The most famous harpist in Wales, Catrin Finch, has combined her mastery with the virtuosity of Seckou Keita's Senegalese kora to record Clychau Dibon (2013), a beautiful instrumental album in which the Mandingo music of West Africa and the old melodies converge from Wales. Finch and Keita have accepted the difficult challenge of combining two musical cultures creating a sublime, coherent, relevant and totally new work.
Catrin Finch is one of the most important harpists of recent years and, surely, the artist who has done the most to raise the appreciation of this instrument among the general public. Fascinated by the harp from an early age (especially when learning about the interpretations of the Spanish Marisa Robles), Catrin has played all over the world alone, along with the best orchestras (The Royal Philharmonic, The New York Philharmonic and The Boston Pops ) or with great artists, and one of his great achievements, to date, has been his complete version of Bach's Goldberg Variations. But in recent times, without completely abandoning classical music, Catrin has begun to flirt with other styles collaborating, for example, with the Colombian group Cimarrón or with the kora teacher Toumani Diabaté.
Seckou Keita is known as "the Jimi Hendrix of the kora". Born in Senegal into a family of griots (the Cissokhos) and a descendant of the Mandingo king SundiataKeita, he distinguishes himself from other musicians in his own inimitably sounds, becoming one of today's most innovative and creative kora players. In fact, in his curriculum he has, among other works, the delicious The Silimbo Passage (2008, with his quintet) and Miro (2012), a lyrical journey through the continents with contributions from artists from Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Cuba , Colombia, Madagascar, Guinea, Mali and Spain.
The harp occupies a central place in the incredibly rich cultures of West Africa and Wales, and the two nations share a centuries-old tradition of oral history expressed through music, song, and verse. The remarkable affinities between the harp and the kora merge in this album Clychau Dibon, edited by Astar Artes and produced by John Hollis, a true marvel in which African rhythms are fused with Celtic melodies and vice versa, together with original compositions written by Keita. All a joy for the ears and the spirit.
01. GenedigaethKoring-bato
02. FutureStrings
03. Bamba
04. Les Bras de Mer
05. Robert ApHuw meets NialingSonko
06. Ceffylau
07. LlongauTérou-bi
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