Tag Archives: Cliff

Hello music lovers! 🎼

The last days of the year 2019 are passing by fast! Especially now that we are working so hard to have the new server up and running in the new year. The majority of our old collection has been reassessed and transferred to the new server. We are processing new music these days immediately upon arrival! We are so happy that we can show you the results quickly! Below are some featured albums that were processed this week. Have fun reading and of course, we are curious about which acoustic folk music you like!

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Sowulo – Dageraad (2016) Sowulo released a new album this year (review dd 24th Oct, made by Cliff de Booy), but the CD you see in the picture is an older one from 2016. This one contains only one song, namely ‘Dageraad’. This single was intended as a sponsorship campaign for a full album. The album in question was released soon after and was called ‘Sowulo – SOL (2016)’, on which ‘Dageraad’ was, of course, featured once again. Did you know? A couple of band members are also members of ‘Heilung‘! 🍂

OMNIA – World of Omnia (2009) This band regularly comes back in my reports. Omnia has made so many albums! On this one, they name their development: “What we were, what we are and where we are going… welcome to our World”. There are two live songs on it, five older songs as a remake and seven new songs. My personal favourites on this album are: “Old Man Tree”🍁 and “Dil Gaya” (trad. Hindi). The album is beautifully designed again with a booklet with nice photos, the lyrics and the origin of some songs. Very happy with our signed version! 🌳

Jyoti Verhoeff – Phoenix (2012) Jyoti is one of my favourite artists and she made this album together with the talented cello player Maya Fridman. The songs are often focused on nature and that what’s important in life. The album, signed for us 😊, is beautifully made with a booklet with atmospheric photos and lyrics (Sander Van Den Berg, Yana Kovtun and Jyoti herself). I cannot choose a favourite song… Sit down and let yourself be carried away on the beautiful magical sounds. 💚

Rapalje Celtic Folk Music – Rakish Paddies (2003) This is something completely different. Time for an Irish party and a good glass of beer? Then it’s time for Rapalje! The album is a mini-book, the CD itself is in the back. The booklet contains beautiful paintings of the band members. Rakish Paddies’ contains no less than 21 songs since it actually is a collection of three albums into one: Celts in Kilts (1997), Rakish Paddy (1999) and Wack Fol the Daddy-O (2000). 🍺

AmorromA – Op Voyage (2001)Their Facebook page states: “AmorromA, the musical brainchild of Jowan Merckx, is a Belgian folk band that creates its own music based on traditional music from all over Europe”. In the booklet, they tell us that they have made a musical journey with a couple of friends of musicians from too many bands to mention. 😁 The different types of flutes are central on this album. Probably also a favourite album for our Balfolk friends (Mazurka, Bourrée, Scottish)! My favourite is ‘Over de grens’ (translated into English: ‘Across the border’). For me, as I Dutch lady, Belgium is also ‘just’ across the border. 👣

Irfan – Irfan – remaster (2019) This album is a remaster of the album ‘Irfan – Irfan (2003)’. Not a new album, but the old album recorded with much better listening quality. For CeltCast as a folk radio station, this older album is on the border in terms of format, but still we will play a couple of songs of this remastered version. 🕌

Ranarim – Morgonstjarna (2006) Unfortunately, this band no longer exists, because … I love their work! Beautiful folk music from Sweden! All 15 songs will be played on our radio station. Folk music to dance to and to dream away by. Beautiful voices and folk instruments. The album also contains a Christmas song. All the lyrics are in the booklet (in Swedish, of course). 🥰

Prima Nocta – Lost in Time (2017) Of course, the savage men of Prima Nocta also belong on our radio station. 🙂 We can play 11 of the 15 songs, since they fit our format. The album and booklet contain beautiful drawings by Bart van Nieuwerburgh. Listen to the energetic Medieval, Viking and Celtic sounds. When you see them play live, you also see these beautifully savage men in equally beautiful historical clothing. ⚔️

Triakel – Triakel (1998) Last week I already told you about this Swedish folk music. This is another album of this fantastic band! And, I have news for you… soon… we’re going to play songs of their newest album! I’m going to tell you more about that later. 😍

Kallidad – The Awakening (2017) In November I already told you about our meeting with the Australian band Kallidad at Elfia. On this album there are only two songs we can play, but I’m really happy about that. If you need some energy… put this album in the player and I promise you… you can’t sit still! 🎭

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We’re very happy that these beautiful CD’s have been processed: ❤️

Sowulo – Dageraad (2016)
Omnia – World of Omnia (2009)
Jyoti Verhoeff – Phoenix (2012)
Rapalje – Rakish Paddies (2003)
amoRRoma – Op Voyage (2001)
Irfan – Irfan – remaster (2019)
Ranarim – Morgonstjarna (2006)
Prima Nocta – Lost in Time (2017)
Triakel – Triakel (1998)
Kallidad – The Awakening (2017)

🎶🎵🎶

That’s it for now. Merry Christmas, Happy Yule and a Musical New Year!🎄

Festive greetings, Ilona CeltCast 💫✨

CD covers

And our review stream continues!

