La Musgaña

Based in Madrid and together for twenty years, La Musgaña ("the water rat") perform on both traditional instruments (bagpipes, wooden flutes, hurdy-gurdy) and the more modern (guitar, fiddle, accordion). “At one time music was a key part of village life,” says the band. “The rhythms helped in the toughest labors, and through song a link of community was created.” The sixteen tracks on Temas Profanos (“themes profane,” i.e. secular) compose a soundtrack to daily life and life-changing events: courting songs and wedding dances, village celebrations and lullabies, harvest songs and even a prayer for rain. Global Rhythm Magazine says "these are radical new interpretations of traditional music…sounding nearly ancient, yet never archaic.”Today La Musgaña features original members Jaime Muñoz (flutes, pipes) and Carlos Beceiro (guitar, hurdy-gurdy), along with two younger musicians, Jorge Arribas on accordion and Diego Galáz on violin. Sadly, bandmember Enrique “Quique” Almendros, pipe and tabor player, who appears on Temas Profanos, suffered a stroke in 2004 and remains hospitalized in a deep coma. The band continues in his spirit.The group plays the sinuous, syncopated music of Central Spain where Moroccans and Celts, Europeans and Africans have all left their mark. "A real thrill of discovery," says Sing Out Magazine. “You can hear not only Spain, but much of the Mediterranean and North Africa in the melodies, and especially the rhythms that percolate beautifully."La Musgaña's take on the folk music of central Spain is as old as the troubadors and as young as the electric guitar…fruited with exquisite melodies, freighted with melancholy and frenzied with irresistible rhythms." Kevin R. Convey, Boston Herald------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------------LA MUSGAÑA nos ofrece un amplio recorrido por toda la música instrumental de La Meseta, profundizando en la esencia de nuestra riquísima tradición y desarrollando las posibilidades estéticas de esta herencia cultural plagada de mestizaje.Tanto Europa como África, tanto lo mediterráneo como lo atlántico han dejado su huella en el centro de la península y cualquier referencia a su arte o su música encuentra su reflejo en nuestra propia cultura permitiéndonos continuar con una tradición que, lejos de ser estática, ha bebido de cada fuente que ha encontrado en su camino.Con una enorme riqueza de ritmos y estilos, desde los ofertorios religiosos, las charradas, ajechaos y charros de Salamanca y Zamora; los bailes corridos de Ávila; los pindongos cacereños y las danzas, aires y canciones de León o Burgos, hasta las jotas, rogativas, dianas y villancicos de Madrid, Segovia o Valladolid, La Musgaña muestra toda una gama de instrumentos autóctonos, étnicos y contemporáneos que dan la tímbrica adecuada a cada momento de esta mirada creativa a lo más profundo de nuestra cultura.---------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------LA MUSGAÑA SONDIEGO GALAZ: Violín. CARLOS BECEIRO: Zanfona, Cittern, Guitarra JAIME MUÑOZ: Clarinetes, flautas, gaitas. JORGE ARRIBAS: Acordeón. SEBASTIÁN RUBIO: Percusión