Interactive poll No. -46 2/3 - the folk music poll

My votes:

Stormy Six - Il barbiere

Fotheringay - Banks of the Nile

Vasmalom - Hejtok Lányok

Honorable mentions: Most other songs!

Out of these 14 there are at least 10 good enough to motivate me to look further into the work of these musicians, what a great selection! Some tough preselection decisions can boil it down to... four, as always. So these are Tunng, Fovea Hex, Milladoiro, and Wung Fei and Abigail Washburn - although it hurts me to not mention Vaesen (this reminds me very much of my favourite stuff from the Danish String Quartet), Espers, Obsrucus Orbis, and several others... by the way I had heard a bit of Stormy Six before but hadn't been able to get into them, but there's definitely some potential, I'll surely give them more time.

OK, coming to the top 4, the Tunng one took some time before it took off, at first listen I didn't think I could vote for it, and still it takes until some time in that I really start to love this, I like how this leads me in a very different place from where it starts. Fovea Hex is the definition of sublime really, meditative but really powerful, now way to vote around this. Milladoiro is exactly the kind of melody that will not let me go, I just love this. Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn are a bit at a disadvantage by the fact that my heart has already settled on other things when I heard this for the first time. Instrumentation and atmosphere are awesome though.

OK, Fovea Hex and Milladoiro will take the first two spots, and the third vote goes to... ah, each time I listen to one of these I think that must be the one, also both have three votes already, which doesn't give me an easy way out... finally I'll settle for Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn on grounds that I had heard something (though not this one) of Tunng before, and that one's a bit closer to my listening habits.

1) Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn - "The Roving Cowboy: long song (perhaps a little too much), evocative, refined, with a rarefied atmosphere, which gives its best with the voice of the two singers alternating with the two ethnic instruments, whose sound manages to mix and alternate in a very convincing way.

OK, after yet another listen this morning, I am ready to cast my vote. As we only have three votes, I have three winners and three runners-up - though the vast majority of the songs chosen for this poll were extremely to my taste. Here are my picks:

1) Fovea Hex - Huge thanks to Mike the Cat for turning me on to this great band. I have bookmarked their Bandcamp page, and have been listening to some of their work. The combination of vocals - beautiful yet somehow understated - and electronic-driven atmospherics is gorgeously haunting.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this edition of the Interactive poll. The music was simply incredible, and I have discovered a lot of great stuff that I can't wait to explore further.

2) Stormy Six - Being able to understand the lyrics was a plus for my personal appreciation of this song, a stunning synthesis of folk and avant-garde with a uniquely Italian flavour. I can see the comparisons with Gentle Giant, though I'd say this is even better. The song is sharply critical of the military draft, which in Italy was abolished in 2005, but was something to be confronted by young men of my generation and older.

3) Tunng - I know some members of this band are involved in Admirals Hard (one of my selections), but had never heard any of their work. Beautiful melody and haunting singing with some hard-to-pinpoint extra spice. Have they ever been submitted for addition to our database?

The runners-up:

- Abigail Washburn/Wu Fei: the ultimate East-meets-West collaboration. Minimalism is beautiful, especially when such gorgeous voices and stunning instrumental skills are involved.

- Espers: a band (sadly disbanded) I was already familiar with. Lovely version of a haunting traditional folk song.

- Milladoiro: another lovely female voice and delicate yet memorable melody. The musicality of the Galician language (a minority European language closely related to Portuguese) is an added bonus.

1. Tunng - Woodcat

2. Stormy Six - Il Barbiere

3. Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn - The Roving Cowboy

MY MINI-REVIEWS

1) Woodcat is a folk melodic song, Nick Drake style, really nice and well done. Intimate song. I like it

2) You were there is a song that combines strings with electronic sounds creating a (Irish?) very evocative, mysterious new age atmosphere. Beautiful female voice. It could be used for active meditation. I really like this one too.

3) Estreliña Do Luceiro: another female voice and an evocative pastoral atmosphere, melodically very good, in Italy we would say Renaissance atmosphere thanks to the phrases of the flute. Simple song, which has its beauty in the melody of the flute.

4) IPA-Gubben: I've already talked about it separately. Strong contender to the podium

5) Nicu Alifantis also creates a good evocative atmosphere. The melody has a very good typical instrumental folk progression. The only flaw is the production: the voice is too prominent.

6) Banks of the Nile is a long song by the wonderful Sandy Denny, possibly the best voice in British folk. Slow song that progresses gradually. I love Sandy's voice, so I always find it difficult not to reward her, but this time the competition is fierce and the song itself, while good, doesn't excite me.

7) Solarfarence - Cold Blows the Wind: this, if I have done the math correctly, is the fourth song with a female voice in the British / Irish style, but here we are at the essential: voice, guitar, keyboard background. Compared to the other songs there is a more rhythmic phrasing on the guitar and the vocal interweaving between the male singer and the female singer, whose soprano voice is truly remarkable. Another song that I really like.

8) Vasmalom - Hejtok Lányok  And here comes the fifth folk song with a female performer (Scandinavian song?). This song is much more traditional, folkloric, than the others, if we want more genuine. The instrumental part is interesting. Very beautiful too!

Thank you very much to everyone who voted for Väsen so far

I just finished going through the nominations for a second time, but I am not yet ready to vote. It's not going to be easy, it's a very strong edition. Well done to everyone.