Qntal is coming to America to play 3 concerts, their only U.S. shows in 2007. Sorry to anyone on the West coast, but the concerts are limited to New York City and Philadelphia. The first two are on October 12th and 13th where Qntal will be a featured band at FaerieCon in Philadelphia. The medieval and fantasy themes of FaerieCon should be perfect for a band like Qntal. If you like Qntal’s music but could do without all of the fantasy nonsense, then you will prefer the New York City concert on October 15th. This is a more traditional concert which will be held during Nectromantic at the Knitting Factory which goes from 11 PM until 3. Tickets are $20 and you have to be at least 18 to get in.

Dancing Ferret Records has been a godsend to German musicians and their fans in America. They have released numerous talented bands like Eisbrecher, Subway To Sally, De/Vision, Qntal and Joachim Witt in the U.S. And they just keep going, more and faster. The Ferret’s latest venture into border-crossing is a re-release… actually 2 of them. Qntal’s first 2 albums were never officially released in America, but finally after more than 10 years, they will reach American shores.

The Qntal albums, called I and II, will be released on October 9th. They both feature Qntal’s beautiful combination of medieval tunes and instruments with some more modern influences, as well as a mixture of languages. You can find MP3 samples for both albums on Dancing Ferret’s mailorder site, Isotank.com (I here and II here). Go ahead and order them if you like the music, too, now that they won’t cost you a fortune to import.

Qntal - I tracklist
01. Un Vers De Dreyt Nien
02. Ad Mortem Festinamus
03. Anc Non Lo Vi
04. Por Mau Tens
05. Floris E Blanchaflor
06. Unter der Linden
07. Rossinhol
08. Non Sofre Santa Maria
09. Doussa Res
10. Jherusalem
11. Sanctus
12. Black Death

Qntal - II tracklist
01. Introitus
02. Palestinalied
03. Frühling
04. Hymni Nocturnales
05. Vos Attestor
06. Herbst
07. Abaelard
08. Virgo Splendens
09. Trobar Clus
10. Sine Nomine
11. Ab Vox d’Angel
12. Epilog

Estampie is releasing a retrospective of their best work from the past 20 years, simply called Best of Estampie 1986-2006. The CD was released today by the Dancing Ferret sub-label Noir Records and features 18 tracks of fantastic medieval music. Estampie’s style is closer to true medieval music than their sister band Qntal, but is equally as stunning. You can listen to samples from every song on the CD on Isotank.com.

The Best of Estampie tracklist
01. Disse mi
02. Chanterai por mon corage
03. Imperator rex Graecorum
04. Quantos me creveren
05. Palästinalied
06. Bluomenrot
07. Gol (Live-Aufnahme)
08. Estampie V
09. Voi ch´amate
10. Al jorn
11. A voi gente
12. Qui sunt hi - O antiqui sancti - Aer enim volat
13. O Fortuna
14. Fin amor
15. Reis glorios
16. Numquid Dari
17. Heu heu heu
18. Summerwunne

Omnia is a pretty new band to me. I only found out about them a few weeks ago, and now I hear that they are coming out with a new album called Alive soon. So even though they are from the Netherlands, Germany’s neighbor to the West, I thought I would tell you a little about them. Omnia consider their musical style to be “neo-celt”. Their songs are filled with melodies inspired from times gone by and drums that sound almost tribal. The music is filled with paganism and witchcraft themes. Omnia’s music is very creative and really brings you to another land if you listen long enough.

Omnia’s new album Alive will be released on October 7th on their own label, Pagan Scum, which is distributed by Rough Trade. You can listen to two of the CD’s 9 songs, “Alive” and “Wytches’ Brew”, on the band’s MySpace page. (There’s also an older song there, plus a song from their awesome electro-remix album Cybershaman.) If you like the album, you can buy the CD in Omnia’s webshop or order it from your favorite online music store.

The artwork inside was done by artist Alan Lee, who has illustrated numerous fantasy books including one version of Lord of the Rings. It seems like having well-known illustrators work on CD designs is becoming a popular trend, at least for some medieval and more ethnic musicians. Just last week, I wrote about Qntal’s album Silver Swan on which Brian Froud illustrated the artwork. I think these kinds of collaborations are great and really show off the talents of artists to new audiences.

Alive
01. Wytches’ Brew
02. The Raven
03. Alive!
04. Were you at the Rock?
05. Richard Parker’s Fancy
06. The Elven Lover
07. Satyrsex
08. Equinox
09. Fairy Tale

National Geographic is known around the world for educating people about our planet’s natural resources, history, and culture. About a year ago, they launched the world music part of their website, and Germany is one of the featured countries. On this interactive website, you can learn a bit about the history of Germany, their culture, and of course their music. Currently, there are seven German musicians that you learn about and listen to, in a variety of styles. Aziza A, the famous hip-hop and R&B singer has an article, as does the modern klezmer band Di Grine Kuzine. There’s even information about a German tango group, the Tango Five.

The National Geographic’s focus seems to be on more ethnic varieties of music, and that’s fine with me, but ideally I’d like to see more from Germany. (Take a look at South Africa or Congo, they have dozens of musicians listed) Hopefully in time, their database of world musicians will be built up with more variety. All of the musicians on their site, whether German or from any other country, are worth checking out, so take a look if you have a few minutes.