It are busy weeks in Celtcast headquarters. But with music like this, we don’t really mind.

This week’s gem is Egeria, the new album of our Italian pagan folk friends of EMIAN • PaganFolk Music , and I can already say fans of Emian’s music will like this album just as much as they did the first two albums; Aquaterra and Khymeia, although Emian did introduce some new influences. It was a pleasure to discover those.

Well, there’s just one more thing to do. Give you the link so you all can dive into Emian’s lovely world of Mediterranean pagan folk music.
Enjoy.
Cliff.

cover Egeria

The First CeltCast Classic!!!

Clannad Irish Band . Is there one band that we play that is less in need of an introduction? All folk music lovers have heard this family of musicians perform their own style of Irish folk, or Celtic New Age music. I would venture to say we have all drifted away to the dreamy sounds of Theme From Harry’s Game. So why do we bring them up now?

As a first installment of our new series we like to call CeltCast Classics Cliff has written a very extensive review of their first three albums, Clannad (1973), Clannad 2 (1975) and Dúlamán (1976). In this review Cliff not only goes deep into the history of the band and the influences of the time, but because of the timeless aspect of their music he is also able to draw comparisons to the bands that we see at festivals nowadays.

Knowing how much time and effort our review team put into this, not only in deeply hearing and feeling the music, but with research, editing, fine tuning etc, we don’t want to give away too much of this masterpiece in a simple post, so we invite you, no, we urge you, do yourself a favour. Grab yourself a cup of tea (or something stronger), sit back in your favourite easy chair, put on some Clannad, and take this deep dive into iconic music together with us!

Find the review here

Clannad

Music is like snow

With the snow taking hold over Europe, we want to remind you that it’s not all misery.
Have a beautiful winter time with CeltCast Radio.

Picture by our talented Cliff de Booy

Music is like snow, it beautifies everything it covers

Irfan – Roots (2018) review



Sunday the 25th of November, 14:45 PM, I am on Winter Castlefest, the 2018 edition. As I was getting ready to photograph the next band in ‘The Great Hall’-the name Castlefest has given to the big tent where the games are played and the indoor performances take place- I couldn’t help but notice Sowulo‘s Faber Auroch entering. The next to pass me was Sara (SeeD‘s singer/bouzouki player) and her partner. But I really started raising an eyebrow when some minutes later Brisinga‘s Fabi came by asking if I knew where the Imbue members were sitting. As I started looking around, I was also able to spot Rowan from Heidevolk and members from Sunfire and The Royal Spuds in the audience. All the members of Emian and Waldkauz had found a place in the front rows, as had former AmmA member Hanna van Gorcum and from the corner of my eye I could also see sound magician Fieke van den Hurk. Afterwards I discovered SeeD’s frontman Koen van Egmond and Sowulo’s harp player Chloé Bakker also attended the concert a day earlier. Now the Castlefest scene, as I fondly call the Pagan/fantasy folk scene we are all part of, has always been a really supportive one with bands visiting each other’s concerts and all kinds of collaborations happening on stage and behind the scenes. But even in this supportive scene it is rare for ten(!) bands to be represented at one concert. And that’s exactly what happened as Irfan got ready to play at the Castlefest 2018 Winter Edition. In a way it says all about the status Irfan has within the alternative Pagan folk scene.


Well, the concert was beautiful, mesmerising and captivating from start to finish. With the seating area placed closely around the podium, there was this real connection between the band and the audience. The atmosphere was pure magic, really captivating and Irfan were given a standing ovation at the end of the concert. It goes without saying that I acquired their newest mini-CD Roots straight after to try and hopefully re-experience a bit of that magic again at home. And that is exactly what happened when I put Roots in my CD player.

From the first notes of the opening song Mominstvo Irfan captivates you. They take you into ancient Persian times. You walk with them into the courts of India, you reminisce about the old days of the pharaohs. And it feels like the sharp desert sand brushes over your face while you marvel at the wonders of Petra. In their bio Irfan compare their music with audio-archaeology and I can clearly hear why they say that. Irfan has acquired the ability to fill their music with history. They manage to sound old and modern at the same time. Giving their music a timeless quality that is rare. They did it for the first time on their second album Seraphim. Mostly Seraphim is a mix between classical European music and Eastern European folk, -imagine Cesair meeting up with Loreena McKennitt, with Dead Can Dance or Ofra Haza joining in every now and again to spice things up-, but the song Return to Outremer, had that magical timeless feel to it for the first time. The band perfected this sound on their 2015 album The Eternal Return, making it one of my favourite ‘traditional’ folk CD’s ever. And they are doing it again on Roots. If you are a fan of the band, you can buy the album without reading any further. You won’t be disappointed.

