Temperamento: Traditional Songs from Spain

Vigüela is a Toledo-based outfit of singers, guitarists and players of castanets, tambourines, shearing scissors, cowbells, sieves, the lute-like bandurria, medieval fiddle… you name it. There are only five of them but they sound like a wandering tribe who have investigated and rescued the soul music of inland Spain. Opener ‘Rosario por Malagueñas’ is a sultry fandango and an invitation to join in their melismatic party. ‘Sale del Hondo’ is an a capella cry ‘from the deep’ – as long as you don’t count the quacks, bird tweets and the gentle rush of a mountain stream as accompaniment, that is. ‘A la Mari Juana’ is a work song to the rhythm of a slow-moving, heavy-breathing mule.

The curious thing is that behind, beneath, and around these raw vocal and musical exercises here are many of the musical motifs that we know from Spanish flamenco, folk and, even, corny holiday music: that clippity-clop percussion and those spiralling guitar shapes – all share the dry heat of Spanish music. This album provides a reintroduction to some of Europe's most fascinating folk music, starting – and never straying from – its deep, dark roots.