Release

• Fusion

  Non-classical music that combines different styles, originally jazz and rock, but now almost any blend of contrasting musical traditions from around the world that merge to form something new
• Afro Celt Sound System


  • Formed in 1995
  • Second album 'Volume 2: Release' appeared in 1999
  • Title track 'Release' is the first song on the album
• Origins of Afro Celt Sound System's style


  • Afro - sounds of West African music
  • Celt - sounds of Irish traditional music
  • Sound System - sounds and techniques of modern electronic dance music
• West African music represented in 'Release'


  • Kora (a type of harp)
  • Djembe (a goblet-shaped drum)
  • Talking drum
• Irish traditional music represented in 'Release'


  • Uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes)
  • Fiddle (folk musician's name for a violin)
  • Accordion
  • Low whistle
  • Bodhrán (a hand-held drum)
  • Hurdy-gurdy
• Modern electronic dance music represented in 'Release'

  • Male and female vocals
  • Synthesiser and samples
  • Electric piano, drum machine
  • Shaker and tambourine
  • Various digital effects
• Maninka


  One of the languages of Guinea
• Sinéad O'Conner


  Famous Irish singer-songwriter who wrote the lyrics of 'Release'
• Lare Bead

  Male vocalist for verse 2, singing in Irish
• Metre, tempo and rhythm in 'Release'

  1. Opening section in free time

  2. Moderately fast tempo in time from where the loops start

  3. Rhythm slightly swung

  4. Rhythms in vocal melodies include syncopation

  5. Instrumental solos and some loops feature strings of rapid short notes

  6. Triplets in low whistle solo and fiddle loops

  7. Repeating loops create effect of ostinatos or riffs
• Tonality and harmony in 'Release'


  • Modal tonality, anchored to C by drones and repeating patterns based on C minor chord
  • Slow harmonic pace, mainly diatonic
• Texture in 'Release'


  • Mainly homophonic, with layered accompaniment from 28 loops
• Structure of 'Release'


  1. Based on three verses, preceded by intro and concluded by outro

  2. Instrumental sections described as 'solos' and 'drum break'

  3. Constructed from loops, built up in layers

  4. Sections consist of mainly eight-bar phrases
• The figure 4 above the final rest in loops 13, 17, 24, 26 and 28 indicates that the rest lasts for four-bars
• Melody in 'Release'

  • Mainly modal (Aeolian mode on C)
  • Verse 1 just uses 5 pitches of pentatonic minor scale
  • Repetitive, with many similar two-bar phrases falling from G to C
  • Introductory vocal solo closely based on falling melody of verse 1
  • Male voice in verse 2 rises to top C, has wider range
  • Vocal line has mainly conjunct movement with occasional small 3rd skips
  • Mostly syllabic, some parts spoken (whispered)
  • Female vocal has narrow range and low tessitura, some parts sampled
  • Instrumental solos more wide-ranging in pitch, include some disjunct movement but emphasise G and C as main notes of mode
• A pad is a sustained synthesiser sound, often resembling strings, organ or voices
• 'Vox' in loop 19 is Latin for voice, so 'male vox' means male vocalist
• The word "pickup' in some of the loops shows where the loop starts - it indicates that the loop begins with an anacrusis