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Apr. 25th, 2007 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Today's Song: Baba Yaga by Annbjorg Lien
Annbjorg Lien is an amazing fiddle player from Norway. Her earlier work is very good, but on the cd Baba Yaga, released in 2000, she made a quantum leap from talented folk music to something else. One Amazon reviewer compares it to Yes, Gentle Giant, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer -- in other words, progressive rock/progressive folk-rock. To me it's similar to Loreena McKennitt, whose music is based in Celtic folk but who encompases all sorts of influences from the Middle East and beyond, and creates something that is magical, ancient, modern, and timeless.
The title track of Baba Yaga is exactly like that -- beautiful melody with one foot in the ancient past and one foot in the multicultural present. It's a magical, haunting instrumental piece, and has been a favorite of mine for years now.
Speaking of Loreena McKennitt, did you know that she finally has a new cd out after ten years of silence? An Ancient Muse came out this Spring. Loreena is one of my absolute favorite artists, and guess what? Annbjorg Lien plays fiddle on one of the tracks of her new cd -- on Penelope's Song. ^_^
Unfortunately I can't link you to any Youtube videos of Annbjorg or anyplace you can listen to the whole song Baba Yaga, but you can find the song in iTunes and listen to their short clip and see if you like it. ^_^ On the other hand, you can listen to a nice long section of Penelope's Song -- or any other track on Loreena's new cd -- on her web site.