Album Notes

All The songs on Christel Veraart’s first album “Terra incognita” originate in the folklore rhythms and melodies which for centuries have inspired Musicians searching for their roots within their own cultures. These Universal themes distinguish themselves only by expression. This resulted in a more profound understanding of the native-, but also the foreign language and culture. The geographical position and the language of a country are defining for the eventual sound of it’s folk music. A country like Argentina with its vast area of the Pampas, has challenged artists to compose songs that are very strongly connected to the element “Earth”. Brazil on the other hand, with its enormous coastline and tropical climate, invited artists time and again to compose songs connected to the element “water”.

Contrasts, far horizons, other languages and cultures inspire us. They provide us with a possibility to escape our daily life, but also invite us to broaden our horizons through created distance. Was is for this very reason that more than two hundred years ago Columbus and Vasco da Gama decided to sail out to “Terra Incognita”? Did they try to get closer to themselves by tempting far horizons? Anyhow, years even centuries later a Dutch musician travelled to South-America to find herself falling in love with the treasure of folklore music she came across.