Llan de Cubel - L'Otru Llau de la Mar (1992)

A masterpiece of Asturian folk, and a personal favourite of mine.

«Llan de Cubel ye ún de los más veteranos (dende 1984) y el de mayor repercusión, internacional de los grupos del folk asturianu. El so nome ta sacáu del Picu Llan de Cubel ente los conceyos de Cuideiru y Pravia. La so música ta basada nel repertoriu tradicional asturianu (popular y ensin autor reconocíu). El so soníu ye acústicu y apoyen les sos melodíes na gaita asturiana, el vigulín y la flauta travesera de maera, pa la percusión tiren de tambor tradicional y de bodhran mientres que l'armonía ye cosa de la guitara acústica y del bouzouki. Tamién usen dalgún mediu llétricu pa pasaxes mui concretos de la misma forma qu'a pesar de ser un grupu de clara vocación instrumental, tamién recueyen cantares nel so repertoriu. El so repertoriu ye na so mayoría de temes asturianos (alboraes, marches, pasucáis, saltones, muñeires, polques, entemedios de misa, tonaes, vaqueiraes, villancicos, cantares mariñanos, de llabor, de chigre, etc...). Anque tamén tienen fecho guiños a temes tradicionales d'otros paises del Arcu Atlánticu. La primer formación xuntó al nucleu carbayón d'Elías García, Fonsu Mielgo, Susi Bello y Daniel Lombas, col pixuetu de Guzmán Marqués y Marcos Llope. D'esta primer formación aguañu siguen Elías García, Fonsu Mielgo y Marcos Llope, xunto con Xel Pereda (1995), Simon Bradley (1996) y Xuan Rodríguez (1997). Tamién tuvieron nel grupu Flavio Rodríguez y J.M.Cano.» (Uiquipedia)

«Seperated by a range of mountains to the rest of Spain, the county Asturias (and also Galicia) in Northern Spain is different in several ways to the Southern parts of Spain: The county looks green, and the music sounds somehow familiar to ears used to listen to Irish or other Celtic music. Asturias and Galicia, both belonging to the Green Spain or Atlantic Spain, are the two countries in Spain with strongest Celtic roots. Fonsu, percussionist of Asturian folk band Llan de Cubel, says about the Celtic connections of Asturias that "obviously historically and culturally there are links with the other countries of the Atlantic Sea. There were always exchanges with Brittany for example, many fishermen and traders as well; there were exchanges with the British Islands, with Brittany and the Atlantic coast of Europe." Another reason is geographical; "Asturias has a natural border with the rest of Spain. Asturias is a very green country with lots of mountains, and the natural border is a range of mountains that seperates Asturias totally from the rest, it's a kind of wall, and Asturias was isolated with these mountains. So the natural escape, the natural exit was the sea. You couldn't cross the mountains because they are very high, and there weren't good roads or whatever. There was a natural relationship."Today, the Asturian-Celtic connection is strong again, Llan de Cubel have close relationships to the people of Scotland and Ireland. They do exchanges: Scottish and Irish bands come to play in Asturias, and Llan de Cubel go to play there. Some Scottish and Irish bands play also Asturian tunes, and Asturians play Irish and Scottish tunes in sessions.

Despite this strong relationship, Fonsu emphasizes that the music of each place is different. […] Llan de Cubel's music is also very much its own. Describes Fonsu, "the music we are playing in Llan de Cubel is traditional Asturian music, mainly based in the repertoire for the Asturian pipes. We take most of our repertoire from pipe tunes for the Asturian pipes, the gaita." Together with the gaita, Llan de Cubel have percussion/keyboards, fiddle, flute, bouzouki, guitars and (Spanish) vocals creating a fine sound of Asturian traditions. […] If you come to Asturias, go to the cider bars, the sidrerias. Says Fonsu, "cider is the national drink of Asturias, for me it is the best Cider in the world. And if you go to the Cider bars, maybe you can find there a singer or a piper or..." Or find out about the very unusual way of drinking Asturian cider (especially how the sidra gets into the glass) – but that's another story.» (Michael Moll, Folkworld)

Official site: Llan de Cubel

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Balandrán - Balandrán (1993)

One of my favourite asturian folk bands of the 90s, and surely one of the most innovative too along with groups of international fame like Llan de Cubel and the unfortunate Felpeyu, these relatively unknown Balandrán brought a gust of fresh air to the sometimes too conservative asturian folk movement. Based in the small town of Avilès, near Oviedo, Balandrán released only two albums in the course of their existence: the charming eponymous debut posted here, characterized by a warm and brilliant sound, in which the interplay between the traditional acoustic instruments (guitar, accordion, violin, flute, bodhran and gaita - the asturian bagpipe) is enhanced by the use of electric bass & guitar, was followed by El Viaxe, where they took further experiments with electronics. Coming back to Balandrán, in my opinion the instrumental opener Al Dolce with its well constructed crescendo and the moving Danza la mar, «pa baillar descalzos nel sable moyao» (to dance barefoot on the wet sand) alone are worth the download.

They say 'bout them in Asturies:

«Balandrán fué una de las bandas más importantes del folk asturiano, supusieron un aire nuevo y original en nuestra música de reelaboración»

«De xuru la banda asturiana de los años 90 más avanzada conceutualmente»

Enjoy!

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