the performances have a dash and abandon that are genuinely convincing...The sense of occasion and spontaneity of a live recording is conveyed without artifice.

Is this early, folk or world music? All three...An exuberant and spontaneous creative energy is sustained throughout, while the presentation is lavish and scholarly.

Here are foot-tapping thrills, secular in spirit even when sacred, strummed by jolly strings, peppered with ethnic percussion, or streaked with the brightly burnished soprano of Montserrat Figueras. Lush documentation as usual with AliaVox, but the best prize of all is the music and musicians’ warmth and humanity.

The line between early and world music is blurred, the roots of Latin American jazz exposed...the diversity of instrumentation and voices (from Montserrat Figueras and Furio Zanasi to Leopoldo Novoa) lends depth and colour and the rhythms are infectious.