Kind of Folk, Vol 4 Iberia

Norwegian drummer Terje Isungset is best-known for wowing the world with his ice music, but he's also part of the Nordic folk-world collective Groupa, experimenting in progressive, improvisatory approaches to Nordic and other folk traditions since 1981.

This fourth instalment in Groupa's Kind of Folk series has them heading to the Iberian peninsula, and a series of collaborations with Spanish and Portuguese musicians and singers, chief among them multi-instrumentalist and singer Vanesa Muela, whose roots are in the music of Castilla y León; and singer Sofia Adriana Portugal, of Portuguese vocal trio Maria Monda.

Add to that the Basque rhythms of percussion duo Ttukunak Txalaparta, alongside Groupa's Jonas Simonson on flute and clarinet, Mats Edén on strings and accordion, and Isungset's drums, and you get wildly varied and fluctuating explorations of, and improvisations upon, Iberian ballads, love songs and dances. Not to mention plenty of opportunities for Iberian-Nordic harmony, with the likes of ‘Polska Virgen’ planting themselves in some decidedly Moorish-Iberian topsoil.

‘Estrela que Vais Coroar’, featuring Sofia Adriana Portugal's vocal – one of four tracks she sings on – is an eerie, evocative highlight, while Muela's tracks open and close the set with vibrant, heavily percussive rabble rousing.