Only two days to go! Then, the new album of one of Rhythm Passport’s closest friends and long-time faithful contributor will be ready and available for you.
We are talking about Scottish multi-instrumentalist, composer and nyckelharpa virtuoso Griselda Sanderson. Together with Portuguese musician Ricardo de Noronha and a bunch of skillful guests (Soufian Saihi from Morocco on oud, Louis Bingham on cittern & accordion and Portuguese santoor player Nuno Silva), they have just released for Waulk Records their first collaborative work titled Veer.
Have a listen to “Folia” and read what the musicians have to say about their fresh-off-the-press production…
“I was impressed by Ricardo’s spontaneity – he’s a very free, natural musician. Once I’d captured his improvisations on flute or percussion I’d listen and think about what I could add – it was very inspiring and I really liked the feeling of freedom. The sound to me is fresh, a blend of all our influences and musical experiences. I’m playing the Swedish nyckelharpa, the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle and riti – a one-stringed fiddle from West Africa. Then I also played violin, double bass and piano. We had a lot of fun coming up with ideas, like the log xylophone used on ‘Fernworthy Circle’ (which we found in a forest), the thianou, a straw harp from Burkina Faso, mouth drums made from pebbles. The Dan-Mois Ricardo uses are a kind of mouth harp from Vietnam made from bullets left behind by the Americans.”
Griselda Sanderson
“The wind instruments I play are the fujaras, which I build myself, inspired by traditional shepherd’s flutes from Slovakia. The process of building the instrument, then recording it, was exciting. The fujara’s an instrument based in improvisation so I have a more open approach. In ‘Folia’ it was a fortunate event because I was playing two harmonic flutes at the same time. I was surprised that from my improvisations Griselda made something beautiful – we just went with the flow! The flute on ‘Srivatsa’ was experiment with unusual tuning. With percussion, my influences are from all over, but I do like the tombak finger-style – a Persian goblet-shaped instrument. But my influences are more than Middle Eastern, combining many styles from Europe, Scandinavia and Arabic music – whatever suits the melody.”
Ricardo de Noronha