When I reviewed the former album by the Belgium band Griff, I already showed my enthusiasm about their wonderful music. At that time a trio with all types of bagpipes, this time they added an accordionist, guitarist and a double bass to their great music. The result is a new album with thirteen, more or less, traditional songs and tunes from all over Europe and a handful of original compositions. As a sextet the band sounds better than ever before and this False fly is a serious candidate for album of the year. Again this fabulous bagpipe solos and duets backed by rhythmic guitar, strong accordion and a sober, but real effective bass. It’s amazing how this band make all these influences from several traditions sound so fresh and new. Listen to the title song and you know what I mean, or the very strong original composition by Remi Decker called How many goats which is one of the highlights on this album. A composition full of inventive twists, showing the beauty of the bagpipe and the creative brain of the composer and musicians. They even do some Joik in their personal interpretation of Mari Boine’s composition Gula gula. Very nice try with a good tribe feeling in a more spacey version than the original. With the next song Les mots it’s again Remi Decker who shows his quality as composer. Here in the best Ambrozijn tradition without being a copy, Decker knows to surprise me again with a fine blend of traditional elements, modern and creative arrangements. The album ends as it should end, the bagpipes only. With this new album Griff impresses me and at this moment, only six months from 2012, I consider this as the best folk album of this year so far.
© Eelco Schilder
01. System 7 (Bela Fleck)
02. Visur (trad. Iceland)
03. The False Fly (trad)
04. Parpaioun (trad. France/Griff)
05. How Many Goats... (R. Decker)
06. Tourniquet (S. Salverius)
07. Sendedir (trad. Turkey)
08. Antiphone (S. Salverius)
09. Gula Gula (Mari Boine)
10. Les Mots... (R. Decker/R. De Cock)
11. Searching (trad. England)
12. Genova (R. Decker)
13. Dodeca Medita (M. Decombel)
Rémi Decker: bagpipes, whistles
Raphaël De Cock: vocal, whistles, bagpipes
Birgit Bornauw: bagpipes
Sara Salvérius: accordion
Jeroen Knaepen : guitar
Benny Van Acker : double bass
GUESTS:
Adrien Lambinet : trombone
Johan Dupont : trumpet
0 comments:
Post a Comment