y Danzas Criollas' Anonymous Jota. Cachua Araiies Chacona: A la vida bona Bocanegra Hanapachap cussicuinin Cererols Serafin que con dulce harmonia G Fernandez Tleycantimo choquiliya Flecha San Sabeya gugurumbe P Guerrero Di, perra mora Hidalgo Ay, que me tio de Amor Madre de Deus Antonya, Flaciquia, Gasipa Martin y Coll Flores de nnisica — Danza del hacha Padilla A siolo flasiquiyo TorrejOn y Velasco Desyelado duefio mio Torres y Portugal Un juguetico de fuego quiero cantar Uspedes Convidando est la noche. Ay que me abraso La Capella Reial de Catalunya; Hesperion XXI / Jordi Savall va do gamba Alia Vox AV9834 (77' • DDD • Tit)

A fascinating collection of songs and dances from the Iberian peninsula

There is no mistaking it as the product of Hespérion XXI: the soundworld, with a wide range of instruments and featuring percussion, the distinctive voice of Figueras and the distinguished viol-playing of Savall. And as the stimulating booklet-notes by Rui Vieira Nery suggest, what we glimpse here is the persistence of various cultures within a multicultural, multilingual context and 'the permanent interplay between all social levels of artistic movements'. So the popular, of whatever cultural tradition — European, African, Amerindian — rubs shoulders with the more cultivated.

The mix of musical elements in these (mostly 17th-century) pieces from Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula is fascinating. Dance rhythms pervade much of this vocal music, the texts of which are rich in imagery or dynamic in their dialogue format. I particularly enjoyed the semi-improvised cachua which, though featuring viol and plucked strings, could well be imagined on panpipes, and TorrejOn y Velasco's beautiful Christmas villancico in the form of a lullaby, Desvelado dueno mio, performed with finely judged expressivity: touching but unsentimentalised.

Cererols's eight-part villancico based on the popular melody of the otherwise quite racy Marizapolos melody is similarly affecting. No percussion in these two items, but plenty elsewhere. Some of the texts, particularly that of the five-voice negro Antonya, Flaciquia, Gasipa by the Portuguese Filipe da Madre de Deus, are not only racy but racist by today's standards. It is all so interesting — a really original contribution from Hesperion )00. Tess Knighton