IBERIA

Mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital announces his EP Iberia, which presents an exploration of the varied musical history of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the second of 3 diversely themed EP’s released prior to the full album Song of the Birds.

Avital leads a new ensemble ‘Between Worlds’ that challenges the boundaries between classical and folk music. Each individual project with the Between Worlds Ensemble within the overall album project is dedicated to a different geographical region — the Iberian Peninsula, the south of Italy and the Black Sea — and paints a rich musical portrait of that region in bright colours and detailed nuances.

Classical composers from each region are played side by side with traditional music that often inspired their work, performed together with a rotating cast of renowned folk vocalists and instrumentalists as guest artists.  

Listen to the gentle pre-release track El Cant dels Ocells, a Catalan folk song that has come to embody a universal desire for peace and hope. The EP Iberia will be released digitally on 27 June. The full album Song of the Birds will be released digitally and on CD on 8 August.