Interview with Afrocelts

JUNE 2004 REVIEWS

Afro Celt Sound System - Pod CD/DVD (Real World)

If you have not yet been initiated into the magical musical experience of The Afro Celts, their new Real World release called Pod leaves you with few if any excuses to remain out in the vacuum. Granted, the CD itself may provide first-timers with an uneven impression of the band. It's a collection culled from their first four albums and remixed by the Afro Celts themselves and some like-minded collaborators. In testament to the strength of the material, the tunes don't easily give up their integrity to the rigors of reimagination. However, some tracks would be better appreciated on first listen in their originally recorded state.

That said, there's no doubt, this album is for the fans in the first place. They know just how enthralling the Afro Celt's live experience is. They know what it is to be powerlessly swept up in one of their fevered grooves. Now, Pod gives them the chance to share those elated experiences with friends who for whatever reason, have shied away from the Afro Celts. Pod includes a 24 minute bonus DVD with video clips for the songs Persistence Of Memory, When You're Falling and North, plus, some live highlights from their WOMAD USA 2001 performance in Redmond, Washington. North, in particular is impossible to look away from, but all the video footage is of such quality as to shatter any misconceptions or misgivings anyone may have about The Afro Celts. There's really little else I can imagine the band doing to impress themselves on a world that's dying for the next big thing.

The Afro Celts are the future of global music. They are poster children for culturally diverse vibrancy and they are true musical alchemists and ethnomixicologists with a global vision like no other. I find it particularly ironic that they chose to revert back to their old 'Afro Celt Sound System' moniker for this collection. 'Seed', their latest all-new studio recording was the first to be released under the name, Afro Celts dropping the Sound System surname because the members all felt that they had moved beyond the 'project' status into the realm of a full-fledged band. Pod will leave listeners and viewers with little doubt of this and may even convince some doubters that the Afro Celts are indeed one of the greatest bands in the world today.

Danielle Hebert - Aventuriere Accidentelle (Dark Horse)

If she wasn't so gifted musically, Danielle would surely be writing Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels. The 'Cosmic Chanteuse' who concocted The Alien Suite, an outer space look at our inner insecurities is back with an even more imaginative theme for the album, Aventuriere Accidentelle. Here's the Coles Notes version; A girl is flying across Saskatchewan when a storm crashes the plane, but the prairie has become ocean and as she struggles against drowning she finds herself surrounded by sirens, sharks, sea creatures and Neptune himself. After fainting cold she awakens on a deserted beach where her real adventure begins in the company of forest elves, a giant spider and other monsters under Danielle's bed.

One has to be impressed by the level of sophistication and unbridled experimentation on this disc. Even the alluring cover graphics are exquisitely tasteful and elegant. Danielle and virtuoso jazz clarinetist, Francois Houle must have had a wonderful time with the interludes between the chapters. I also love the little choral flourishes sprinkled throughout the tracks which reminded me of the Wizard Of Oz or some old movie for some reason. The crisp, contemporary percussion treatments on Dites-Moi and the title track are very 'now' and ground the disc in the moment, though at other points, Danielle allows herself to fall back in time to the French chanson-style (Prospere) or the mystic with flavors of Tibetan bowls or bells and other ethnic touches.

The Adventure never gets too crazy for the uninitiated. As I listened I came to appreciate when a familiar but gratifying simple three-chord progression emerged out of the mélange. It's like surfacing to catch another breath before you dive back in. Again, it impresses me that these subtleties can be pre-meditated and craftily designed. I suspect Danielle Hebert's opus is less Accidental than the title might suggest. It is wonderfully inventive and engaging.