Folkstone – ‘Restano i Frammenti’ (DVD 2012)
Rating: 10/10
Release: 20 December 2012
Label: Folkstone Productions
Some bands like to do it all. Folkstone has made four albums one of them is an acoustic album. They have over 15.000 fans on facebook. Their popularity in Italy is huge. What’s missing… a DVD.
Making a DVD nowadays isn’t that hard and we see a lot of DVD’s which are nice, but simply a registration of a concert. But not Folkstone, oh no.
The thick package is called a fan package, but this could also be a fun package, because fun it is.
When unfold this cover we see a DVD, but an extra DVD and an MP3 cd as well!!! NICE!
Playing the DVD we get a simple but nice menu with two choices. The full concert or track-choice.
When you choose the full concert you get a nice intro starting in black and white where we see the folkstone members preparing for the concert. The concert itself starts with the nice citernintro of Il Confine by Maurizio. The sounds of this citern if fabulous. This delicate instrument sounds like it should. Light, clear, tinkling, but then the rest starts and yes, the sound of the citern stays this good. Anyone who read one of other reviews knows I like authentic instruments a lot and I’m a sucker for bagpipes. And they blow me away, Folkstone uses all kinds of ethnic instruments and in a perfect way. There are no less then nine musicians ons stage, four of them playing harp, bagpipe, citern, flute or hurdy-gurdy all the time. And all this is played and recorded in such a way everything can be heard clearly. A true feast for my ears!
All songs have a lot of bagpipes, which makes their sound very nice. When you hate bagpipes, don’t even try listening to this. You’ll have to start at a whole other level. Just like olives, when you’re not too fond of them, don’t throw them all over your pizza. But as I said I like bagpipes and as a mather of fact I like olives too. And folkstone is probably the band which uses bagpipes the best. The German band In Extremo does this also very nice, but Folkstone takes this even one step further! A song like Aufstand! is in a outstanding track with a lot of bagpipes.
Even in Anime Damnate and Terra Santa which are songs which much more heavy rock and metal-influences the citern and harp can be heard clearly.
And when you want to chase you bagpipe-hating neighbour out of his house, play Anomalus at maximum volume! Success guaranteed! Beautiful track with no less then FOUR bagpipes, what a sound, superb.
In Un Altra Volta Ancora we get the lovely Roberta at the microphone, with a lot of pleasure she shouts this drinking song at us. I’ve never enjoyed a song by somebody who can’t sing more. I don’t know any Italian but I can’t keep myself from shouting along. Add some very driving bagpipes to this and you have a big party! I’ve never enjoyed a song by someone who can’t sing more..
And when you don’t have enough already the band has some nice medieval tracks like Sgangogatt for you. Dripping with bagpipes and percussion, you simply can’t sit still with these kind of songs.
After this time to shout along for the audience with Briganti Di Montagna with again four bagpipes, what a treat. And after this they show they can do it a lot softer and slower, time to grab you loved one and dream away with Luna.
You just can’t mention them all on this DVD because there are 27 songs on it, so don’t only get good songs, you also get a lot of them. And all this with multiple camera’s and a very good sound.
The extra DVD is for die-hard fans and especially the Italian speaking ones. It contains a large amount of footage. Video’s of trips, special pictures of for instance their logo three clips of folkstone songs and a lot more. Not very interesting if you don’t speak Italian. But what the… it’s a bonus.
And then the third one in this case. It’s a medicine. After staying at home for a couple of days, because I couldn’t get my self to stop the DVD player, I discovered the third disk contained the same concert in MP3’s. After this I could get back to work and do all kinds of ‘necessary’ stuff listening to this beautiful Folkstone concert.
In short: Beautiful DVD, a true masterpiece of Folkstone. If you like bagpipes you should have this. I won’t give you the advise to buy ‘Restano I Frammenti’, oh no, I order you to buy it!
‘Restano I Frammenti’ is bagpipes, beautiful, fun, medieval, great sound and addictive. Folkstone couldn’t have made a better one!
Someband want it all! Folkstone has it all!!!
Tracklist DVD and MP3 CD
- Il Confine
- Grige Maree
- Aufstand!
- Non Sarò Mai
- Alza il Corno
- Lo Stendardo
- Anime Dannate
- Terra Santa
- Respiro Avido
- Anomalus
- Ombre di Silenzio
- Nebbie
- FolkStone
- Frerì
- Un’Altra Volta Ancora
- Frammenti
- Sgangogatt
- Briganti di Montagna
- Luna
- Omnia Fert Aetas
- Simone Pianetti
- Nell’Alto Cadrò
- In Taberna (In Vino Veritas)
- Rocce Nere
- Longobardia
- Vortici Scuri
- Con Passo Pesante