Afro Celt Sound System: Release

This set work is one of two fusion pieces (the other being Samba Em Preludio).

Fusion music is when a number of musical styles, usually from different cultures, are combined to form a new ‘sound’. In Samba Em Preludio, this is Samba + Jazz = Bossa Nova

With the opportunities for overseas travel having increased over the last 50 years or so, people have become more aware of the wealth of incredible music from other cultures. This is celebrated every year at WOMAD (World Of Music, Arts And Dance) - an international festival celebrating the arts from around the world, held in over 30 countries, including the UK since 1985.

The Afro Celt Sound System is more a collaboration of musicians than a set band, with guest artists often being invited to join on different tracks. In the case of ‘Release’ the Irish singer and songwriter, Sinead ‘O Connor, features.

It began as an experiment in 1995 by guitarist Simon Emmerson to see what would happen if he brought together musicians from different cultures to improvise over techno drum grooves.

The name of the group gives away the fusion of styles and cultures:

• Afro—The sounds of West African Music

• Celt—The sounds of traditional Irish music

• Sound System– The sounds of Western pop electronic dance music

In your set work, this fusion is very clear with three different languages heard on ‘Release’

1. West African—N’Faly Kouyate speaking in a West African language from Guinea in the introduction (Afro)

2. Gaelic—Iarla O Lionaird, singing in Gaelic (Irish) in verse 2 (Celt)

3. English—Sinead O’Connor, singing in verses 1 and 3 (Sound System)

In 1997, as the group were preparing to record their second album, one of their keyboard players, Jonas Bruce, died suddenly at the age of 28 from a massive asthma attack. They nearly cancelled the whole project but decided instead to create a track, Release, in which they imagined Bruce telling them that he was still with them in spirit and wanted them to be happy. Sinead O’Connor happened to be in the same studio where they were recording and contributed lyrics in keeping with this theme. This second album, Volume 2: Release appeared in 1999 and reached number 6 in the charts. There have been a number of remixes since the track’s release.