Author Archives: celtadmin

ONE YEAR anniversary report

ONE YEAR Did you miss the special anniversary show last Saturday?
Don’t worry! We’ve published the texts right here. Enjoy!

https://celtcast.com/celtcasts-one-year-anniversary


CeltCast’s ONE YEAR anniversary!

ONE YEAR
Did you miss the special anniversary show yesterday? Don’t worry! We’ve published the texts right here. Enjoy! 🙂





Yup.
That’s how -ONE YEAR AGO- CeltCast commenced broadcasting.
After many -MANY- hours of collecting, filtering, transferring and planning music, we finally pressed play.


Were you there? Did you listen in to hear those first tracks? We really had no clue how many of you would turn up, or rather tune in to listen to our selection. Of course, we had had great help from friends who helped inform the social network, or as we like to say, the community. We told people, who told people, who… well, you get the picture. 🙂

And then there was OMNIA. They helped out with our first competition (or give-away) and thereby fuelled the flames.



So, there we were: full speed ahead! Those first moments of actually being live, “in the air”, gave such a rush! Such a feeling of accomplishment, until…


It turned out, that so many of you had tuned in, that you all just crashed the server! 😀

Wow! Who would have thought!? A weird mixture of panic and euphoria held sway in my head. Luckily we managed to get CeltCast back up online in a matter of minutes. What a way to start the adventure!



And thus the party started! Our stream became robust and steady, the Facebook followers gathered, we found more outlets for the stream, like smartphone apps, and the website showed it’s first real content. Now, we had all sorts of ideas to put on there, but what-do-you-know? Our friends from Bastaard turned the game around and interviewed us before we could even do our very first report!



Then an old friend from across that big pond (namely Miles) sent us a wonderful report on FaerieCon East and pretty soon after, a continentally renowned photographer, called Kees Stravers, started sending in reports.


Kees turned out to have a facination with a very special and talented duo: Jyoti Verhoeff and Maya Fridman



Though not quite Folk, Celtic or Viking music, these ladies managed to establish a stronghold in a corner of CeltCast’s musical spectrum… Their captivating music and mesmerizing chants drew us in like hungry sailors to determined sirens.

A similarly moving musical experience followed soon after, when Arjan and I visited the Mid-Winter Fair in Archeon, a historically themed open air museum. Standing amidst a large gathering of wondering souls, who sat on the floor, Einar, known for his work at Wardruna, but these days also for his contributions to the hit-series “Vikings”, bridged the gap of centuries and took us way back in time, Using only a single instrument per song.



Travelling even further North, Kati Ran had collected new material for the then-upcoming new album of L.E.A.F. Her work made such an impression that we decided to create an extra internal platform which would enable us to focus even more on certain tracks. Hence, our “Monthly Marker” was born and the first ever was “Terveh” by L.E.A.F. Our current MM is of the now released very-same album.



Playing at L.E.A.F. that time was Philip Xander, who wanted to contribute to CeltCast by sharing his musical review of 2014. Feeling the need to share more on the developments of new albums, events and festivals, we created CC Chronicle, a feed for all relevant news.

We were expanding.

Through these couple of months, we had once again collected new music and were adding it to the stream. Thanks to Frauke, we could even expand our horizon way deep into Russia, where Random Reel invited her to celebrate their third anniversary.



Bands were also “discovering” US and started sending in their music, like Greenrose Fair from Finland and Cara from Germany did!



At CeltCast we absolutely love helping young bands spread their music across the globe, especially when they show such promise as Pyrolysis did, when they crashed Keltfest, by simply not needing a stage, but playing out on the field! We were proud to attend the release of their début album and delighted to see them play at Castlefest!



Meanwhile our team grew with Kees formally announcing his position, Lena joining in from Germany, and Iris supporting bands as our very own merch-babe. We were now at full strength, which was good timing, because the festival season had begun!

At Keltfest, we interviewed Pyrolysis and Mark van der Stelt, the man behind many festivals, including Castlefest, where this year, we were helping out our friends from Bastaard with their video-registration work. It was great fun and probably the most technologically advanced part of our work so far…

In musical terms, the most technologically advanced tracks we play are from Denmark. Like Jyoti and Maya, Euzen have conquered their own sweet spot in CeltCast’s spectrum. We simply can’t resist playing their work…




Castlefest feels like ‘home’ us. It gives us a chance to meet up with people we wouldn’t normally meet, like Kalin from Irfan, who came over, all the way from Bulgaria! We had a wonderful chat and were sò happy get our copy of their latest album “The Eternal Return”!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8S4TTtz8SA

Castlefest is also a hotspot for long-awaited album releases. And so it was too for our friends of SeeD! We had a great competition leading up to the festival. We managed to round up all the crazy pagan band members and do the draw right there on the festival terrain! It was great fun and what was even funnier, was that the lucky winner, Mrs. Bea Versluis, was walking not too far from where her name was drawn! It was the fastest prize-delivery ever!

