martes, 19 de octubre de 2010

The Amazing Blondel - A Foreign Field That is Forever England - Live Abroad(1996 UK Folk)

Emerad envia:
Hoy no tengo ganas de escribir nada, sobre todo por el escaso interes que parece generar el que la gente se pueda descargar los discos. Se lo dedico por su dedicacion a esta web y por ser esa gran persona que es a Brakaman ¡Feliz Cumpleaños!.
Comentario de allmusic.com:
Not only a beautiful record, but an amazing find some 24 years after the fact -- a live Amazing Blondel album, 71 minutes of concert recordings made in Europe by the group during 1972 and 1973. All of the tracks were written by John David Gladwin, the composing mainstay of the group, making this a kind of live "best-of" album, comprised of the best songs off of the albums England, Fantasia Lindum (including the latter's 20-minute title track, in an astonishingly tight performance, better than the studio recording, marred only by some minor sound distortion toward the end), and Evensong. "Seascape," "Dolor Dolcis" (aka "Sweet Sorrow"), "Willowood," "Spring Air," and "Landscape" are among the highlights. The group acquits itself extremely well, with impeccable harmonies and gorgeous balance to the all-acoustic instruments that would've put most other English folk-rock groups to shame -- moreover, on tracks such as "Willowood," the musicianship is quite overpowering, as Gladwin displays a virtuosity on the lute that, four centuries ago, would've made him a star in his local county. The sound is remarkably clean and the stereo separation gives a good sense of the intimacy of the performances, and the joking around on stage -- especially the account of the sound of the crumhorn by Terry Wincott -- presents a light side of the group that their albums seldom displayed adequately (the botched "Shepherd's Song" opening is also pretty funny, and the performance is beguilingly boisterous).