Sekou Keita & Catrin Finch 15/5/2014

Around 150 strings on stage courtesy of two harps and two koras and add two musical maestros and the results were always going to be amazing. On stage at the Borough Theatre at Abergavenny we experienced the swirling, exhilarating fusion of Mandinka and Welsh traditional music and it was mesmerising music from start to finish. I much preferred it to the last Seckou Keita gig I saw around 18 months ago when his beautiful kora playing was muddied and diminished by other instruments and a more populist western fusion sound. This time round the mix of harp and kora was stunning and perfect. They are after all similar instruments in terms of the sounds they can make and the way they are played and the way that the two musicians played off each other and responded was breathtaking at times. The song before the interval was exactly that with Catrin challenging Seckou time and again to mimic her complex leads and of course he did so superbly. The first half was from the album they have recorded but the second half included some new songs and one of them 'Celtic Misty' was one highlight from the concert. It spiralled and circled up from the mists of time. Preceding that song was another special song which may have been 'Ceffylau' from the album. I'll check when the gig has faded a bit. Also memorable were 'Ropert AP Huw meets Nialing Sonko'. and 'Les Bras de Mer' but actually everything was superb. An early contender for gig of the year and a sign to try out some Catrin Finch music.