Gharnata

Gharnata takes its name from the Arabic for Granada, capital city of flamenco. Singer Luis de la Carrasca has long departed the city of his birth for France, but this album proves that his musical roots still run deep to Andalucía. De la Carrasca has become known in France for fusing flamenco with theatre, and he develops the storytelling potential of the form to its fullest on this record. ‘El Crimen’ begins with birdsong, which dissolves into a spoken word passage. ‘La Leyenda del Tiempo’ sets Federico García Lorca's poetry to music. Everything is lent intrigue and authority by de la Carrasca's voice, which is pleasingly clear but comes with a gruffness suggestive of experience, as if aged in an oak sherry cask.

This setting of ‘La Leyenda del Tiempo’ was popularised by legendary vocalist Camarón de la Isla, who pioneered the fusion of flamenco. De la Carrasca evidently embraces this nuevo flamenco approach, introducing non-traditional instrumentation and grooves. The degree of experimentation is relatively subtle, however, and unlikely to win over listeners unmoved by flamenco's mournful melisma.