4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Most brilliant reworking of traditional Celtic music ever, June 5, 2004
This review is from: Honest Water (Audio CD)
Revelatory. Nothing short of miraculous. To manhandle this hidebound music into the 21st century, seamlessly melding African, Arabic, Oriental, jazz, folk, drone, and traditional influences requires not only an astoundingly brilliant conception, but also the vision, chutzpah, and chops to pull it off.
That Fraser Fifield plays more than a dozen instruments, including various pipes, saxophones, whistles, guitars, keyboards, and percussion is perhaps the least of his accomplishments. What really makes this disc stand out is the glorious way he wields this isnstrumental arsenal, creating an absolutely beguiling and mesmerizing soundscape, by turns declamatory, magical, wistful, melancholy, frisky, celebratory, eerie, comforting, and disturbing.
Only artists of the absolute highest integrity, vision, and accomplishment can achieve what he does. He strikes me as every bit as innovative and important as Cuban jazz piano and world music artist Omar Sosa, Downtown world jazz artist Ben Allison, and Irish/Swiss iconoclast pianist John Wolf Brennan.
One of the greatest debut discs I have ever heard. This guy is practically singlehandedly creating an entirely new kind of music. Almost too good to believe.
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