Volume One: Sound Magic - Afro Celt Sound System

The 1996 release of “Volume One: Sound Magic” was a departure of sorts for Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. A label built upon the very idea of departures in the most global sense, Real World is credited with the popularization of World Music to Western Markets and spreading the influence of artists and musical traditions seldom heard in the English Speaking world. Like the influence of the Silk Routes for Medieval Europe, Imported Japanese prints on 19th Century French Painting, or The Beatles trips to India, this exposure to “world music” has a huge impact on the history of music. But in Afro Celt Sound System, Real World published music that was not an ethnographic travelogue, but instead explored the new territory that the international exposure created in modern music.

The foundation of Afro Celt Sound Systems’ music is embedded in their name. The band started as a loose affiliation of musicians from both Irish/Celtic backgrounds and African musicians, brought together to experiment with modern electronic music and recording systems. Typical “world music” recordings sought to capture a “native” or “exotic” musical tradition of a non-western culture, with an almost ‘escapist’ or ‘colonial’ approach so that the enlightened listener could appreciate a culture beyond their normal reach. Afro Celt Sound System took the opposite approach, and brought the musical traditions out of their original context and explored their possibilities in the modern recording studio and in the context of modern music.

The result is musically remarkable in the similarities and complimentary relationship between two very diverse cultures. The juxtaposition of intricate Celtic melodies and the visceral rhythmic and percussive traditions of African music is not as contrasting as it seems on paper. When brought together, the two styles highlight what they have in common both at the formal musical level as well as the conceptual level. Where traditional Celtic music is known for harps, dulcimers and other intricate stringed instruments, the technique used to play these instruments relies on highly rhythmic, arpeggiated plucking, and hammering of strings over the more fluid strumming and bowing techniques of other stringed instruments in western music. On the African side of the equation, traditional African drums are not simple percussive chambers, but are augmented with various means to modulate the sound of the drum; the “talking drum” being the most obvious stereotype, but musically, it allows the African musical tradition to express melody through percussion, compared to a western tradition where percussion provides mainly rhythm. Brought together by on this record, these two traditions interweave in the context of a single song, exchanging musical “duties” throughout the song, and making the listener aware of the ability of both traditions to explore the same goals. The result is an intricate and tightly wound Celtic knot of melody unraveling to the dynamic visceral energy of African rhythm.

On top of this juxtaposition of styles, Afro Celt Sound System further elaborates their song writing with vocals in both Celtic and African languages, moving easily between soaring atmospheric melody and primal chant driven choruses. Yet somehow through the maze of mixing cultures on this record, the listener isn’t left with a muddy mess or pastiche of styles. The songs each embody a distinct melodic structure and are built upon their own universe of catchy hooks that prompt the listener to sing along despite the foreign style or language. Finally, to propel this experiment into the arena of modern music, they layer in elements of current electronica and techno music with additional sequenced digital effects and synthetic atmospheric treatments. Remarkably the fusion of these two “world music” styles is a perfect match thematically with the “trance” and ambient genres in modern techno, where intricately interwoven melodies and rhythms fuse to create “mood” explorations and heady “trance” states of musical experienced as opposed to the more narrative A-B-A-C-A-B song structure of traditional western music.

Hailed by many critics as a celebratory cross road of musical cultures, Afro Celt Sound System continues their career folding more and more cultural styles into their fundamental mix of African and Celtic traditions with great success. Their live shows now include Persian, Middle Eastern, Indian and European elements and musicians all coming together within a single framework that both celebrates their origin and propels them forward as a new genre: world fusion. While their style continues to evolve, it’s here in their first album where the door opened onto a new musical landscape. But what sets this achievement apart from the other moments in musical history where new genre’s have leapt forth, the diverse ethnic origins of musical tradition are not eclipsed by the performance, or sterilized in some utopian digital soundscape scrubbed of local, analogue, texture. Both in listening to this record, and completely reinforced with their live performance where the listener is confronted with the spectacle of the talent required to play all the different instruments which comprise this music, the music celebrates the uniqueness of each elements origins, and the beauty inherent in the instrument and sound itself. But most importantly, the music shatters the colonial patronizing label of “world music” and provides a map forward into a multi-national, multi-lingual, poly-phonic musical tradition. This is the sound of the whole world singing together, each in its own tongue, strummed on its own strings, and drummed on its own skins, but rising together for an exploration of the musical spirit that we all share.