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ICAROS : MAQICAL MELODIES El Mundo Magico CD: (Full price) Length: 54.00 mins.

SHAMANS OF PERU Eagles Wing EW-CD 002 CD: (Full price) Length: 70.57 mins.

FIESTA MUSIC FROM PERU Peter Cloudsley CD: (Full price) Length: 73.02 mins.

These t h r e e CD's are so r e l a t e d t h a t i t seems appropriate to review them together. Tcaros', as the name suggests, is a CD of Icaros (Ayahuasca Spirit calling songs), 'Shamans of Peru' is a mixture of Icaros and music of the high Andes, while Fiesta Music is just recordings f r o m the Andes. They are a l l excel lent albums, recorded on location w i t h good equipment and are a joy to listen to.

Icaros was recorded i n the Rainforest and the songs are soft and beaut i fu l . The shamans sing them like lullabies to the spirits and they wrap around you w i t h the background sounds of the jungle and have a most wonderful atmosphere. Accompanied by soft swishing rattles on many of the tracks this is an excellent album of these shamanic songs.

Shamans of Peru includes Icaros, but starts with ritual music performed at a San Pedro (a psychoactive cactus not dissimilar i n its effects to peyote) ceremony. This music is much more what you would perhaps expect of Peruvian music, coming from the mountains, deep drums and flutes. Other tracks are similar to the previous album, being recorded i n the Jungle, including songs from the shaman Javier Arevalo who we feature i n this issue of sacred Hoop. As a general introduction album to the sacred music of the Andes, this CD works very well.

Fiesta Music is an album which only contains music from the Andes. It starts w i t h the most amazing song w i t h the singers embodying bear spirits i f I am not mistaken. Its raw, w i l d peasant music and is so alive it's untrue - accordion, flutes, fiddles voices, drums - you c o u l d not reproduce this i n a s tudio i t w o u l d just become an a l b u m o f music . The a l b u m (a l l f i e l d recordings of course) does capture the experience beautifully. My only criticism is the length of the tracks -the 73 minutes of the CD is divided up into 61 tracks. Personally I could have listened to the first track for ages - a whole CD of it even. If you want to explore the music of this culture this is an excellent way to start.

None of the CD's have words or translations, 'Icaros' has very few cover notes, but 'Shamans of Peru' and 'Fiesta Music' have good notes as to what is going on. It's hard to choose between them. If I had to buy just one it w o u l d be 'Shamans of Peru' as it has a bit of

everything, but i f I could have all three I w o u l d - and if I could have a f u l l length CD of the first track o n the Fiesta CD I 'd go for that instantly.

Icaros is from El Mundo Magico. Tel (020) 7352 2873- Shamans of Peru and Fiesta Music are from Eagles Wing (01435) 810 233

TRIBAL INSTINCT Mysteria Town Music DTM 02 010 CD: (Full Price) Length: 51.22 mins.

With 50% of the profits of this album going to tribal people i t has to be w o r t h b u y i n g . Fast dance beat techno music and ambient soundscapes mixed w i t h the music of tribal people such as the Baka people of Africa, Aborigines of Australia, the Arapaho of North America and the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea. It is very much dance music and if you like that you w i l l enjoy this album greatly.

Available from High Street Record Shops

CELTIC RAQAS Chinmaya Dunster & Vidroha Jamie New Earth Records NE 9802 - 2 CD: (Full price) Length: 43.19 mins.

Ambient fusion w o r l d music w i t h an Irish Indian feel like the title w o u l d suggest. Sounds like they had a lot of f u n recording it and it works very wel l w i t h some really nice tracks on it. It's a tad bit new-age for me to want to play it too often, but i f you like melodic and skil l ful ly played restful music that is actually 'music' rather than mass produced sugar-coated w a l l paper sew-age this is a very good album to go for.

Available from High Street Record Shops

THE HUMOURS OF PIPINQ Various Lochshore CDLDL 1299 CD: (Full Price) Length: 52.55

This is a marvellous collection of Irish Uilleann pipe music played by four very skilled pipers. With some guitar for accompaniment it is a lovely album of traditional Irish music played on this beautiful instrument

Available from High Street Record Shops

1 - Forget it. 2 - Probably best avoided. 3 - Worth getting.

4 - Miss it and miss out. 5 - A classic

SACRED HOOP ISSUE 36 2002 PAGE 37