SeeD went on to give an amazing performance for a huge crowd. Way more people than the stage was intended for, but hey… have a listen…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPPRaho2ul8

Did you know that it was Robin Dekker of SeeD who actually designed our logo? We are so very grateful for his contribution!

Oh, and did you also know, that the lady he was handfasted to at Castlefest, Tjarda, is working hard on her musical carreer?


Now, releases parties are great, but with Elvya… we actually got involved when her work was still in progress. We we got the visit the awesome Orchus studio, run by Fieke van der Hurk, where so many albums we play have been recorded… and we even gave our two cents worth, commenting on the art-work Liesbeth was creating for her BIG project. What a ride, to be part, however small, of the creative process!




And it doesn’t stop there… If anything, we learned that our view of the world of Celtic, Folk and Viking music expands further with every new band we discover, every border we cross… Like you heard Mark van der Stelt first announce through CeltCast, that he thought the time had come to cross our Southern border, we too ventured into Belgium and went to Celtic Night Geluwe.

We finally got to meet with the lovely people of EMIAN (long overdue hugs!) and it soon became clear that this scene really has no borders, no boundaries…




Now… I could go on and on, like I hope CeltCast will… but we are already way past the one hour we planned. 🙂

So time to wrap it up!

Well, this special, that is… because we truly hope that this past year was only the first of many, many others to come!

We would like to thank ALL of you, bands, artists, listeners and volunteers, that helped made this dream come true. Together, as a community, we have proven that it can be done: a radio station with “our” music, without advertisement, sharing music that deserves to be heard across the globe!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

But now, as Arjan stated one year ago… enough with the talking. Time to get to what the station is all about: the music!



– Alex


L.E.A.F. – LYS (2015)

LYS


Long awaited, and now it is finally here: The new album of L.E.A.F. called Lys!
Recorded, mixed and mastered throughout the year, today is the day that Kati Ran will present her latest musical endeavour to the world.

LYS is the brainchild of Kati Ran, but there were many others involved. The album was produced by Christoffer Juul at LAVA studio in Denmark, and both Christoffer and Maria Franz of EUZEN perform on the album. Other guest musicians include Kai Uwe Faust of HEILUNG and Oliver S. Tyr of FAUN.

It is an album that is full of deeper meanings, old and ancient poetry, shamanistic rites, and it comes off as an album that was written straight from the heart! Combined with some very nice artwork by Charlotte Boer it has most certainly become a beautiful total package!

Track 1: Flamme

Right away this track opens the album with Kati’s clear and warm voice. The song sounds like an intro, a promise for the rest of the album. The lyrics of the song are by Kati, but with components from Atlamal and Gripisspa, two of the Eddic poems, immediately showing that this album is more than “just music”.




Track 2: Sol

Sol means ‘Sun’, which as the booklet explains has always been very important. The song to me is about man’s journey through time. Like the previous song the lyrics are written by Kati, but this time it contains verses of the poem ‘Let the Light Enter” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. The music starts off simple, but more and more layers get added as the song progresses, which to me can represent not only the seasons of the year, caused of course by the sun, but this can also symbolise life, as it starts off simple but as we grow older we add more and more complexities to life.


Track 3: Ran

The start of this song feels deeply spiritual. When the percussion comes in it provides a lot of depth in the sound and slowly but surely it grows into a song with quite a massive presence. Ran is the Goddess of the sea but also Kati’s stage name.


Track 4: Terveh

Our first ever Monthly Marker and it has been a part of our playlist ever-since. Terveh is a song in an old Finnish language from the Karelian area, and it’s an old Scandinavian rite to contact and communicate with the spirits of the neighbouring forests. As far as the music goes it does have more of a “modern” feel than what you would expect of something so ancient. The hand of Christoffer Juul (Valravn, EUZEN, LAVA studios) is clear in this song. Powerful in the low end, very melodic in the vocals.




