One With the Wind

A couple of years ago, Branko Galoić and Francisco Cordovil happened to be in the same Parisian bar with live music – Chez Adel, a hot stop for musicians in France's capital. They met there, played together and knew instantly they needed to work together. That perfect match between the two guitarists was quite probably fuelled by their common interest in jazz, but also by their shared Mediterranean traditional languages. Coming from Croatia and Portugal, the duo have an easy rapport.

One With the Wind effortlessly proves this and yet manages to stand clear of the unbearable cliché of performing their own take on fado or Balkan music. And this was a very real trap considering Cordovil is a frequent collaborator with fadista Paulo Bragança. But the duo wisely preferred to work with different influences including bossa nova (‘Andreia’ and ‘Bossa Balkaniossa’), jazz manouche (‘White Lies’) or Arabic (‘Cicek Micek Cocek’) motifs. Even if this album is no masterpiece, it is a pleasant record.