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The Orchestrion Project
by Pat Metheny
 The Orchestration Project represents a conceptual direction that merges an idea from the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the technologies of today to create a new, open-ended platform for musical composition, improvisation and performance.
"Orchestrionics" is the term that I am using to describe a method of developing ensemble-oriented music using acoustic and acoustoelectric musical instruments that are mechanically controlled in a variety of ways, using solenoids and pneumatics. With a guitar, pen or keyboard I am able to create a detailed compositional environment or a spontaneously developed improvisation, with the pieces on this particular recording leaning toward the compositional side of the spectrum. On top of these layers of acoustic sound, I add my conventional electric guitar playing as an improvised component. At least for me, this takes the term "solo record" into some new and interesting areas, somewhat recontextualizing the idea of what constitutes a solo performance by a single musician. This project is the result of a lifelong dream in this area that dates back to my early youth. Read the entire article here.
Chieftains and San Patricios
by Mairéid Sullivan
The Chieftains' new album San Patricio is a brilliant artistic conception —especially musically, when we hear how Irish traditional root melodies have evolved to become South-Western and Mexican songs -Tex-Mex, Nortino music.
The CD cover art features the legendary Mexican icon of the Virgin Mary,— Our Lady of Guadalupe holding a dead young Irish soldier in her arms, reminiscent of Michelangelo's La Pietà, depicting the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother after he had been taken down from the cross.
In one of The Chieftains’ most unique projects ever, the ancient connections between the Spanish and the Irish, and the musical souls of two modern nations, Ireland and Mexico, are movingly brought to life. Who were the San Patricios? Full Article.
Malcolm Dalglish and The Ooolites
by Ben Kettlewell
 Malcolm Dalglish and The Ooolites have taken folk music into a new realm with
their album Pleasure, which features Dalglish's original compositions,
his inventive hammer dulcimer playing, and the unique vocal acrobatics of his
youthful "folk choir." There is a hearty authenticity in the way these powerful
young voices weave sounds from cultures around the world into a distinctly American
musical fabric. Dalglish refers to his songs as "playgrounds" for singers. Many
songs on the album launch the singers into a freestyle
Celtic-sounding mouth music as in the title cut "Pleasure," the
French Canadian "Reel a Bouche," or "Swifts" (a song about these
acrobatic birds that sweep the summer skies above our towns). Flight
enters the realm of dreams in "Pegasus" as the dark and modal melody
of a Fourteenth Century Italian Laude takes off into an ethereal
flying vocal carousel. Lullabies like the Northumbrian "Sheep in the
Meadow" and old "critter songs" like "Bushy Tale" or "Woody knows
Nothin" are like an old classic picture book. Dalglish draws on
legends from his own people in his retelling of a Scottish Selchie
story in which a seal assumes the form of a wild and beautiful woman,
marries and eventually rescues her lover before returning to the sea. Full feature here.
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