145: Leyenda, by Ana Alcaide

Ana Alcaide (Spain)
Leyenda (2016)
12 tracks, 56 minutes
Spotify ∙ iTunes

Aren’t good things that you stumble across by accident imbued with that little extra sweetness? That’s one of the reasons I enjoy this album by Ana Alcaide.

I first heard of Ana at WOMEX 18, which was being held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in October last year. It was the first night of the showcase festival, and the music was spread across five stages in and around the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus. The whole place was a bit like a maze. I was heading over to catch the set from pan-Latin group Ladama on the Theatre Stage, so I found a theatre and ducked in. Wrong stage – this obviously wasn’t Ladama. When I walked in, it was just one woman on her own, sat on the edge of the stage, playing the Swedish nyckelharpa – a sort of fiddle with keys instead of a fingerboard, and loads of sympathetic strings – and singing. It was all very quiet, but the audience didn’t make a sound. It was absolutely captivating.

After that piece, I slipped out and made my way to the Theatre Stage, where I’d wanted to be all along. That gig was okay, but I couldn’t settle to it at all. Ladama’s was dancing-in-the-aisles music, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the other stage. So I wandered back there and the nyckelharpist now had a band, and together they were playing a real mix of styles, of Celtic and Arabic, Scandinavian and Eastern European music, underpinned by Spanish traditions. It was a wonderful performance, and I didn’t regret making that wrong turn one bit. I only found out after the performance that this was Ana Alcaide.

Of course, the record can’t live up to an experience like that – lived experiences always have so much weight, of memories and senses and connections and emotions – but it certainly does stand up on its own. All the songs are inspired by myths and legends that surround women and the feminine from around the world, and the music is a multicultural mix of styles that is in turns calm and uptempo, ethereal and weighty.

One of the best things about festivals is that opportunity to happen upon something new and unexpected; something that you’d never consider otherwise, but which hits you at just the right moment to lodge itself deeply within. It’s even better if that happens when you’re wandering around not quite sure where you are. Ana Alcaide is just one glorious example; who knows who it will be next?