★★★★ When we talk about Celtic music, beyond the particularities of each region, we know that we are referring to one of the expressions of peoples that cover places as different as Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Brittany, Galicia, Asturias, the west in the United States and elsewhere in Western Europe. But also, due to genetic inheritance, curiosity and cultural admiration or the mere desire to open up to other languages, there are derivations of this music in many other parts of the world. And in Argentina, where there have also been abundant immigrations from these peoples, it has always been highly regarded and has received highly meritorious representations over time.
In this sense, the Buenos Aires native Santiago Molina -a native of Claypole and with Galician blood- is a highly commendable representation. But as it happens in these times, his interest in those scales, those sounds and those so old and characteristic timbres -so much so that even a non-specialist can recognize them- coexist in good harmony with music born in our country with other sound heritages, such as that. that the cultural industry once called “Argentine folklore”.
Molina plays Galician bagpipes and a series of flutes; whistles of different tunings, among them. He has just released an album –“Desde un nuevo lugar”- that includes traditional songs from Galicia and Great Britain, his own compositions built with that language and adaptations “a la celta” of very Creole pieces such as “Zamba del laurel” by Cuchi Leguizamón , “Caminito en llamas” by Uña Ramos/ León Gieco or “Luna tucumana” –in our opinion, the best achieved of all those arrangements- by Atahualpa Yupanqui.
He surrounds himself centrally with three other musicians to make up the basic quartet: Nicolás Sokolic on criolla guitar, Samuel Izcaray on bass and Santiago Liñares on the Peruvian cajón. But throughout a Sunday concert with a large audience, with a repertoire that covered almost the entire album and added some other pieces, a lot of guests came by who added timbres and shifts towards other genres: bassist Marcelo Torres for an excellent version of duo of “Xestoso”, the trumpeter Ramiro Especht, the Irish bouzouki player –a kind of mandolin- Nicolás Pérez, the bombisto Diego Cuellar, the Scottish bagpipe player Freddy Santana McKinlay and the singer Ceci Méndez.
