I tend to get suspicious of artists that use only one name (like “Madonna”), but after taking in this enthralling album, I’m changing my tune.
And speaking of tunes, Peia Luzzi (as she uses her full name in the credits) uses her glorious and pristinely haunting voice in a wide world range of traditional songs and languages. Peia also plays the Peruvian charangon as well as harmonium while a rotating team of guests play calabash,percussion,, guitar, oud, bass, fiddle, bagpipes, bodhran and fiddle as the sound, country and mood dictate.
Her voices is dreamy accompanied by pensive percussion as she sings a traditional Hungarian lament in “Szerelem,” whereas a Scottish mist hovers with her voice on “Ciamar A Ni Mi’n Dannsa Direach” and a dash of Maddy Prior is discerned on her own “Dance In The Storm.” She’ll walk you through the Andes on the traditional Peruvian “Que Me Medicina” and there’s no escaping the allure of the haunting voice that pierces on the Basque folk tune Txoria Txori.” The pace of the entire album is reflective like a morning light through a stained glass window, and by the time the album releases its final undulation bagpipes and English lyrics to the pensive anthem “We Will Rise Again,” you are sorry that the album actually had to end.