Sunday, November 25, 2007

Haizea-ST,1975+Hontz Gaua,1976,LPs,Spain


Basque progressive folk of the label Elkar, HAIZEA were a five-piece from the Basque area of Spain. Sporting a sound that could best be described as psychedelic electric folk, the instrumentation consists of guitar (sometimes two), bass, drums, flute, assorted percussive things, and the captivating voice of Amaia Zubiria.
Both albums are very interesting. "Hontz Gaua" is a classic prog free folk item with some Gregorian element, nice female (second male) vocals and beautiful atmospheric double bass. "Haizea"(1980) is a bit more intimate. Highly recommended.
The first LP is much more straight edged psych folk ballad oriented with great male/female vocal parts.Concerning the 2nd one we are talking for one of those masterpieces of acid/cosmic folk music.This is one of the holy grails of European folk/psych in the same leauge as the Carol of Harwest and the Emtidi albums. Superb deep mystical cosmic folk psych recorded in super HIFI quality with a crystal clear sound. Strange percussion, echoed guitars, cellos, flute and stunning female vocals with long tracks. As Dag Erik Asbjørnsen, author of the "Scented Gardens of the Mind" puts it: "Honts Gaua simply gorgeous, on of the best progressive folk albums in the whole Europe. The Basque group is little known but deserves wide acclaim for this work of art!"
get st lp here

6 comments:

auess said...

thank u very much for these two lovely spanish folk albums! their first one is really great.

do you have any Malvina Reynolds' recording? especially Sings The Truth (1967) and Malvina (1972), i've been looking for them since long time ago but still in vain.

Subcomandante Marcos said...

This sounds interesting, many thanks for sharing with us.

attax said...

Hey, thanks so much for the albums.
Do you have by any chance albums from YOU ? it's an german electronic band from the 70/80s Eletrc Day / time code / or WONDERS FROM THE GENETIC FACTORY ?
Greetings

fuzztunnel said...

This is good, sure, but in the same league as "Saat"? No way!

Anonymous said...

Nice only good stuff on the site!
//Cooper

Anonymous said...

Interesting stuff. Variety in songs. Thanks!