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Clychau Dibon

Under the heading of "two great sounds that sound great together" comes this meeting of minds & musics. Catrin Finch is classically-trained harpist well-acquainted with the Welsh folk tradition; while Seckou Keita is a kora virtuoso originally from Senegal but now based in the UK. This is the first of three collaborative albums they've made to date: it came out in 2013.

I'd heard a piece or two from Clychau Dibon around the time of its release, and caught some footage of the duo performing together on YouTube. Only last year, however, did I obtain a CD copy of the album. Browsing Ebay I found one that had been signed by both artists that cost about as much as it would have been new & unmarked, so I bought that one.

It's a very well put-together package with a 36-page booklet including numerous photographs of Finch and Keita and an essay about the project by Andy Morgan given in English and Welsh. The music, some of it derived from traditional sources variously Celtic and West African and some newly-written by Keita; blends wonderfully well into a coherent and uplifting whole.

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