But for those who don’t know the band yet, a short introduction:
Irfan is a Bulgarian band that formed in 2001. From the beginning Ivaylo Petrov (Middle-Eastern lute instruments), Peter Todorov (percussion), Yasen Lararov (traditional flutes and harmonium) and Kalin Yordanov (vocals and percussion) have taken influences of the traditional music from the Balkan, Anatolie, Persia, the Middle East, North Afrika and India. For centuries the Balkan have been the portal between the Medieval and Byzantine world on one side and the Ottoman world and Middle Eastern world on the other. Influences and heritage from all these areas with their ancient civilizations find a beautiful marriage in Irfan’s sound. Up till now Irfan have recorded three albums: Irfan (2003), Seraphim (2007) and The Eternal Return (2015).

The basis of the Irfan sound nowadays is the warm electronic string and choir carpet they lay. On top of that comes the deep, warm, hypnotic male voice from Kalin, the beautiful melody lines from the harmonium and wind instruments, the upbeat percussion from Peter and Kalin. Although most Irfan songs are slow balladesque songs, the percussion gives them a real upbeat character. The icing on the cake are then the beautiful female lead vocal lines. On their first albums, Irfan featured Denitza Seraphim as the lead female vocalist. On Roots Darina Zlatkova takes over that role. For the fans that will not be seen as a major difference, both singers are equally talented. You could argue that Denitza’s voice is a touch warmer in tone, that’s all.

Irfan’s previous album The Eternal Return was a lovely blend from all their influences. Taking us all over ancient Europe, North America and the Middle East. Their sound on The Eternal Return could be compared with Dead Can Dance meets Loreena McKennitt in her Mediterranean Odyssey period. On a song like In The Gardens Of Armida you can even hear a touch of Clannad in the vocals.
Roots is a touch different, not only is it the first album recorded with Darina, it is also the first album where the songs are not written by the band. They are all based on traditional Bulgarian songs, arranged by either Ivaylo Petrov, Darina Zlatkova or Yasen Lazarov. I can’t tell if it is Darina’s tone of voice or the concept behind the album, but Roots sounds a touch more intimate then on The Eternal Return. As if the band comes home again on this album, after the many faraway places they sang about on The Eternal Return.

It’s actually amazing how little the band needs to build up a beautiful song. A touch of keyboard, some strings, a tap on the drums and Darina’s warm voice and see, the goose bumps are already there. Build up like that Momphinstvo is not only a beautiful intro into More, Ta Nali, but also into the whole CD. More, Ta Nali is one of the more up-tempo songs on roots. Uplifting percussion, mesmerising flute melodies and again Darina’s wonderful warm voice. I just love, how in Middle-Eastern cultures the voice is more than a carrier of words, it is an instrument in itself. With the surprise percussion break in the middle More, Ta Nali is easily my favourite song on Roots. The single Rusa is equally beautiful. This ballad really features Darina’s voice. One of the members of Seed, Sara, lovingly put it to words on Darina’s Facebook page: “I think Roots is the perfect way of introducing you to the people who haven’t seen you perform with the band yet. What you can do with your voice is amazing, and hearing Rusa for the first time made me cry a little”. There isn’t anything more I can add to that well-deserved compliment.

One of the key elements of the Irfan sound is how subtle the music is, minimalistic almost. On Dyulber Yana for instance the song doesn’t actually start, it slowly evolves from a single note to a beautiful song. Solos are also not clearly ‘started’, they appear in the music, the melody lines just slide into a solo piece and they slide out again just as easily. Yasen places some really nice harmonium melodies in it, quite catchy actually, and it is surprising how this ballad picks up speed in the end.

Emeriga is -in the Irfan world- a fast dance song. Driving percussion, doubled vocals, cool string instrument, and the wonderful low ‘hoarse’ flute solo, all together make for a really powerful energetic song. A real crowd-pleaser amongst the dancers during live shows, I’m sure of it, and also one of my favourites on the album.
Lyube Le is already the last song on Roots. Sadly, because I would have loved to hear one or two more songs, Roots is that beautiful. Anyway, Lyube Le is another stunning song. A beautiful intro featuring Ivaylo on lute and -she has been mentioned before- the wonderful Darina. The tender duet between Yasen and Ivaylo also can’t go unnoticed. On this song Irfan leaves the homely feel and drifts of to the ancient world again. Back into the magical music world they so beautifully created.

To sum it all up, Roots is a beautiful addition to your Irfan collection or a stunning gateway into the musical world of this wonderful Bulgarian band. Either way if you love the music of Dead Can Dance, Cesair and Loreena McKennitt, then this is a must-have CD. 10 out of 10 if we were giving points.

– Cliff

Editor: Diane
Pictures: taken at Winter Castlefest by Cliff de Booy Photography






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