The Meeting Pool is an album by Baka Beyond, released in 1995.[2][3] It was a collaboration between British musicians and the Cameroonian Baka.[4] Martin Cradick, the founder and guitar player for the group, decided to make a second album after the success of the first, Spirit of the Forest.[5]
The album sold more than 50,000 copies in its first year of release.[6] Cradick set up a foundation to distribute royalties to the Baka people, for the songs that were considered traditional.[7]
Production
The album is based on field recordings made in Cameroon in 1994, with Baka percussionists and vocalists; Cradick then took the recordings to the studio.[8][9] Cradick used more Celtic musical styles, compared to the first album.[10]
The Toronto Star determined that the attempt "to merge gentle Celtic themes and original music of the Baka people of Cameroon's forests ... just doesn't work."[13]The Santa Fe New Mexican stated: "Occasional Irish overtones emerge from this strange brew; the overall feeling is one of a pulsing dreaminess, grounded by a happy percussive underbeat given heart by recurring female vocal tonings."[14]Music & Media called The Meeting Pool "a lush, complex and richly rewarding album," noting the "beautiful melodies and haunting rhythms."[15]
AllMusic wrote that "Meeting Pool has moments of real piquancy, as on 'Ohureo', a traditional from the Western Isles of Scotland... This macabre lullaby, dressed up with African drums and [Paddy] LeMercier's fiddle commentary, is achingly entrancing."[11]World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East deemed the album "a truly inspired cultural mish mash that defies categorisation."[16]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
