FIONA HARRISON MUSIC
  • Home
  • About
  • Composing
  • Audio Visual
  • Blog
  • Contact

Celtic Connections

1/21/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
Went through to Celtic connections on Saturday.  We saw the 10th anniversary concert of Le Vent du Nord.  Great band.  Its the first time I have seen them.  They had invited a few guests including Breabach, Vasen and Dervish.  The fiddler, Olivier Demers in Le Vent du Nord is quite amazing.  

Picture
Fiddle singing is difficult to do.  But Olivier Demers, the fiddler was not only fiddling and singing, but also doing the whole rythmn section - with has feet!  

So he was tapping, fiddling and singing - all at the same time.  What good coordination has he????  Unbelievable.  It looked VERY hard work. 

This performance was a once in lifetime complete with birthday cake and birthday song sung by the audience. 

I wasn't the only one to think this was great. 

The Scotsman said  "Things were threatening to become quite tearful, in a totally joyful way, by the end of this unforgettable show. A marvellous mutual love-in was hosted by Québécois quartet Le Vent du Nord – in whose decade-long coming of age Celtic Connections has played a significant springboard role – with three other top acts from Sweden, Ireland and Scotland, and a near-sellout Saturday night crowd. 

Nothing was ever going to go far wrong, what with both the birthday and the mouth-watering line-up – completed by not one, but two string quartets, comprising the likes of Greg Lawson, Christine Hanson and Fiona Cuthill – but all concerned rose resoundingly to the occasion by evident dint of diligent preparation and rehearsal, which shone through in silky-smooth, sumptuously swinging ensemble interplay, delivering two hours of virtually non-stop musical highlights.In amongst a veritable feast of instrumental colours and textures, the rich and rare alignment of Väsen’s Olov Johansson, on nyckelharpa (Swedish keyed fiddle) and Mikael Marin on five-string viola, with Le Vent du Nord’s Nicolas Boulerice on hurdy-gurdy (ancient French keyed fiddle) was particularly revelatory – but no less so, once again, were the Canadians’ immaculately radiant, red-blooded four-part vocals, a sound as lusciously suave as it is resonantly earthy.

The set-list roamed seamlessly between material from each band’s repertoire, spanning and transcending traditions – not least in Boulerice’s breathtaking hurdy-gurdy solo, itself a mesh of the medieval with the futuristic – while vibrantly affirming each one’s uniqueness. An early contender for this year’s top Celtic Connections gig."

Picture
Nicolas Boulerice, one of the group played the hurry-gurdy.  This seems to be making a come back as I have heard of a few folk players but its the first time I've seen t being played on stage.  


Its an amazing sound.  

I bought a couple of albumns.  Le Vent du Nord's, Le Part du Feu  -which is great. I recommend it. 


I also bought Rule of Three's Pleasure Coin, which has a couple of the tunes I learned at the Sage last week
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Fiona Harrison
    ​Music



    Welcome to my blog about my thoughts and research on playing and composing.

    Archives

    October 2020
    June 2020
    January 2020
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    June 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

    Category

    All
    Improv
    Pd
    REH
    Res
    Ses
    Studio
    Wim

    RSS Feed

© Fiona Harrison, all rights reserved, 2011
Background Header art, Sound Forest - by Will Power, at Flickr Creative Commons-2019

  • Home
  • About
  • Composing
  • Audio Visual
  • Blog
  • Contact