Amasing Blondel : A Renaissance Revival Folk Group

I was thirteen in 1970 when I heard Evensong. (The musicians were in their early twenty) It was a marvelous discovery in the field of my dreams about the old english countryside. The harmony of the voices, the luth, recorder and crumhorn playing and the naive freshness of the ambiance was something unique and distinct. If I compare Evensong with Fantasia Lindum and England, this is more intimate and the musical arrangements are more direct and basic. This could be the best choice for a purist fan of Amasing Blodel.



Then came Fantasia Lindum like a rare gem, with a more elaborate material. It sounded like a golden sun in a wheat field. This is a thematic album and certainly the greatest on a technical and artistic point of view. The ambiance is rich and flamboyant as inside the baroque paintings and the baroque architecture.



And the last great album of the group has been : England with a symphonic panoramic view about the old England. Here the guitars are replacing the lutes most of the time but the refinement of the sound texture remains the same. This is an open air music, very optimistic and straightforward. This is an arial view of the Old England in evolution, just before the industrial period. The live extract proposed on this YouTube posting comes from the beginning of the England album. But England is a studio album. If you have appreciated Evensong and Fantasia Lindum, you will enjoy England as well.



No English folk music has sounded so naive, pure, giving back the innoncence feeling of childhood since Amazing Blondell. You can't approach this music if you don't have the heart of a child. Oh beautifull songs of Amasing Blondel.

Filmed in Norway in 2004, John David Gladwin, Edward Baird and Terence Alan Wincott are grandfathers but they still sing well and their playing (more slowly) is as gracious on the guitar as it used to be on the renaissance luth. A lace of refinement.

Please, if you like their music, let me know. I would like to share this joy with you.

Amasing Blondel on an excellet Wikipedia dossier :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Blondel