Search - Mozaik :: Live From the Powerhouse

Essential multi-genre MOZAIK

Diarmuid Hayes | Little Rock, Arkansas and Cork, Ireland | 04/18/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I am typing this listening to the new cd from "MOZAIK" Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Bruce Molsky, Nikola Parov and Rens van der Zalm and I recommend it to you all. It is a wonderful live concert that blends Irish, American Old Time, Romanian, Hungarian, Macedonian and Dutch music and is a 'must' for any cd collection.First envisioned by venerable vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Andy Irvine (Sweeney's Men,de Dannan,Planxty, Patrick Street), Mozaik is the ultimate global stringband-a truly international ensemble who can not only perform music from a wide array of cultures, but interweave their myriad influences into an entirely new sound. Mozaik moves effortlessly from Celtic to old-tyme to Eastern European music, with intricate string arrangements complementing Andy and Bruce's plaintive vocals. As the first recorded evidence of a major new collaboration in roots music, Live From the Powerhouse is essential listening for fans of any and all international acoustic music. Mozaik was only about two and a half weeks into their 2002 tour of Australia when they decided to record two concerts at Brisbane's Powerhouse Centre for the Live Arts. Out of those March 30-31 performances came "Live From the Powerhouse. Instruments played on this cd are bouzouki, mandolin, harmonica, guitar, bodhrán, fiddle, 5-string banjo, gadulka, gaida, kaval, tin whistle, clarinet, kalimba, mandolin."

World music as it oughta be made!

Joe Sixpack -- Slipcue.com | ...in Middle America | 05/08/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Irish folk veterans Andy Irvine and Donnal Lunny collaborate with American old-timey phenom Bruce Molsky, as well as Dutch guitarist Rens Van Der Zalm and Nikola Parov, of Hungary. All five are virtuoso multi-intrumentalists, well versed in many styles of music beyond their primary field of expertise. Irvine, who has long been enamored of Eastern European music, is the group's guiding force, and for the first part of this album, they work through a Celtic-flavored set that seems like familiar territory. Then, as the Balkan and gypsy influences come into play, including some remarkable cross-cultural medleys, the unique capabilities of this super-talented quintet become more apparent. This is a fine set of lively, soulful, acoustic world folk, vigorous and and unadulterated by any of the saccharine touches that many modern folkies use to "soften" the rough spots of their intercultural fusions. No need for that here -- these guys are so powerfully skilled that they can zip from one style to the next without batting an eye. It's a tour de force performance -- definitely worth checking out."

Protean, Dynamic, Inspiring!

o dubhthaigh | north rustico, pei, canada | 05/20/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the great slights in Irish Traditional Music has been the lack of recognition for Andy Irvine. That Irvine remains such a seminal unsung, no make that unheralded, figure in the Celtic Music is one of the most upsetting anamolies and aberrations in the world of Music itself. Those who have paid even passing attention to this protean influence know that he has been at the very heart of all things Irish, Celtic, Balkan, American from his very first days, and that in spite of the great acclaim afforded others, quite justifiably, none of them would have acheived what they did had it not been for Andy Irvine's contributions, discipline and direction. From the very start of the Celtic Renaissance in music, Andy arrived fully informed of his tradition and with a wealth of influences from having lived throughout the Balkans, part gypsy, part Woody Guthrie, and it is those confluences that have shaped him into becoming one of the most beguiling artists to ever open the ears of his listeners. When Christy Moore called upon him for the PROPSEROUS sessions, he was calling on a musician who was already light years ahead of his colleagues. While providing Planxty with an edge that no other prior Irish group has ever had, and in most cases still don't< Irvine blew down the doors of expectations and brought with him the world in which he had wandered. We owe him such an enormous debt of gratitude. His impact on his Planxty colleagues Molloy, Moore and Lunny, and later Whelan, O Flynn and Spillane, are what made later developments such as RIVERDANCE musically and ontologically possible. While the world fixated on Flatley and Ivers and who knows who, in fact, had it not been for Irvine's collaboration with Spillane on EAST WIND, that entire circus would never have started.
So, now arrives this most extraordinary CD, and I would tell you that if you honestly and deeply love Celtic/Balkan/American music, you will find no better exposition of it in the course of your life than this marvellous outing. Wandering about Australia with colleague Rens Van Der Zalm, Irvine conceived a concert tour of such inspiring dimensions that he knew who he needed on board to make it happen. Nikola Parov, a friend from the EAST WIND and RAINY SUNDAYS sessions, Bill Molsky from the American side of the equation and Donal Lunny came on board to create this masterpiece, which features many highlights from Andy's career and influences.
He is, as always, the Irish Woody Guthrie, and certainly that comes through in his homage to his hero, "Never Tire of The Road." It is quintessentially Guthrie, and equally so Irvine. The accompaniement throughout plays to the strengths of all the msuicians. Lunny, for his part, had only to contribute the high end to Irvine's leads, and then produce what was an exceptionally well recorded concert. It must be of enormous relief to him not to have to shoulder the whole thing, and I'm not sure that in spite of his own talents, there was anything he could have added that Irvine had not already set in motion. Parov brings that Balkan drive to the fore in the meat of the Romanian, Slavic, and Macedonian proceedings, all of which astound you in the hairpin execution of complex and compelling time signatures. And yet this is just as passionately evoked dance music as it is a test for a musician's prowess. Molsky and Irvine creatively connect the way that traditional musics washed upon the shores of America and impacted what had arrived prior thereto. It is just a wonder to listen to the bleed of Eastern European, to Irish to Appalachian musics as they find new cross-fertilizations.
And through it all shines Irvine and Van Der Zalm, the core duo that drives, inspires, guides, and demands of the colleagues all and everything. This is a concert that demands you stand and cheer as lustily as your heart and soul can muster. It is positively a career defining moment for all of them. It would be positively criminal for this CD not to reach and impact a larger audience. If you buy this (and you must!), compel others to listen. In very short order I have found the folks I've lent this to, enthralled and asking that same question: "Where has this guy been and I wish I knew about him sooner". Well, you have heard him. No Irish artist alive, and even some now dead, who has heard Irvine can say they were not influenced by him. Irish music itself would not be what it is today, had it not been for the arrival of Andy Irvine. Come listen to this, get inside this man's avocation, and it is very much a calling for him. He is as no other has been. Every one who comes after is by virue of him. And this is an inspiring document."