Lisnaholic

´Twas in the heady years of the late ´60s that progressive rockers and folk musicians got together and spawned the sub-genre known as Prog Folk. This fertile union has sired dozens of artists and albums, but strangely, I didn´t find any MB threads specifically devoted to Prog Folk itself. In MB, we have a Prog section and a Folk section, so it looks like the parents have divorced and now live in their separate houses. But what about the poor children? Where are all the artists, whose surname is Prog-Folk – where are they to live?

Well, I propose dividing them up like this: all the English-speaking Prog Folk family can go and live in the Prog forum, where the emphasis might be on their progness. Meanwhile, any Prog Folkers who grew up in other countries can live with their Folk parents here, where perhaps the stress might be on regional folkiness.

So I´m opening up twin threads in which people can share recommendations. This one for Prog Folk from around the world, and a parallel one for English-speaking countries:-

http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psyc...ml#post1662993

To kick things off, I´d like to post a track by a band I became a fan of last night, those well-known Basque rockers, Itoiz. This is from their 1980 album, Ezekiel:-

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Lisnaholic

Chilean band, Los Jaivas have a dozen or so albums under their belts and know how to mix modern and traditional elements with assurance. They also know how to whip up a storm and, in their prime, must´ve been great to see live:-

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Neapolitan

Françoise Hardy - Message Personnel
Basically a song most people would consider Pop, but it was released in the Prog era so it soaked up some proggy influence, me thinks. They are proggy and folk elements in this song. The piano plays a turnaround, which common in Folk (and Blues). And a Mellotron makes an appearance at the end the song, how proggy is that?



Omega - Remembering 1973
A band that hails from Hungary. They'd been together as long as the Rolling Stones, around fifty years plus. (I think The Dells might hold the record at sixty years together - not sure.) Just like any other band that's been together for a long time, they have gone through different styles of music. Started out sounding somewhat like other bands from England during the 60s. During the 70s their sound gravitated mores towards Prog and Hard Rock.



Trio Voronezh - New York Tango
They play on traditional instruments but there is somewhat of a Prog elements.



Gjallarhorn - Kokkovirsi
They are considered playing "World" music mix with Folk from Sweden and Finland.

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Neapolitan

Sandy Denny - Who Knows Where The Time Goes
Sandy was in Fairport Convention, Strawbs, and Fotheringay. She also sang duet with Robert Plant on The Battle of Evermore from Led Zeppelin IV.

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Lisnaholic

Thanks for the clips of those four European artists, nea; each one, for me, more interesting than the previous. I remember Françoise Hardy, who was sexy enough to break into the competitive/insular British pop charts of the sixties. The artist I liked best, though, was the last; thanks for the recommendation.

Here are a couple of other French artists:-

Rock band Tarmac ocassionally stray into folky territory. This track from their L´Atelier album has a sinister Tindersticks mood to it:-



Machin´s first album is a little-known gem of prog folk, so although I´ve posted this track before, I´m going to give it another plug:-



Unfortunately, after this album, they seemed content to do a lot of lightweight, tongue-in-cheek generic stuff.

But let´s finish on an optimistic note and while we´re in France, a track from Malincorne´s 1976 album, Almanach :-

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Seltzer

I absolutely adore Alan Sorrenti - Aria. The vocal histrionics can take some getting used to, but it's a very rewarding album. This sends shivers down my spine.

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Lisnaholic

Welcome back, Seltzer! I imagined that you'd gone for good. I really liked Alan Sorrenti' s strange, empassioned singing; sounds like an album that grows on you...

Folk music from Gambia, with deliciously distorted keyboards and guitar - that's what you get with Ifang Bondi. If it ends up sounding like desert blues, should that exclude it from a prog-folk thread? Who knows. Anyway, this is the title track from their 1976 album:-

__________________
"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Neapolitan

The Collage are an Estonian ensemble. The formed in the mid 60s. They have harmonies close to Gjallarhorn which you can hear in the intro. Being from Estonia probably share some Folk . They are described as incorperating Jazz, and Funk among other music styles. The bass to Mets neidude vahel definitely can pass for Prog bass.

You can go through the albums, most pages on discog linked YouTube videos on the album page.
discog.com: Collage (8)

Collage - Mets neidude vahel

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Lisnaholic

^ What a beautiful piece of music, neapolitan! Thanks. After being rather sick, yours was the first video clip I played in over a week, so it sounded very special to me. I particularly loved the choral opening, and the flute that comes in later.

I'll investigate them as you suggest and hopefully come up with someone for you to look at in return, ok?

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

grindy

Here's some Вежливый Отказ (Vezhlivy Otkaz).

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.