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Written in Folk Roots issue 82, 1990


UBIÑA
Ubiña
FonoAstur FA-L8703 (1988)

The traditional opening cascade of scales and turns from Xuacu Amieva's Asturian gaita, played with just that extra verve, opens an excellent debut album by this young 7-piece from Asturias (the region between Galicia and Cantabria on Spain's north coast) whose set was for me one of the high spots of a generally pretty elevated Segovia Festival.
      Alborada, the first track, develops into a powerful scene-setter, displaying the extra wit in harmonisation found throughout the album as well as the weird (in terms of equally tempered scales at least) pitching of the gaita's B/Bb. This would be a good album even if it were all instrumental, but its real winning feature enters on track 2, Xota Del Couto - the almost shrill, risky, but always joyful and apposite singing of Marta Arbas. If descriptive comparisons must be made, try Carin Kjellman, Marta Sebestyen or Agnes Buen Garnås (Jan Garbarek's recent collaborator). Perhaps Marta Arbas's voice is less mature than these, but it projects a shivering vulnerability coupled with a finer technique than is immediately apparent. This is a real Asturian band dealing with the traditional music of its own region but with the confidence of identity to be able to absorb both material and personnel from outside - Barry's Bay Waltz comes from Canada via the Boys of the Lough, and guitarist Michael Lee Wolf seems to have arrived from a roughly similar direction - and take advantage, bending outside influences to its own distinctive regional ends rather than trailing along in the footsteps of another tradition.
      There's not a weak track on the album; all have inventive fluency, melodic strength and energy. The recording quality and Direct Metal Mastered pressing are fine, too.

     
© 1988 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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