The Whole Music Experience

Arianna Savall Peiwoh AliaVox I was never a fan of harp music until a few years ago when the editor of World Music Central sent me a sample of Spanish harpist and mezzo-soprano Arianna Savall’s music. Later, I acquired Arianna’s first solo album, Bella Terra , which also refers to her homeland in Catalonia, Spain. Arianna’s music cannot be easily described since it has absorbed elements from Arabic and Eastern music along with elements from European early music, in fact, the musician plays a baroque harp. She sings in Catalan, a Romance language nearly lost during the Franco era and related to France’s Provencal language, according to the DK Guide to Spain (Eyewitness Travel Guides). Arianna with her choice of poetic text and performance of soprano vocals with harp gives off an angelic aura. Her music so carefully rendered with baroque instruments (lutes, percussion, harps) and mixed with traditional instruments such as Petter Johansen’s hardingfele (Norwegian fiddle) l...

Updated review on March 18, 2013 Symbiosis Sea of Light (1999) Symbiosis Music (UK) Symbiosis Touching the Clouds (1995) Symbiosis Music Symbiosis Aotearoa (nature recording/New Zealand) Symbiosis Music When I recently wrote an article on the benefits of music for relaxation I came across Symbiosis Music’s website. Two of the recordings I requested were recorded in the 1990s, long before research about the brain and music surfaced into the mainstream and long before the PBS documentary Science & Song . Synthesizers were employed more generously during that era with new age and other types of relaxation music, though some music awareness people I know now including myself, find that synthesizers cause tension and other symptoms. My opinion based on my own music and personal experience leans towards relaxation music performed on all acoustic instruments with overtones of these instruments providing musical washes and drones. However, I add that my body and emot...

In Pink by Pa tricia Herlevi I have been thinking a lot about women suffering from emotional and mental symptoms connected to hormonal imbalance--with a focus on peri-menopausal and menopausal women.  Some of the symptoms I have experienced myself include irritability, heart palpitations with anxiety in the middle of the night, and an emotional rollercoaster ride, including bursts of anger in connection with standing up for myself. So if any women reading this blog have experienced similar emotions and mental processes, I am including a few CDs here for you to try to alleviate some of the symptoms.  Experiment. I also started drinking Tulsi (Holy Basil) tea to reduce my stress levels. I feel relaxed. For insomnia I recommend: "Relax and De-Stress" by Dr. Andrew Weill and Joshua Leeds, Sounds True "Through A Dog's Ear" Volume One, Sounds True (Yes, this CD helps humans relax too and if your dog also feels stressed out, then you help the b...

Storks, Poetry and the Human Spirit   Around 2005-06, I heard vocalist and cuatro player Marta Topferova giving a radio interview in Seattle. After the interview, I acquired her recording, La Marea and I fell in love with its blend of old style Latin American music with a modern sensibility. That following Valentine’s Day I saw Marta with her trio at Jazz Alley (Seattle), and I felt swept away by the South American cuatro and Marta’s alto vocals. And I wasn’t the only one—many audience members stayed after the concert to meet the performers. Later with the release of her second recording on World Village, Flor Nocturna , again Marta supplied her listeners with a collection of thoughtful songs performed in a “chamber ensemble” format. Some of the material felt melancholy, but so were the times in which I found myself listening to the recording. Now, Marta awaits the release of her third World Village recording, Trova (see review below), which celebrates music of the C...

Marta Topferova Trova World Village Marta Topferova’s third recording for World Village, Trova focuses on the traditional Cuban sound—mainly sones and trovas, but makes a few excursions to South America. Marta returns with her cuatro while adding guitar and maracas on this recording. Aaron Halvo (accordion, très, vocals), Roland Satterwhite (violin, vocals), Pedro Giraudo (bass, vocals) and Neil Ochoa (traditional Latin percussion) round it off the sweet Caribbean ( Come and Walk to the Hill ), and South American sounds ( The Fireflies ). Marta’s vocals sound warmer and lighter on Trova then on previous recordings—a mixture of honey and cinnamon. True to the trova and son traditions, poetry plays a central role either portrayed as Marta’s spiritual yearnings or the poetry of others reflecting on nature, love or transcendence over pain such as in the Pablo Raùl Trullenque and Carlos Carabajal’s Come to My Place without Knocking . The lyrical content radiates a wistful f...

Polyphony/Britten Sinfonia/Stephen Layton  George Frideric Handel Messiah Hyperion Records I am not a religious person, but when I listen to Handel’s Messiah , I feel a certain holiness enter the room—the space becomes sacred.  Oddly, a Handel expert told me last year that the baroque composer was not particularly religious.  True he had composed other oratorios with Biblical themes before composing the music for Messiah , but he did recycle material from his secular operas to appear as arias in Messiah .  However, this exalted music with its fiery arias and stunning orchestral interludes, must have given old Handel some pause for religious thought.  The libretto alone tells a powerful story of prophecy, suffering and transcendence, as well as, faith in Divine Providence. Handel reworked the oratorio several times, adding arias for soloist and most notably for the castrato Gaetano Guadagni, in 1750.  The original performance of Messiah to...

Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov Beethoven Complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin Harmonia Mundi If someone wanted to become intimate with the Romantic musician-composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), spending time with the composer’s scores would certainly open a door. Many classically-trained musicians and scholars delved into the German composer’s scores, though barely decipherable given the composer’s messy handwriting and equally messy palette of raw emotions Beethoven brought to his sonatas and other work. And the musicians would also discover when researching the composer that he started out as a violinist and even mastered the instrument, though piano turned out to be his forte (pun intended). Hungarian pianist and Beethoven interpreter Andràs Schiff recorded the entire cycle of the German composer’s piano sonatas for ECM Records, with the last recording of the series released in 2009. Now, German violinist Isabelle Faust and Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov...

Joana Amendoeira À Flor Da Pele World Village A new fadista to my ears, Joana Amendoeira sings original fados in a classic style that hails back to the era before Amàlia Rodrigues. Her fifth CD, À Flor da Pele offers less gusto than her contemporary Mariza’s work, but as much sensuality and beauty as heard on Mariza’s and Cristina Branco’s recordings. Joana’s vocals caress every note and she embodies the poetry she sings with broad strokes. Her band includes Pedro Amendoeira on Portuguese guitar, Pedro Pinhal on classical guitar and Paulo Paz on double bass and the music the quartet performs possesses a sepia tone veneer and a whiff of nostalgia. Although I don’t understand Portuguese, I feel the longing Joana sings about in the song, Apelo . The following song, Amor O Teu Nome conjures the happiness of lovers with its lilting Portuguese guitar and Joana’s spritely vocal interpretation. And each song, opalescent and strung together like pearls, reveals the di...

Totò La Momposina La Bodega Astar Colombian vocalist Totò La Momposina came to my attention in 2004, when her delicious cumbia, Yo Me Llamo Cumbia appeared on the Putumayo compilation Women of Latin America , alongside Chilean Mariana Montalvo, Brazilian Monica Salmaso, Colombian Marta Gòmez and others. She headlined in the Putumayo Presents Women in Latin America tour along with Brazilian Belo Velloso and Mariana Montalvo (mentioned earlier), and if she did not rouse audience members physically, she most certainly roused them emotionally. So years later, I am pleased to receive her recording, La Bodega . Released on an independent label, Totò offers us songs that you cannot sit still while listening to them. In fact, I flew out of my chair and found myself dancing throughout my small apartment. I knew that in order to write this review, I would need to do so in silence because those Afro-Colombian cross-rhythms, thumping beats, punchy brass and Totò’s alto vocals...

Tuning in the key of 440 Thad Carhart The Piano Shop on the Left Bank Discovering at Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier Random House, 2001 As a child, I gravitated towards any piano that I encountered, at people’s houses, at the church and in stores. I never learned how to play piano and my family did not own one, but the instrument, in all of its wooden glory, with white and black keys beckoning for my fingers to caress them, called to me.  And I adored it. Now, as an adult, I listen to many solo piano recordings, from Bach and Beethoven to Ravel. Some of the pianists in my collect include, Glenn Gould, Angela Hewitt, Pèter Nagy, Andràs Schiff, Murray Perahia and many others. These virtuosos have no awareness that I exist in some tucked away small city, enchanted by the music they recorded. And the author Thad Carhart who wrote The Piano Shop on the Left Bank , has no awareness of me luxuriating in his every word as he waxed on about every aspect of the piano...

About Provence and Provencal Music:   Southeastern France or Provence is a former Roman province, located on the Mediterranean Sea and adjacent to the Italian border.  Provence is bordered by the Alps and Italy to the east, the Rhone River to the west and the Mediterranean Sea provides the southern border.  The principality of Monaco, Nice, Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, Arles are all important Provençal cities.  Occitan is the language historically spoken in Provence and the Occitan regions of France, although the language has been losing its prominence.  The language is also spoken in parts of Spain, Italy (Piedmont), Germany and even the U.S (Idaho and Oregon).  The famed medieval troubadours penned their poetry and sung their verses in Occitan, which is a Latin Romance language. The troubadours draw comparisons to the West African griot or the Irish bards.  They not only sung love songs, they also traveled on trade routes bring...

Cesaria Evora Nha sentimento Lusafrica Nancy Vieira Lus (release date November 2009) World Village Last March a news brief regarding a minor stroke suffered by Cape Verdean vocalist, Cesaria Evora appeared on World Music Central . The musician had flown to Australia to perform at WOMADELAIDE and she suffered a stroke prior to the festival performance. Needless to say her performance was cancelled leaving disappointed fans in the wake. This month brings us happier news since the 66-year old Evora releases the recording, nha sentimento on Lusafrica. The press release described the recording, “Cesaria ventures further afield than ever before, twisting Arabic musical traditions into bluesy sinuous compositions from some of Cape Verde’s best songwriters.” The result sunny Cape Verdean repertoire with Egyptian exoticism produced by longtime friend and collaborator Manuel de Novas (who recently passed away) with songs arranged by Egyptian Fathy Salama. Again—the ...