Track 5: Harpa Toner

A traditional Norwegian song, and as we may expect from the older European fairytales, death plays a rather large part in it. The song is a story about a girl gets killed by her older sister, so that the older sister can then marry the lover of the dead sister. However, the bones and hair of the young sister are used to create a harp, which then plays at the wedding and sings the truth. Musically a very layered track, with a clear and sharply defined high end and some deep dark lows, combining to a very complete song. Highly enjoyable, if you can forget the murder and body parts 😉


Track 6: Nymanen

A remake of Under Nymanen from L.E.A.F.’s earlier EP. This was my personal favourite then, and the song that made me fall madly in love with the vocal quality of Kati Ran, and so I’m happy that this song was selected for a remake. I can say that the song hasn’t changed an awful lot fortunately, we can just hear that it has matured and has become somewhat more powerful.


Track 7: Vinda

A very laid-back type of song. Slower, with a dreamy quality, it makes you want to close your eyes and just drift off. The song was written by Maria Franz (Euzen) when she was only fourteen, and indeed Maria sings this song as a duet with Kati. I don’t speak Danish, so I can’t really attest to that, but the English translation certainly does have a very poetic feel to it!


Track 8: Fylgja

The title of this song is in Old Norse and the lyrics in German, which would then make the 4th or 5th language on the album, none of which are Kati’s native tongue. If nothing else this emphasizes the international aspect of this album. The song takes the listener deep into a dream-state, with a very nice continuous rhythm and heavy reverb on Kati’s soothing vocals.


Track 9: Suurin

Suurin is another traditional rite from Finland, and the shamanistic properties of the song are evident from the start. Strong drums and a powerful chant, and the power just keeps building up during the song. Even though the song itself doesn’t reach a clear climax, I can certainly envision people reaching a level of ecstasy from this song when performed or played in the right circumstances.


Track 10: LYS

LYS starts off as a Galdr, an ancient form of song intended to conjure magic. I have been fortunate enough to have seen this song performed live on stage at Castlefest during the combined L.E.A.F./SeeD show, and it certainly felt magical! What a sense of power coming from that stage! And I will admit, even the recorded version gives a similar power, which is not often the case. From start to finish this track speaks to the primal part in my soul with the carefully crafted Galdr text and the massive power from the rhythm.


L.E.A.F. - Lys

As a favourite track I would have to go with Harpa Toner this time. I love the music, the range between the highest highs and the lowest lows, and to be honest I love these kinds of older folk tales. Thank you Kati for breathing life into this one!

Overall the entire album merits taking the time to put on some headphones, or switch on a very high quality stereo when the neighbours aren’t around, and really experience it. Many of the tracks have poetical, lyrical qualities that deserve your undivided attention. I would say: Listen to the album in that way once. Then, if you don’t have all of the knowledge at hand, get on-line, dive into books, find out as much information as possible about all of the topics that this album holds. Find the parts of the Poetic ‘Edda’ that Kati used and bring their context into the experience. Find the poem “Let the light enter” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and do the same. Envision yourself a part of the Shamanistic rites. And then listen to it again several times. This album is much more than music. To be honest, while that is an amazing achievement, it is also somewhat of a curse. I don’t see LYS ever playing in my car while driving, or in my house as background music. You really want to be able to focus completely on all the layers that Kati gives you. That being said, I am ecstatic to have this album as part of my collection and I really believe that anyone who is into Nordic folk, Nordic mythology or Nordic religion should go out and buy themselves a copy!

– Arjan


Kati

L.E.A.F. is Kati Ran


Pictures courtesy of:

Kees Stravers
http://www.pbase.com/kees_s


Review ‘EMIAN – AcquaTerra’ online!

Cover (750p) IT’S THURSDAY!
And that means it is time for another Thursday Theatre, as promised!

This time our light shines on an amazing Italian Paganfolk band that is gaining a lot of momentum throughout Europe. We’re talking of course about EMIAN, the four person band that last weekend even came as far north as Belgium, when they played at the fantastic Celtic Night Geluwe.

We have for you a review of their first album, AcquaTerra, which was released in 2014. Lots of harp, lots of good honest musical excellence, and an obvious Omnia influence, making it especially interesting for fans of that particular Dutch pagan band.

Read the entire review here!


EMIAN – AcquaTerra (2014)

Cover (750p)


This time our light shines on an amazing Italian Paganfolk band that is gaining a lot of momentum throughout Europe. We’re talking of course about EMIAN, the four person band that last weekend even came as far north as Belgium, when they played at the fantastic Celtic Night Geluwe.

