Description
Label Review.
2013 album. Francisco Yglesia is arguably the world’s most accomplished player of the Paraguayan Harp. Playing for over six decades, including a decade with the legendary Alberto y Los Trios Paraguayos, Francisco has also composed many tunes that are now highly celebrated in the canon of Paraguayan ‘folklore’ music.
Our Overview.
This is Francisco’s most recent album, recorded in 2009. All the tracks were recorded live, solo, in a single take, and in pin-sharp high fidelity. It is the only album to showcase Francisco without any backing musicians whatsoever. The album features all of Francisco’s hits and favourites. It is a mixture of traditional Paraguayan and other Latin pieces (including his signature "Pajaro Campana"), plus several of his own striking compositions (not least the often-covered "Vamos Amigos"). Also included is a mesmerising acoustic re-recording of "Shimmering Harp" from his debut 1982 album of the same name, and (perhaps curiously, but brilliantly) a rearrangement of Passion Pit’s contemporary and evocative "Sleepyhead".
'Este es Francisco Yglesia Maestro del Arpa Paraguaya' reunites Francisco with Richard Scott, the Strawberry Studios engineer who recorded his first album 'Shimmering Harp' 30 years earlier. The recording location was St Thomas’s Church in Stockport, just round the corner from where Strawberry stood until the late 1990s. The tune "Pajaro Campana" was a theme tune for Sir David Attenborough’s early TV show ‘Zoo Quest”. The recording from this album was selected by him for Radio 4’s 70th anniversary edition of Desert Island Discs.
Tracklisting: Pajaro Campana (Bell Bird) / Misionera / Shimmering Harp / Naduti (Spider's Web) / Carreta City (Under The Oxcart) / Espejos (Mirrors) / El Tren Lechero (Milk Train) / Isla Saca / Colorado / Cascada / Sleepyhead / Vamos Amigos.