Perkelt — Musica Mardania (2011)
[20.7.2018]
No he querido utilizar la información disponible en la red para
hacer la página de este disco, porque no termino de aclararme
con los intépretes (tampoco la autoría puede ser muy
definida). Donde más información he visto es en
discogs.com,
pero esa forma de poner los intérpretes, por orden de
instrumentos, ese "roar"... y los guests... Por lo menos tienen la
grafía original, con los sufridos diacríticos:
Cello [Cello "Da Gamba"], Performer [Roar] – Matěj Štěpánek
Djembe, Drums [Davul], Percussion, Performer [Roar] – Filip Tománek
Featuring [Guests], Performer [Roar] – Tereza Pršalová, Václav Štirský
Featuring [Guests], Voice [Declamation] – Jakub Štrba
Fiddle [Fidula], Viola, Performer [Roar] – Karel Novotný
Flute, Lead Vocals, Performer [Roar] – Pavlína Bastlová
Guitar [Cistra], Guitar, Vocals, Performer [Roar] – Štěpán Honc
Y si nos vamos a cdbaby ...
The
current line-up is a trio consisting of Guitarist Stepan Honc, recorder
player Paja Bastlova, and percussionist Will Connor, but Musica Mardania
features a five piece band, so called the "PerKelt enhanced" adding the
viola and bagpipes player Karel Novotny, percussionist Filip Tomanek
and cellist Matej Stepanek.
... aparece un percusionista (Will Connor) que no veo en discogs. Pero
lo más gracioso es que la current line-up is a trio, pero para
Musica Mardania tenemos un five piece band ... adding... otros tres
músicos, con lo que no salen las cuentas (3+3=6 y no 5), claro que como Will Connor no se ve
en discogs... Y la "current line" ¿se refiere a la del disco o a la de
la fecha en que se se escribió el comentario? Un lío.
Por otra parte con los hipocorísticos y los cambios de apellido
de las casadas (parece que nadie protesta por estas tradiciones
"machistas") uno puede hacer otro lío con
Pavlína Bastlová / Paja Bastlova / Paya Lehane
(que es como aparece en perkelt.com).
Para los detalles de intérpretes en cada pista (supuestos en
algún caso) puede leerse
twilightdawning.com, aunque a mí me resulta
demasiado farragoso. Voy a copiarlo más abajo, a ver si
viéndolo en "ancho" me resulta más legible que en formato
columnar. Es obvio que el comentarista no está muy familiarizado
con las cantigas, que ocupan casi la mitad del disco:
“Quen Serve Santa Maria”. All the lyrics here are sung in the original
tongue and the simple sleeve comes with no lyrics. I’m guessing the song
is a mediaeval piece about the Virgin Mary but you won’t need religious
belief to enjoy this.
Y es posible que "en bruto" y sin el texto se pueda decir de la CSM 384 que es
a sad and lamenting piece, pero... igual podría servir
para una encendida (o lánguida) manifestación de amor.
Este mismo comentarista firma una reseña (2014) de un programa de PerKelt,
llamado llamativamente Santa Maria!,
donde se habla de varias cantigas (probablemente sin saber que lo son).
Quen a festa (CSM 195) y Santa Maria (CSM 100) fueron grabadas por Pekelt en su album de 2013
Dowry of a Troll Woman (posiblemente no Santa Maria esa troll woman...), que se puede oír en
spotify.com.
De Quan a omagen dice que es del primer álbum (simplemente PerKelt) que aún no he visto.
Dos versiones de esa cantiga en directo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ9VI0ltimk |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEH8arwBRq4.
Y siguiendo con la misma cantiga, me he entrenido mirando versiones de aficionados, que creo que no tendré tiempo de catalogar.
Y por si no hubiera bastante, más versiones en soundcloud. Como me dedique a hacer esto para cada cantiga ...
Volviendo al disco, no he copiado los autores/compositores de discogs. La melodía de
Novel amour ('Nouvel amour' en el disco), de Rogeret de Cambrai, es la
que escogieron como contrafactum para la CSM 139, por eso la he
señalado. De los muchos L'homme armé, el del disco, con todas sus elaboraciones,
¿seguro que es el de Busnois?
