Catrin Finch/Seckou Keita: SOAR

Finch, Catrin, Seckou Keita

BENDI2

Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita release their highly anticipated second album SOAR on April 27, 2018 on the Bendigedig label, followed by major UK tours throughout 2018.

SOAR takes off on the wings of the osprey, the magnificent bird of prey that has recently returned to Wales after centuries of absence, making its annual 3,000-mile migration from the shores of West Africa to the estuaries of Wales, soaring like music across man-made boundaries, on an innate and epic journey of endurance. The release is the duo's first since their award-winning debut album Clychau Dibon (2013). Since then they have been touring the world, drawing deeply from their own diverse traditions and transforming them with remarkable synergy, thrilling audiences with their exhilarating live performances.

SOAR explores themes of migration and travel, both emotional and physical, and continues the duo's unabashed exploration and appreciation of the parallels and differences between their two instruments and cultures. The harp holds an important place in the incredibly rich cultures of West Africa and Wales, and both nations share a centuries-old bardic tradition of complex oral tradition expressed through music, song and verse.

Their debut album Clychau Dibon won the prestigious fRoots Critics Poll Album of the Year 2013, the Songlines Best Cross-Cultural Collaboration Award 2014 and two nominations for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2014 (Best Duo and Best Traditional Track for Les Bras De Mer), with Neil Spencer of UNCUT Magazine describing it as "complex, ethereal and entrancing, an artful pas-de-deux ... remarkable".

CD x 1

ARC Music

2018-05-11

5065002172013