In my recent search for any new albums by the funky Finnish band Gjallarhorn, one of my favorite finds from the resurgence of tradition-inspired Nordic roots music, I came across one of those great blog/resource sites that combines enthusiasm and eclectic taste to bring lesser-known world music to a wider audience. CD Roots: music from the road less traveled is run by one guy, Cliff Furnold, and provides a source not only for world music CD purchases, but also Furnald’s thoughts and opinions of music as it emerges.

“I like the music I carry and I hope to offer you a crack in the window on the world,” says Furnald. “The CDs you will find here are often personal favorites, unusual music that often defies a simple naming of genre. Some is very traditional, from places you hear little about, and ought to hear more. Some is extremely avant garde, making its own rules as it goes. My favorites combine deep traditional roots with wild and innovative energy. What they all share is a human touch, a personality that goes beyond the mere making of music and into the very heart of art.”

His current collection achieves this goal, offering works from American jazz combined with Swedish traditional, to guitar music from a classical music-trained African family, to a group using ancient Sicilian Arab poetry for their base. This is better than getting your feet wet in world music — it’s diving in fully clothed. Furnald’s blog covers some really random releases, including, recently, a Norwegian percussionist using instruments formed out of ice.

Funky indeed.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 8:26 am and is filed under Antonia projects, world music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.