Y en cuanto a la música y cómo la interpretan,
confieso que no he prestado mucho atención,
oyendo el disco en spotify mientras reunía
información, porque me ha parecido que no estaba en mi "onda"
(o, si se prefiere, yo en la suya) y desde luego las versiones de las cantigas no son
de las que me entusiasman.
Perkelt : Recalling the Czech-ered past
Darren Hirst
https://twilightdawning.com/2011/08/25/perkelt-recalling-the-czech-ered-past/
[August 25, 2011]
Sometimes you just hear something that is so unusual and innovative
that you just know that there must be an audience out there for it…….
Something like that happened to me the first time that I heard
Perkelt. I was wandering around Stratford-Upon-Avon trying to visualise
in my head the structure of a Shakespearean production that I was eager
to develop ……. when I heard some folk music.
Now I’m not a huge folk music fan. I’m not pretending that I haven’t
had brief periods in my life when I’ve dabbled in Fairport Convention or
Joan Baez and I love Roger McGuinn’s Folk Den project but I’ve always
thought folk music was at its best when it didn’t take itself too
seriously and when it allowed the past to meet the present and have a
good dialogue develop. But I’m never going to be one of those bearded
guys in an Arran sweater and sandals.
But this music grabbed my attention. It was visually interesting
(period costumes were the order of the day) and was played on archaic
instruments that the musicians were clearly quite expert at playing. It
had a strong sense of melody and rhythm. And the fact that Perkelt was
busking in the middle of Stratford-Upon-Avon meant that all this
potential was going unrealised………..
So when the dialogue between the instruments had gone silent, I
decided to try and develop a dialogue between myself and the musicians.
Only to find they were from the Czech Republic and their English ability
was decidedly limited…. But not to be frustrated by such a little
obstacle, I bought their cd and promised to buy them dinner if they
would be willing to listen to a proposal I had.
To cut a long story short, a year later the Shakespearean production
went ahead and featured a Czech ensemble called Perkelt performing music
which whilst not English or Elizabethan was Czech Mediaeval and became a
reasonable facsimile of the kind of music that you might expect to hear
in the era when the Bard was performing the plays what he wrote (as Mr
Wise would have put it)………
So when I come to review Perkelt’s second album, I must declare a
vested interest because it is performed by a band who have become
personal friends and whom I have worked with in a production in – which I
was quite demanding of them and in which they went along with all my
suggestions and orders whether they quite understood what I was trying
to achieve or not.
But having told the backstory and declared my bias, the question remains, as it must be for all recordings, is it any good?
Well, the album opens with a piece called “Douce Damme Jolie”, music
which originated in the 14th century and was composed by Guillame de
Mauchat. This is very much the sound and territory that Perkelt have set
out their stall to occupy. It is dominated by the flutes and whistles
of Pavlina Bastlova and the percussion of Filip Tomanek. It is lively,
ambient and seems to, indeed, capture the spirit of another age. For
those from a jazz sensibility, there is room for Mr Tomanek to improvise
a little on his percussion solo. Those with a rock background might
find a Jethro Tull-esque feel to the flute and whistle work. Those who
like folk music should be in paradise. There is more challenging
territory ahead for those from an English-speaking background, but we
could not have found a better starting place.
Track 2 is “Quen Serve Santa Maria”. All the lyrics here are sung in
the original tongue and the simple sleeve comes with no lyrics. I’m
guessing the song is a mediaeval piece about the Virgin Mary but you
won’t need religious belief to enjoy this. The vocals are divided
between Miss Bastlova and the imposing Stepan Honc who dominates the
group visually when you see them in live performance. On most of this
album Stepan is willing to remain a little in the background, preferring
to provide a rhythm mode on guitar and cistra. This is a shame because
he is an excellent musician but it allows more space for the fiddle work
of Karel Novotny to shine alongside the pleasantly understated cello of
new member, Matej Stepanek.