We have for you a review of their first album, AcquaTerra, which was released in 2014. Lots of harp, lots of good honest musical excellence, and an obvious Omnia influence, making it especially interesting for fans of that particular Dutch pagan band.

EMIAN is an Italian band, consisting of four people, Aianna Egan, Emain Druma, Rohan and Máirtín Killian, that have lost their hearts to Irish and Celtic music. With their first album “Acquaterra” (2014) they have left their mark on the European folk scene, and their musical prowess is also shown by the many, many concerts they play throughout the year!


Track 1: A Sailor’s Tale

Right off the bat the sounds of the harp take you into a dream-world, and as the song progresses the harp starts to play with the strings and you just know that this will be a “sit back and relax” type of album. The sounds of the sea, the creaking of ships decks, the ships bell keeping time, they all create an atmosphere well befitting the music, and the warm vocals and soft harmonies only add to the feeling. A Sailor’s Tale is a tale of love lost, and how could a sailor’s tale not be? With a harp that is very reminiscent of ‘Grunde Lunden’, at least in the beginning, and vocals that have the same style and feeling as ‘The Bold Fenian Men’, it is immediately clear that EMIAN is at the very least inspired by Omnia, and that they will certainly share a fan-base.


Track 2: The Last King’s March

The song starts off like something you might have heard in an old medieval castle, gentle, with a lot of clarity. But then, after the horn sounds to signal the march, the mood changes and the same melody now becomes part of something much more powerful. Anna certainly knows how to play the harp and in this song she takes the instrument all the way! There are many different levels of intensity, many different layers throughout the song, and they all flow together naturally like a story.




Track 3: Haughs of Cromdale

A pure Irish traditional about the Battle of Cromdale. If it weren’t for the clear Italian accent in the singing one would never know that this song wasn’t recorded by a very experienced Irish band. Very well done, a pleasure to hear!


Track 4: Butterfly

Butterfly is another traditional, but an instrumental one, and with a nice spin to it. Closing my eyes I can imagine children playing in the sun, dancing around to these wonderful tunes. All is good when listening to such a beautiful song!


Track 5: Mother’s Breath

It’s hard to describe how this song starts. Maybe one could say it starts with the sounds of chaos from which everything forms. But when the chaos subsides and the main melody starts we hear some more very clear and obvious Omnia influences! It is amazing to hear how EMIAN has taken this song and made it their own, with lyrics and musical variations. A song fit for Mother Earth!




Track 6: Dúlamán

Dúlamán has been played and recorded by many a band and artist, and everyone always gives it their own spin. EMIAN’s version is a very rhythmic and powerful one, almost making it sound like a war-song instead of a song about gathering seaweed and about love. The power in the percussion does make your heart strong, and when the song is finished it leaves you wanting more.


Track 7: Dance in Circle

The sharp harp sounds that this song starts with quickly snap you out of that dark deep power, and when the melody starts you immediately know why this song is called Dance in Circle. It is a very danceable track and I can certainly see large circle dancing, preferably around a large fire. Again an epic song, telling many tales through music alone, this song needs to be shared with as many friends as possible! Let’s all dance in the circle until the sun rises again!


Track 8: Echu Eo Ar Mare

Echu Eo Ar Mare, a Breton hanter dro, is the last song on this album unfortunately. I would have liked for this album to have continued, but I know there is only so much space on a disc. This song is a perfect ending though, as it is a perfect example of a song that can be enjoyed either just sitting on the sofa listening, dancing through your home, or dancing with a hundred visitors on a festival. It leaves us with great promises for the future!


EMIAN (750p)

A quick look at the album-cover immediately shows what kind of band this is. They are Celtic oriented, and they are Pagan, and they have no intention of hiding it. The stag, the leaves, the triskele and triquetras, they all leave no doubt. The style of the artwork actually reminds a lot of the album cover from Damh the Bard’s ‘Antlered Crown and Standing Stone’. I love it, as it sure shows you what to expect!

Overall the album showed a lot of diversity while still maintaining unity. The traditionals are well played, keeping their character intact while at the same time spinning them in a way that it turns them into real EMIAN songs. ‘The Last King’s March’, their own creation, is en epic in and of itself, and I think I would choose that song as my favourite song of the album. We may have a new Monthly Marker here 😉

Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long before they start playing all the major festivals in Europe, and before they release another album, because I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of EMIAN yet!

– Arjan


Photo taken by: Claudio Del Piano








Player

Please support us through: iDeal or PayPal

Recent tracks

Loading ...