Cançons a l’Ombra

La Baula are a new Catalan group committed to collecting and spreading the traditional songs from their region. The title for their debut album, Cançons a l’Ombra (Songs in the Shadow), tells us immediately what they have been up to – unearthing little-known songs from Catalonia. Picking up these 13 tunes from various historical songbooks, they have arranged them with the specific intent of presenting this repertoire to a wider audience. And there is much to praise in La Baula’s work: the vocal arrangements, their uncomplicated take on beautiful melodies, a quite straightforward respect for their material. It works beautifully on ‘La Llàntia de Felip Quint’ and ‘La Flor Blava’, and when they shake things up, as on the lively and feisty ‘La Veu del Cor’, ‘El Cornut’ and ‘El Fill del Rei’, it’s even better. However, these highs also reveal the lower points, the moments when La Baula give the past far too much reverence. When they free themselves from that excessive respect they do take off. In the future, they would benefit from handling tradition with far less caution.