediterranean, including both its Greek & Turkish shores. Ross & Kelly mostly play the Cretan lyra {an upright fiddle with a very ‘vocal’ quality}, whilst Angeliki is a very fine player of frame drums & of the Persian goblet-shaped hand-drum known as zarb or tombak. [more...]

Renaud Garcia-Fons Trio
Saturday 15 July 2006
He’s been described as ‘probably the most amazing bass player you’ll ever hear’, and for once that comment is not just spin-doctor hype. Renaud Garcia-Fons has been developing his own style of lead double bass since his first releases as a soloist and leader in the early to mid 90’s, composing music that draws on his own Spanish and French ancestry but explores the worlds of jazz, Indian and contemporary classical music. He’s also added a (high) fifth string to the bass, letting him soar to places where we would normally expect cellos, violins or even saxophones. His new CD Arcoluz was recorded live in a Bavarian castle/hotel, and there’s an accompanying DVD to prove it. He’s joined by flamenco guitarist Kiki Ruiz and drummer Negrito Trasante. There’s enough flamenco to keep those who know the meaning of duende very happy, but not so much as to scare away those who can’t stand clapping hands and moaning smokey vocals. [more...]

Alboran Trio
Sunday 16 July 2006
The Alboran is the waterway at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, joining Africa and Europe. And those worlds come together in very subtle and beautiful ways in the CD Meltemi by the Alboran Trio. This Italian outfit consists of pianist and composer Paolo Palagia, bassist Dino Contenti and drummer Gigi Biolcati. They take the usual American tradition of the jazz trio and extend it with their own European influences and sounds … in particular with some beautiful group improvisation that we would expect only from a trio with a much longer track record. At times it’s dark and mystical and at others it’s much more ‘out there’ and aggressive. Very much like the summer north or north-west wind in Greece, the Aegean or Turkey that the CD is named after. [more...]

Keyvan Chemirani: rhythm of speech II
Saturday 5 August 2006
Sat 5.8.06
One of 2004’s most rewarding & surprising albums saw an Iranian master percussionist interact with singers from many & varied places. Even more rewarding is its sequel. Keyvan Chemirani’s The rhythm of speech II is more ‘focused’, but still spectacularly & rewardingly diverse. Essentially, it’s an Iranian/South Indian/West African ensemble! Two singers - Ali Reza Ghorbani & Sudha Ragunathan - are from classical/erudite traditions: his Persian, hers Carnatic {south Indian}. Mali’s Nahawa Doumbia is a more ‘earthy’ vocalist, although she too draws from ancient wells. The singers don’t just take it in turns: they interact. The same is true of the instrumentalists, who include Keyvan’s fellow-percussionist & brother Bijan Chemirani, along with a south Indian violinist & percussionists, a superb lutenist & a flute player from Iran, plus the kora of Mali’s Ballaké Sissoko. [more...]

Karine Polwart
Sunday 6 August 2006
Scotland’s Karine Polwart is an exceptional singer & writer of songs. She declares, ‘I’m not really the kind of songwriter who just wants you to listen to me (me, me). I suppose I think I have something to say about living in this world. And I write songs because they’re the best way I can find to say it.’ Scribbled in Chalk is her second solo album. Its title comes from a phrase in one of its songs: ‘where truth is a story scribbled in chalk just an hour before the flood’. [more...]

Darol Anger's Republic of Strings
Saturday 12 August 2006
Yes, our featured republic has no bananas. Violinist/fiddler Darol Anger has long been one of the finest & most eclectic fiddlers. As his publicist says, Darol is ‘at home in a number of musical genres, some of which he helped to invent.’ His Republic of Strings is a multi-generational quartet that draws on sources from Swedish to Arabic, ancient to avant. Particular pieces involve special guests, as appropriate. Very appropriately, a globe is depicted on the cover of their second CD, Generation Nation. The band-proper’s two fiddlers are the very-seasoned but forever-fresh Darol Anger & young phenomenon Brittany Haas. Rushad Eggleston plays the cello. Scott Nygaard is the {wonderful} acoustic guitarist. [more...]

Erkan Ogur
Sunday 13 August 2006
Erkan Ogur is a hero to some major-league guitar heroes – who enjoy higher international profiles by virtue of their being Western guitarists. Pat Metheny is just one of those who greatly admire the Turkish virtuoso & inventor of the first fretless classical guitar. Erkan plays various fretted fretless acoustic & electric guitars, & Turkish lutes, too. In the 1980’s he was very much Turkish pop’s ‘Mr Session Guitar’. By the 1990s he felt ‘ill at ease in commercial music’. [more...]