{"id":63972,"date":"2026-03-15T19:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T18:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=63972"},"modified":"2026-03-17T22:10:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:10:54","slug":"lham-de-foc-u-an-excellent-spanish-album-that-started-with-an-australian-didgeridoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/03\/15\/lham-de-foc-u-an-excellent-spanish-album-that-started-with-an-australian-didgeridoo\/","title":{"rendered":"L'Ham de Foc, 'U': an excellent Spanish album that started with an Australian didgeridoo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have been a fan of traditional music for many years, and I also enjoy listening to fusions of very different styles.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/05\/11\/los-caminos-de-serdekji-a-medieval-spanish-romance-preserved-by-sephardic-jews\/\">'Los caminos de Serdekji', a medieval Spanish romance preserved by Sephardic Jews<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/08\/07\/ana-alcaide-luna-sefardita-a-beautiful-song-about-a-sephardic-girl-from-toledo\/\">Ana Alcaide, 'Luna sefardita': a beautiful song about a Sephardic girl from Toledo<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><strong>In 1999 I bought one of the best albums I own in this genre. It was titled \"U\"<\/strong> (just that letter) and was the first album by the Valencian group <strong>L'Ham de Foc<\/strong>, formed a year earlier by Efr\u00e9n L\u00f3pez and Mara Aranda, which disbanded in 2007 after releasing three albums. <strong>\"U\" was the first album I bought in Valencian, and it had a fabulous but very atypical opening in Spain<\/strong>, as the first track played was a traditional Australian Aboriginal instrument: <strong>the didgeridoo<\/strong>, a wind instrument made of a long wooden tube estimated to be around 20,000 years old.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55148336227_7468294fda_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55148336227_680aa29c67_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">An Australian Aboriginal man playing a didgeridoo (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Didgeridoo_(Imagicity_1070).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Graham Crumb<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p><strong>That ancient Australian instrument was blended in \"El Nord\" (The North), the album's opening track, with the bagpipes and the hurdy-gurdy<\/strong>, two instruments very common in traditional Galician music. Following that first instrumental piece came <strong>\"Lluna d'Algeps\" (Plaster Moon)<\/strong>, a song in which Mara Aranda's fabulous voice gave voice to a woman waiting for her beloved at the port, the old Greek myth of Penelope, in this case the wife of a merchant. <strong>I'm Galician, but I often listen to this album<\/strong>, as well as traditional music in other languages.<\/p>\n<p>\"U\" was an excellent album and I encourage you to listen to it in its entirety if you have the chance. <strong>Here you can listen to the two opening tracks, \"El Nord\" and \"Lluna d'Algeps,\" back to back:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"El Nord + Lluna d&#039;Algeps\" width=\"665\" height=\"499\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7B66kY_cxe0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is <strong>the original lyrics of \"Lluna de algeps\" in Valencian:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Una lluna d'algeps<br \/>\npentina els seus cabells,<br \/>\nbatedor de peix<br \/>\nmentre navega al mar.<br \/>\nMercader de corones d'argent.<\/p>\n<p>Una lluna d'algeps<br \/>\ndansa amb lux\u00faria amb ell.<br \/>\nLi adorna el cinyell<br \/>\namb els cabells de serp.<br \/>\nA la nit l'estelada esdev\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>Jo t'espere ac\u00ed, asseguda al port<br \/>\ndes del que partires,<br \/>\nmentre en l'aigua desfulle lenta<br \/>\naquelles violetes.<br \/>\nJo t'espere ac\u00ed, asseguda al port<br \/>\ndes del que partires<br \/>\ni el Sol em duu les noves teues:<br \/>\nno vol que t'espere.<\/p>\n<p>Lluna despietada, t'amagues en el cel.<br \/>\nLa tempesta ve bramant des de l'Orient.<br \/>\nMercader, hu\u00ed tampoc t'abra\u00e7ar\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>Una lluna d'algeps diu<br \/>\nque no pot fer res.<br \/>\nD\u00e9u plorar ben alt,<br \/>\nmentre plou a la mar.<br \/>\nAmb l'al\u00e8...em far\u00e9 un bra\u00e7alet.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This is <strong>the translation of the lyrics into English:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>A plaster moon<br \/>\nCombs its hair,<br \/>\nWith the bones of a fish<br \/>\nAs it sails on the sea.<br \/>\nMerchant of silver crowns.<\/p>\n<p>A plaster moon<br \/>\nDances lustfully with him,<br \/>\nAdorning his belt<br \/>\nWith her hair of snakes,<br \/>\nWhile the stars come out.<\/p>\n<p>I wait for you here, sitting in the port<br \/>\nFrom which you departed,<br \/>\nWhile those violets slowly<br \/>\nlose their petals.<br \/>\nI wait for you here, sitting in the port<br \/>\nFrom which you departed,<br \/>\nAnd the sun brings me the news:<br \/>\nIt doesn't want me to wait for you.<\/p>\n<p>Merciless moon, you hide in the sky,<br \/>\nThe storm comes roaring from the East.<br \/>\nMerchant, I will not embrace you today either.<\/p>\n<p>A plaster moon says<br \/>\nIt can do nothing.<br \/>\nGod weeps on high<br \/>\nWhile it rains on the sea.<br \/>\nWith your breath...I will make myself a bracelet.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have been a fan of traditional music for many years, and I also enjoy listening to fusions of very different styles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11348],"tags":[26457,26455,1927,11862],"class_list":["post-63972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-didgeridoo","tag-lham-de-foc","tag-valencia","tag-valencian-community"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-15 14:10:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}