Daydreaming

María López is a musical prodigy. She comes from Galicia, on the Atlantic coast of northwest Spain, and although she is only 21 she is already an established artist, after winning the most prestigious award for playing the Galician gaita (bagpipes) when she was only 14 – the youngest musician and first woman to do so. But the bagpipes are just one of the instruments she has mastered, for she is also a skilled performer on piano, hurdy-gurdy and whistles. All of which can be heard on this solo set, on which she overdubs herself on a wide variety of instrumental pieces with which she felt “connected and comfortable”. She’s obviously keen to show that folk instruments can be versatile, and so includes unexpected arrangements for classical pieces (including a Bach Prelude), Argentinian tango (Carlos Gardel’s ‘Por una Cabenza’), along with ‘Greensleeves’ and ‘Amazing Grace’. A quirky but virtuoso set.