Flanders’ renowned folk band Kadril and the traditional Galician band Alumea have joined forces to come up with a compelling Flemish/Galician show. The project is called La Paloma Negra (literally: “the black pigeon”) and refers to a Flemish “inn” in Santiago de Compostela where pilgrims sought diversion in traditional Flemish and Galician music and dancing. I must admit that I am not really into Galician music… At least, that’s what I thought until I heard the first notes of the concert. La Paloma Negra succeeds in bringing the perfect balance between Flemish and Galician music, cheerful and subdued songs, singing and dancing…
I’ve never seen so many people on such a small stage: I think I counted a total of 17 singers and musicians and 2 dancers. During the first part of the concert, the Galician girls wore traditional costumes, which seemed very hot and uncomfortable, but which were beautiful to look at. After the break, they had exchanged their traditional outfit for more contemporary black and red clothes. Being the colour of passion and spirit, red certainly befits them: they can even make black look bright! On the other hand, how could a bunch of warm-blooded girls, who are making music using shells and tambourines and crying out in their high-pitched voices not look colourful?
During the second part of the show, the Spanish girls really amazed the audience by singing the beautiful song “Rozemarijn” in Dutch. Eva De Roovere, on her turn, sang, only accompanied by Dirk Verhegge on the guitar, the passionate Spanish song “La Paloma Negra”. Since I don’t know any Spanish, I can’t say whether her pronunciation of the Spanish language was correct, but if it wasn’t, she certainly succeeded in fooling me!
At the very end of the concert the cunning Galician girls had something else in store for us: they had the audience standing up and snap their fingers and before we knew it we all were dancing with them. If only this had been a standing concert, I’m sure we would have been dancing right from the start!
Aisling
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Review by Anouschka
La Paloma Negra is the result of the creative cooperation between Ghent-based folk band Kadril and the Galician band Alumea (origin of the band name: a Flemish inn in Santiago de Compostela). I had already seen Kadril two times before and Alumea once when they performed in “Het Huis der Verborgen Muziekjes” by Het Muziek LOD. As both bands pleased me very much, I was immediately interested when I heard about La Paloma Negra. I didn’t get the chance to go to the La Paloma Negra concert in the Handelsbeurs in Ghent, so when I heard they played at La Tentation, I didn’t hesitate. Moreover, I had heard a lot about La Tentation and its beautiful interior, so I couldn’t wait to see it with my very own eyes. And indeed, beautiful it was! With all the wood and rough brick walls, it quite fitted my taste!
Due to the fact that we had to wait for our food for such an incredibly painstaking I-got-sore-in-mi-bum long time (La Tentation has a restaurant, too), we missed the first ten minutes of the concert (we could hear it, but we couldn’t see it). When I saw the stage, I wondered how on earth seventeen people would ever fit on such a small surface, but – miracle, miracle – they did! And they even managed to squeeze in two more dancers during the show!
The concert consisted of two parts, which were symbolised by the outfits of Alumea. In the first part they wore traditional clothing and in the second part ‘normal’ clothes in black and red. This gave a very special touch to the evening. Throughout the concert, a kind of transgression could be felt: it started all calm and quiet on stage but they moved towards a very festive, fiery mood that also affected the audience: it wasn’t hard to start dancing! Moreover, Alumea and Kadril seemed to get on really well and particularly in the second part, the Alumea girls clearly had lots of fun.
In both parts, Kadril as well as Alumea played some songs on their own, but there were also many occasions when the two bands joined forces. There was a nice mixture as to the language as well: Eva sang a beautiful song in Spanish (aptly named “la Paloma Negra”), while Alumea assisted in a Dutch song. One of the last songs of the evening even began in Dutch to end in Spanish…
I thought the concert was a very, very good one: Eva and the Alumea girls all sang with a strong, stable voice; the use of the tambourines was quite impressive (it was more than just giving the instrument a couple of rhythmic slaps), the sound was good, there was a good balance between slow and festive songs and the musicians seemed really nice ánd skilled. Oh, and let’s not forget to mention the Galician dancers: they surely added some extra punch to the concert.
Around midnight, the concert was over and we went home in a very cheerful mood. I was really pleased I’d attended the concert and I certainly want to see them again!
Anouschka
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