9 Dead Alive (Rubyworks) Rodrigo and Gabriela are back to just using two acoustic guitars. They have sought to extend their palette by compositional ideas, instead, the nine pieces being homages to assorted pioneers, geniuses and philanthropists. The Soundmaker is for Antonio de Torres Jurado, the nineteenth-century Spaniard who reinvented…
Category: Album Reviews
The Phoenix And The Turtle (Les Cousins/Planet) Beverly Martyn’s first album in 14 years is often so achingly raw it is like being given a tool for excavating her soul. The recording quality makes it seem that she is seated right beside you, wishing, lamenting and confessing in your ear.…
(www.xylourisensemble.net) Greece may be a financial basket-case, but its cultural wealth remains boundless, and an instrument like the three-string Cretan lyra seems to offer an immediate link to the dawn of European civilisation. In fact this ancestor of the violin family may be only 1100 years old, but its sound,…