My small tour ends with the final concert in the capital and for this occasion I have invited many fellow musicians to play with me, too. The percussionists that I had for the recording couldn’t make it for the concert but they suggested that I contact Mr. Riho Ridbeck from the legendary Hortus Musicus. He agreed and we had a rehearsal already and I like his playing very much! As I said before – the limit between a solo guitar concert or album and a chamber ensemble sound is a very thin and my intention is still to have a solo guitar thing. So I expect the drummers to be polite 🙂

The other change was that although my initial inspiration for the Asturias was Guillem Alonso, the step-dancer from Spain, I had to take somebody else for that occasion and since we have nobody similar around, I had to work with flamenco dancers again. I invited Maria Rääk from Amargo and she created an original choreography for this piece. It seems that I’ve  made many new friends while working on my Dance Album!

Also I have Jorma Puusaag on the second guitar (the Danza Brasileira!), Anne Anderson on castagnets and hand clapping (the Spanish pieces) and Ardo Västrik on violoncello (the Estonian folkdance!). I even took up the lute for this concert. I have not played it for a while but it makes sense to play Dowland with it.

After the concert – everything went very well! There was enough people in the hall and they seemed to enjoy the program and the idea behind it. I had many friends and students among the audience since it was the official presentation of The Dance Album. Here are some pictures that Pelle, the artist of my CD, took.

So, The Dance Album is now officially released and the big work is done for now! It is time to thank all the people who contributed and there are surprisingly many of them:

Viljar Kuusk – my luthier, I play his guitar from 2003 on this CD
Aili Jõeleht – Sound engineer
Marika Scheer – Digital editor
Mirje Mändla – Producer
Pelle Kalmo and Mari-Liis Laanemaa – Design and photos
New Apostolic Church of Keila – recorded from 4th to 6th September 2007
Robert Staak – percussion, advice on the early music pieces
Maria Staak – percussion
Anne Anderson – castagnets, handclapping
Maria Rääk – live dance and choreography
Riho Ridbeck – percussion
Jorma Puusaag – percussion on the guitar

Published by: Kitarrikool Records 2008