''EastWind'' is an album by Andy Irvine and Davy Spillane, showcasing a fusion of Irish folk music with traditional Bulgarian and Macedonian music. Produced by Irvine and Bill Whelan, who also contributed keyboards and piano, it was widely regarded as revolutionary at recording. The extensive line-up included Nikola Parov on Bulgarian instruments ( gadulka,

kaval The kaval is a Diatonic and chromatic, chromatic end-blown flute, end-blown oblique flute traditionally played throughout the Balkans (in Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Southern Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Northern Greece, and elsewhere) and ...

gaida Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Nor ...

) & Greek

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

, Máirtín O'Connor (accordion), Noel Eccles & Paul Moran (percussion), Tony Molloy (bass), Carl Geraghty & Kenneth Edge (saxophones), John Sheahan (fiddle), Anthony Drennan (guitar), Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin (piano), Márta Sebestyén (vocals) and Rita Connolly (backing vocals). In an interview with Folk Roots in August 1992,''Eastern Promise'', in ''Folk Roots'' No.110, August 1992. Irvine stated: "We finished it eighteen months ago but (...) John Cook at Tara wanted to try the avenue of big companies." The album was eventually released on the Tara label itself in mid-1992.''Reviews'', in ''Folk Roots'' No.108, June 1992. Subsequently, Irvine and Parov were joined by Rens van der Zalm and toured together in Europe as the 'East Wind Trio',''Transnational...'', in ''Folk Roots'' No.295/296, Jan/Feb 2008. and then again in the US during 1996, Retrieved on 5 May 2015. prior to forming the band Mozaik in 2002, which covers several of this album's tracks.

Overview

Andy Irvine noted that the album was originally conceived as a Bulgarian/

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

album, and only changed direction "somewhere along the line" during production. The album opens with "Chetvorno Horo", a Bulgarian dance tune in time (3–2–2) played by the whole band, with chord progressions underpinning melodic phrases played in unison by Irvine (

) and O'Connor (accordion). Then comes "Mechkin Kamen" ("The Bear's Rock"), a slow Macedonian song sung by Sebestyén, with backing vocals by Connolly. "Dance of Suleiman" is a fast Macedonian dance tune in the 'kopanitsa' rhythm of (2–2–3–2–2) and based on "Sulejmanovo Oro", a 1978 recording by Dutch ethnomusicologist Wouter Swets and his folk group Čalgija.Sleeve notes from ''Mozaik – Live from the Powerhouse'', Compass Records 743782, 2004.''Čalgija – Music from the Balkans and Anatolia'', Stoof/Munich & Fonos/Het Nederlands Muziekarchief MU 7429, 1978. "Illyrian Dawn" is a Bulgarian slow air, with Spillane on low whistle first, then on uilleann pipes, accompanied by Whelan on keyboards. "Pride of Macedonia" is a collection of melodies in time. "Antice" is another Macedonian tune, in time, recorded by Swets and Čalgija in 1978. "Two Steps to the Bar" is the witty title of the next track, a fast dance tune in the 'paidushka' rhythm of (2–3). Sebestyén sings again on the next piece, "Kadana", a slow song that girls in the

Rhodope Mountains The Rhodopes (; , ; , ''Rodopi''; ) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in Greece. Golyam Perelik is its highest peak ...

of Bulgaria would sing about the problems and prohibitions of love affairs in their communities. The album closes with "Hard on the Heels", a re-working of "Smeceno Horo" (meaning "broken dance") which Irvine first recorded with Planxty on '' After The Break''. It is introduced slowly by Ó Súilleabháinin (piano), then various combinations of instruments from the whole band proceed with playing the entire piece, which begins in time ( + ) and , then continues in two different rhythms.

Reception and influence

The album was released to critical acclaim. Richard Foss of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

retrospectively wrote that "though many Celtic musicians have been interested by the exotic rhythms of Bulgarian and Macedonian music, this CD is one of the only instances in which the fusion sounds both natural and exciting," and he "highly recommended" the album. Ken Hyder's favourable review in the September 1992 issue of ''

Hi-Fi News and Record Review High fidelity (hi-fi or, rarely, HiFi) is the high-quality reproduction of sound. It is popular with audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts. Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudible noise and distortion, and a flat (neutral, uncolored) f ...

'' said that "Davy Spillane's fans will love it; as will all those who fondly remember Andy Irvine's work with Planxty. A musical adventure which succeeds brilliantly." This project would have a profound influence on the future genesis of the highly successful ''

Riverdance ''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions J ...

'':

Track listing

# "Chetvorno Horo" – 3:48 # "The Bear's Rock" – 3:31 # "Dance of Suleiman" – 5:30 # "Illyrian Dawn" – 3:25 # "Pride of Macedonia" – 3:17 # "Antice" – 5:42 # "Two Steps to the Bar" – 4:07 # "Kadana" – 5:42 # "Hard on the Heels" – 5:53

Personnel

* Andy Irvine –

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

* Davy Spillane –

uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ), also known as Union pipes and sometimes called Irish pipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the ...

, low whistle *Nikola Parov – gadulka,

* Bill Whelan – keyboards,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* Anthony Drennan –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

*Tony Molloy –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

*Paul Moran –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

*Noel Eccles – percussion * Máirtín O'Connor –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

*Carl Garaghty –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

* Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin – piano * Márta Sebestyén – vocals * Rita Connolly – backing vocals *Produced by Bill Whelan *Executive producer – Andy Irvine *Recorded at Westland Studios, Dublin *Engineered by Philip Begley

References

Record Label Catalogue 2010
{{Authority control 1992 albums Andy Irvine (musician) albums Davy Spillane albums World music albums Celtic fusion albums