I usually don't start a review talking about the artwork of it, but in the case of Priscilla Hernandez's second album, The Underliving it is the only obvious thing to do. The fantasy folk scene is known for the beautiful artwork with one being even more stunning than the other. You probably remember the beautiful booklet that covers Mythos , the second Waldkauz album, or the equally impressive booklet accompanying Eden , that famous concept album Faun released in 2011, The double-sided picture book illustrating the Riven double CD by Jyoti Verhoeff is another example, not to mention the illustrated fairy tale that was added to Omnia 's Pagan Folk Lore DVD. Well, I can tell you that the casing that Priscilla Hernandez designed for her The Underliving album can hold its own with all the aforementioned books. Not only is it 3 centimetrers longer than a normal CD casing, it also filled with lovely fantasy drawings in Priscilla's own slightly eerie, slightly gothic, slightly fairy tale style. Blended between them are photographs edited and coloured in the same blue-greyish hue as the drawings that fit the theme of The Underliving so well.
Priscilla Hernandez is not only a composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer AND poet, she is also an illustrator and writer. On her
website , she tells us that even before she started making music at a young age, she was already making drawings to illustrate her own stories.
One of those stories is an unpublished graphic comic called
Yidneth . Yidneth started as a horror/fantasy novel that Priscilla then illustrated to turn into a comic.
- "It consists of a 74 coloured page gothic-fantasy comic graphic novel I scripted when a child and that took shape as a graphic novel done through the '80s until '90s.' Priscilla tells us on her webpage. On the fact that it was never published she says the following:
- "Yidneth is my trademark and the name of my company and record label but also name that I invented for my personal project, and not my artistic name (though after using it so long it's almost like my alter-ego). When I was younger I was more focused in my works as an illustrator and then somehow music got more successful and carried away some of my projects that remained then on hold." Parts of that artwork did make it into her CD booklets though, and also songs like
Ancient Shadows… Read More
Where did this pearl hide all this time??? At Celtcast HQ we knew about the lovely music of Trobar de Morte ; we danced many a time on the dark Pagan folk of Cuélebre , who have a new album out called Dijara; we were in awe by the beautiful pagan world folk that Vael was making, and we were blown away by the debut of Ritual Duir . So we already knew there was amazing talent in Spain, but none of us knew about another Spanish artist who was recording beautiful - and I do mean beautiful - ethereal poetic triphop fairytale folk since her debut album Ancient Shadows, the ghost and the fairy , way back in 2006. It was Rastaban 's Mich Rozek who eventually connected Priscilla Hernández and our station, and we are very very grateful that he did, because it would have been a shame if we didn't give Priscilla Hernández the place the spotlight she so fully deserves.
Priscilla Hernandez was born on the Canary Islands but now lives in Navarre Spain. From a young age she was fascinated with illustrated fairy tales - especially the more eerie ghost tales and, as she calls them, 'supernatural spectral romance stories'. Not to mention a love for the old
Jim Henson fantasy films like
Labyrinth or her favourite
the dark Crystal . Fed by her personal experiences with sleep paralysis and nightmares she started to create her own stories, either in the form of music or art. She first showed that art through drawings, part of an unpublished graphic novel – I'll go into that more in the review of
The Underliving – but later on also in music. As Priscilla says in her bio she started writing songs as a child but only got the courage to perform them herself in 2002. She recorded the
I Steal The Leaves demo in that year, accompanying herself on the keyboard and to her surprise that demo got really positive reactions and reviews. At that point, the music started to take over. In order to keep the spirit of her art untouched, she decided to stay independent and together with the love of her life Hector Corcin she started her own label
Yidneth , and then in 2006
Ancient Shadows – the ghost and the fairy – was born.
The opening sounds of
Facing the Dream , the intro to
Ancient Shadows , leaves no room for doubt regarding this album’s theme. It
… Read More
On the 25th of February we had an amazing "Live in the livingroom session" with
Philip Xander and Erwin Tuijl.
All you had to do, to win this beautiful signed album, was answering the question: "Who is the song 'Little Miss Magic' about?"
Well, in fact... it was a trick question! The answer is not a "who" but love itself that is magic! Or, as our lucky winner formulated it herself: "Little miss magic is about a fresh love... When in the first weeks we feel in love and all is magic."
Congratulations: Elena Jayne Isu, you're the winner!
(Send us an email to: ilona.celtcast@gmail.com, to receive this beauty!)
Read More
📀 Album give-away:
Philip Xander - Prelude 📀
Last week, during the 'Live in the Livingroom' session with Philip and Erwin, the opportunity was presented to win a signed copy of this amazing album! 🎶
All you have to do to enter this give-away, is answer this question: "Who is the song 'Little Miss Magic' about?" ❓
Watch Philip ask that very question himself around 57 minutes into the session:
Please write your answer in the comments underneath the original livestream before March 11th, 18:00h CET. Later that evening we will draw and announce a lucky winner. 🏆
You can pick up the album at the CeltCast Merch stand during
the Fantasy Awards 19/20
*, where Philip Xander will also perform! See you there!! 🤩
*) Should you not be able to join us there, we will send the album to you per mail.
Good luck!!! 🍀
Read More
A couple of weeks ago the former Scottish folk band Back of the Moon were featured in the CeltCast Classics series, with their beautiful album Luminosity . Lead vocalists in Back of the Moon were husband and wife Gillian Frame and Findlay Napier . As a thank you, CeltCast received a Christmas gift package from them with 5 more CDs in it. three of them are solo albums recorded by Findlay Napier: VIP, Very Interesting Persons ; (2015); the 2016 mini-CD VIP, Very Interesting Extras ; and the 2017 album Glasgow . All of them beautiful albums that, sadly, don't fit the CeltCast format. 
But if you love extremely good singer-songwriter material, sung by a singer with a beautifully warm voice, with slight touches of Americana in it, those three albums are pure gems. Just listen to The Man Who sold New York or Rising Sun - both found on VIP, Very Interesting Persons - (right) or his homage to Glasgow or Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice -Both on Glasgow - and you will be sold. If we would play American folk on CeltCast these albums would be on the server within minutes. Another album we would straight away add would be The Story Song Scientists album with the same name that came out in 2019. Another beautiful American singer-songwriter folk album. This time recorded by Findlay Napier and Megan Henwood . Again, a beautiful album filled with golden sounds to drown into. Unnameable Radio , Shepherd , North Pond Phantom , Wild Wild Country , they are all just brilliant singer-songwriter songs with beautiful vocals. Boy do those two voices go nicely together. The last CD in the package luckily IS a true Scottish folk cd and will, of course, be the subject of this review. Gillian Frame's 2016 solo album Pendulum .
For those who missed the
Luminosity review, fiddler and singer Gillian Frame was one of the founding members of the Scottish folk band Back of the Moon. After the band stopped she carried on with numerous Projects. She has been featured on more than a dozen albums and worked as a session musician with acts such as
The Unusual Suspects ,
Breabach ,
Treacherous Orchestra ,
Rachel Sermanni ,
Deaf Shepherd ,
Mairearad and
Anna, and Duncan Lyall’s Infinite Reflections . If that wasn't enough she still regularly performs with her husband Findlay Napier in his duo, trio or whatever form the bookers want them to perform, and if THAT wasn't enough she is
… Read More
