Folklore, Vol. 1: La Rioja

AMG Review of Folklore, Vol. 1: La Rioja

François Couture
All Music Guide

Alejandra Salinas and Aeron Bergman spent three years in the region of La Rioja, Spain. They recorded villagers singing while doing their daily chores and performing during festivals and ceremonies. An unlikely release for the audio art/electronics label Lucky Kitchen, Folklore, Vol. 1: La Rioja takes the form of an ethnomusicological document. The 35 short tracks are grouped into three chapters: "Quotidian" (1-15) presents a soundscape of the daily life in La Rioja, where men, women, and children sing and whistle, accompanied by the sound of animal life (sheep, birds). "Summer" (16-27) illustrates the music played at various village festivals -- from a musical point of view, this section is the most interesting. "Winter" groups ceremonial and Christmas-related music. The sound quality can be poor at times, something expected from this kind of field recordings, but it is compensated by the likeable charm of these people. Salinas and Bergman are not professional ethomusicologists: Their approach is more one of tourists and sound diggers. This CD presents the sources they used for the simultaneously released Haunted Folklore One: Ruinas Encantadas, an electro-acoustic album. It comes in an embossed envelope, with a booklet containing the artists' thoughts on the fate awaiting the region's folklore.