Moving on, the next piece explored by the band is “Bertaeyn”. This is
another traditional melody from the Middle Ages. After two danceable
melodies (one with vocal, one with instrumental), the band here bring
another of their fortes to the feast with a thoughtful, introspective
piece which allows all five members to wind their part of the melody
around one another delightfully. The percussion and hand drums of Filip
Tomanek are particularly well recorded and it is his playing here that I
find most charming along with the viola of Karel which is wistful and
romantic. Despite this being the longest track on the album so far, it
fades a little too quickly, regrettably. The band need to have a little
more confidence in their improvisational abilities at times.
An excellent wind introduction begins “Nouvel Amor”, courtesy of
Pavlina, before Stepan ups the ante with a distinctive riff upon the
cistra which is joined by Matej on the cello. As the track progresses
Filip’s drum work comes more to the fore and in the conclusion the
strings of Matej and Karel drive home a buoyant and successful
recording.
Track 5 “A Virgen Mui….” is led by Pavlina’s vocals as she joins the
drone of some kind of bagpipe in the intro. She is joined by Mr Novotny
on the fidula for an attractive and compelling melody and vocal.
Next is “L’Homme Arme” which again is led by the strings of the band
which are then joined by the percussion of Filip Tomanek before the
flute of Miss Bastlova fills out the sound and the rhythm guitar-sound
and roaring vocal of Stepan Honc join the mix. I mentioned earlier that
in places there is an essence of Jethro Tull’s instrumental work about
this recording and it is here that those comparisons are most telling.
The combination of Pavlina’s flute and Stefan’s guitar echo the work of
Messrs Anderson and Barre unconsciously before a brief vocal from
Pavlina over Filip’s percussion brings the number to a very tasteful
bridge before we rock back into full band territory for the coda.
Stepan Honc’s guitar work introduces “Benedetta” where he is joined,
firstly, by Mr Novotny in working out the melody of this sublime piece.
Again, it is Filip Tomanek who is crucial in widening out the sound with
his drum work. I assume it is Jakub Strba who is responsible for the
spoken word sections in the middle of this track where Pavlina also
joins in providing an harmony over the band’s gentle soundtrack. The
second section of this track is one of the hardest to appreciate for
those who only have the English language to rely on, as the essence of
what is being said is somewhat lost. I’m tempted to compare it to the
“rebel song” that the Folksmen perform on the “A Mighty Wind” film
soundtrack but those folk-Spinal Tap comparisons would be unkind to what
is a beautiful and compelling track which may be a little ambitious for
an international audience.
Track 8 is “A Que Por” which I think we used in our production of
“Romeo and Juliet” recently. It is a sad and lamenting piece and Miss
Bastlova’s flute work is achingly beautiful. She is joined on the
opening by the strings of Karel, Matej and Stepan for one of my
favourites amongst the slower melodies that are present on this album.
As the composition develops Mr Tomanek’s drum comes a little more to the
fore. The arrangement is all the more telling because Filip’s work is
gentler…… his percussion has powerfully driven much that has come
before.
The final piece is all the more contrasting because it is opened and
propelled by that very drum sound. Flute and strings join into the sound
to bring a particular momentum which helps us to realise that the album
is now coming to its conclusion. I think this one of the real
developments between the first album (simply called “Perkelt”) and this
their sophomore effort. There is a clearer direction to the sequence of
the recordings which give this more of the feel and realisation of an
album and an artistic whole. This final melody is as strong as the rest
of an album which in truth drives us through a diversity of moods and
melodies without ever encountering down points. This is a band with
range…. No question that they have found a niche for themselves – albeit
a niche which is relatively lowly populated in the music world …. But
they have determined to explore and expand the area they have chosen and
to not allow it to become a ghetto where they simply repeat themselves.
I remain unabashedly biased in favour of this band but I would
recommend this album to all who like acoustic instruments, whose
interests have expanded towards folk music and are keen to try and
appreciate something different. This a stellar collections of
recordings, immaculately recorded and produced – particularly for a
band on such a limited budget.
For next time…… a little more courage to expand their arrangements of
their chosen melodies to allow for a little more improvisation and
solos. I’m not expecting Perkelt to become jazz any time soon but some
creative thought to develop that idea of “fusion” which is part of their
logo would serve them well, if they are to avoid repeating themselves.
[20.7.2018]