Monday 1 April 2019

Ar-Folk: Armorika and Skillevejen

















Painting on the top record is just beautiful...

The kind of heart-felt gorgeous and pure acoustic folk, very professionally played (so unlike DIY Orval), that I know others just die for but I am more picky with due to the frequent simplicity of the chords and music.  This is a hugely rare Danish group that made two albums spanning 1979 and 1984.  From the first album the lovely composed opening Gavotte:





While the title track just fills me with that profound love for music those around me seem to have so much trouble understanding (I'm thinking of you, my dear), from the warm acoustic guitar strumming a C minor chord:





Though their hesitation, lasting all song long, in leaving the key leaves me a little bit disappointed by the end.

Sadly subsequently they ditched the acoustic and went all-in with electric instruments a la literature laureate Bob Dylan, complete with a more poppy sound that is occasionally touched with the ridiculous 80s jumping-drums style (thankfully, mercifully little).

Thus, the first track from the 1984 LP, info here:





You will notice they still do those silly jigs and folk dance-type numbers which absolutely drive me crazy due to their repetitive simplicity especially when I start to imagine Euro-folk dancing in traditional costumes to the music.  Anyways, none of that in the title track of their second, with the wonderful electric guitar intro:





Klagesang is a beautifully composed song using that same traditional folk to very good effect, I'm sure you'd agree, note the intro flute playing on top of the clavinet electric piano sound:





Quite a bit of good in here altogether, completely unknown so far.

9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. Sir Julian, restore possible?
      Bless...

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    2. https://www.sendspace.com/file/ybwul5

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  2. Thanks a lot for this - been looking for it for quite a while, remembering it from my youth's gaelic wave :-).

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  3. Just realized I uploaded 3 LP rips of Istanbul Express, if anyone are interested. Real gems, world music from the 70'ies before anyone had anything against foreing music and foreign musicians (Danish to some extent, thus in this posting)
    Here they are:
    http://www.filefactory.com/file/6c1vf328fbox/Suite%20For%20Selma.rar
    http://www.filefactory.com/file/3bxozj38xv0b/Istanbul%20Express.rar
    http://www.filefactory.com/file/7ktbz58vyiwb/02%2000.rar

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  4. Should be mentioned that one of the members Lars Lilholt became a hugely successful solo artist in Denmark. And that his brother Kristian made some new age albums.

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  5. Hej Henning og I andre. Jeg har selv et par eksemplarer, da jeg har arvet en pladesamling eller to gennem tiderne. Både begge Ar~Folk-pladerne og Istanbul Express, så jeg er vel egentlig ganske godt sat. De er til stadighed årsag til, at jeg altid har mindst én fungerende pladespiller i huset :) Men virkelig fedt, at rende på flere der sætter pris på den slags. Jeg hørte rygter om at en omend noget amputeret genopstandelse var på tale for en håndfuld år siden. Er der nogen af jer, der ved noget om dét?

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    1. Hi Henning and you others. I have a few copies myself, as I have inherited a record collection or two over time. Both the Ar ~ Folk records and Istanbul Express, so I'm probably pretty good at it. They are always the reason why I always have at least one working record player in the house :) But really cool, to run on several who appreciate that kind. I heard rumors that an albeit somewhat amputated resurrection was on hand a handful of years ago. Do any of you know anything about it?

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