New celtic angle: Felpeyu

Subject: New celtic angle: FELPEYU
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 06 Feb 04 - 12:44 PM

Just before Christmas an old English mate living in Barcelona for the last 15 years sent me a copy of the latest album (title: "Ya!") of a band called Felpeyu. They play traditional music of the Asturias region of Spain, and they ROCK!
Apparently the Asturias area has celtic roots/connections, because their music is clearly celtic, and they even use Uilean pipes, bodhrans, "Irish bouzoukis", fiddles etc. But at the same time there is a different quality to the music, reminiscent of mediaeval French.
Amazing, wonderful music. And excellent playing by Felpeyu, who are trying to kickstart a revival of their region's traditional music. Power to them, I say.
Do seek out their music. Australians may know them already, because they tour there almost every year and have even appeared at the National. I just wish they come this way sometime soon...
As for me, I have already ordered a legal copy of "Ya!" to replace my mate's bootleg one - plus copies of all their previous albums. An instant fan.

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 06 Feb 04 - 12:46 PM

Here's their website: http://www.felpeyu.com/ingles

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: Zhenya
Date: 06 Feb 04 - 02:21 PM

El Greko - Thanks for posting this. I wasn't familiar with this group, but I like both Celtic and medieval French music so I took at look at the webpage, and suspect I will shortly order an album. This looks REALLY interesting! Zhenya

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: GUEST,An Púca
Date: 06 Feb 04 - 03:47 PM

Being fairly new around these muddy parts, I wonder if there are any discussions in earlier threads on the question of Asturian (or Galician music for that matter) being connected with "Celtic".

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 06 Feb 04 - 09:36 PM

I have a number of CD's with Galician music and I love them, here they are;

Millodoiro; Auga De Maio
Hevia; Tierra De Nadie
Carlos Nunez;Os Amores Libres
Carlos Nunez; Brotherhood Of Stars

The Cheiftan's Santiago also features Carlos Nunez

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: JennyO
Date: 06 Feb 04 - 09:41 PM

Yes, we've seen them in Oz, and they ROCK!

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: JennieG
Date: 07 Feb 04 - 01:14 AM

Yep, what JennyO said. I have fond memories of a very late night concert at the Illawarra Festival in Jamberoo a few years ago where they played - they were probably heard back in Sydney.
Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Feb 04 - 06:36 AM

Strangely enough I was at the same concert (usually I go to late night singing sessions) & they are fantastic - everyone was dancing & having a great time.

It's great bouncy music & they do have good following here.

sandra

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: Callie2
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 12:45 AM

I was lucky enough to be at a big outdoor folk music festival in Asturias a few years ago. The bands started playing at about 9pm and PLAYED UNTIL THE SUN CAME UP!! There was fantastic variety within the trad style. Felpeyu were still the best amongst them all - mostly because they have the best arrangements and really try to do something different with the tunes. Ahh - memories!

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 08 Feb 04 - 10:15 PM

G'day El Greko,

I have seen / heard them in Australia (at Illawarra Folk Festival ... where JennyO, JennieG, Sandra (and Callie ...?) would have seen them. I seem to remember them playing gaita galicia (or similar) Spanish pipes, rather than uillean pipes ... certainly long necked lutes in the general bouzouki format and drums like the bodhran.

I understand that the interpretation of their local music has been heavily informed by the general shape and sound of modern "Irish" bands, so they did sound a bit too "Irish" for someone looking for their distinctive 'voice'. However, there seems to be a strong revival in their area, and I think they will learn more about what makes them Asturian ... and rely less on what they have borrowed from the Irish ... and still rock!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: GUEST,The Stage Manager
Date: 09 Feb 04 - 12:46 PM

Thanks for this introduction El Greko, I do have a weakness for Celtic Music and have not come across Felpeyu before.

While not unexpected, (being aware of other Celtic bands from the Galicia region) I, along with some others having a similar interest, are a little disappointed that we don't know of any Celtic music from Southern Greece and Northern Turkey!   Thanks to the internet we've been able to trace Celtic, and even Gaelic, music to some pretty remote corners of the globe.

According to a number of seemingly scholarly works on the subject, S. Greece / N. Turkey is one of the residual Celtic areas, similar to Spain and Brittany. So where's the music? One has the feeling it should be lurking there somewhere, particularly as there has been something of a music renaissance in many other Celtic regions.   Apologies if I presume local connections here. Are you able to elucidate?

BTW if you have an interest in this sort of thing, this link may interest you if you haven't read it before.

Believe it or not

SM

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 09 Feb 04 - 01:55 PM

Er...don't know about that, SM. I had read somewhere that the Celts were the first Europeans, who were pushed Westwards as the migration of later tribes originating from the Indian peninsula came into Europe. This tallies nicely with the locations of today's known Celtic people, from the Basques to the Bretons, Cornish, Welsh etc. We are talking well before the Homeric times, probably even before 2000 BC.
If there had been Celtic remnants left in Asia Minor (Turkey) or Southern Greece, they will be well watered down by the turbulent history of those parts and subsequent migrations into the region, like that of the Seltzuks from Mongolia, and hard to identify now.
We do have instruments like the "gaita" in Greece and Turkey (we call it the same too), but then the whole of the Balkans has it also. No clue there...
During the Colonels Junta years (1967-74) there was an attempt to protect the "ethnic purity" of the Greeks - as if we had all descended directly from Alexander the Great or Homer. Well, that's a joke - I know for a fact that my background is 1/16 Romanian and probably 1/32 Turkish, though the Colonels would have deemed me to be 100% bona fide Greek. Those are the bits I managed to find out, with lots of gaps still there. Heck, they were all at it back then...!

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: The Stage Manager
Date: 09 Feb 04 - 05:03 PM

Hi El G

As I understand it the 'Keltio' got as far as Delphi somewhere around 279 BC, sacking the place, and then stayed on and off for the best part of 700 years when they retreated back North & West.

I can't seem to find the migration maps now or the old threads, that had the links to them. I'll look further if something occurs to me.

I take your point about the turbulent history, possibly this combined with the relatively short time of occupation leaves the record pretty thin.

I also understand that Alexander had one or two bust ups with the Celtic tribes. Guess he wasn't a fan of the music.

SM

Subject: RE: New celtic angle: Felpeyu
From: GUEST,Fernando Fugit
Date: 17 Jul 04 - 10:00 AM

Felpeyu are my favourite celtic band in the whole world!