Tierra Negra and Muriel Anderson: New World Flamenco
by Tania Spurkland
The Seldovia Arts Council presents a fabulous New World Flamenco Concert, Friday, July 20th at the SBE School Commons. The concert will be preceded by a guitar workshop by Muriel Anderson beginning at 7 PM at the school commons. The concert will begin at 8 PM. The music of New World Flamenco is ravishing, captured in the heady swirl of flamenco and in the gentle distillations of Anderson’s classical and harp guitars. The melodies, beckoningly beautiful and achingly ethereal, add to the overall impact.
Flamenco music came out of Andalucía in Southern Spain and spread its vibrant and majestic rhythm across the world. It grew from Andalusian and Romani music and dance styles, noted for their energetic and staccato style. The cante (singing), toque (guitar playing), baile (dance) and palmas (handclaps) are the principal facets of flamenco. Time brought in changes, as the music absorbed different styles and approaches. Flamenco Nuevo, as the name suggests, is an approach that wraps in modern sounds into an ancient genre. Two of its protagonists, Raughi Ebert and Leo Henrichs, have carved a niche for themselves, blending pop and folk music into the earthy beat of flamenco. Ebert and Henrichs met Muriel Anderson at Nürnburg’s Gitarrentage Festival. After an impromptu session, they found that they shared a common love for the music, a feeling underscored when Anderson met them again while touring Düsseldorf. It was then that they decided to record together.
While Ebert and Henrichs found their muse in exotic European locales, Anderson was inspired, among other things, by the fun of the three being together and by a little sunshine in Seattle on an autumn day. The former emerges in “Nosotros,” the joy communicated through Anderson’s undulating melody before the trajectory becomes linear and open in its evocation. The autumnal muse appears in “Cloud Cover,” with a snap and bounce testifying to its sunny disposition, but it is “Fiesta De Fuego” that opens the field. Be sure to come and enjoy this exhilarating, wonderful music.
Category: Entertainment
Seldovia Time
