Oka Vanga
Album: Pilgrim
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.okavanga.com

When I first heard the name "Oka Vanga", I assumed that it was someone's name, and made an association in my head that they were likely to be a rap artist. I couldn't have been more wrong. Oka Vanga are a duo, Angela Meyer and William Cox, both of whom are exceptionally brilliant guitarists. Their songs are all instrumental, played on acoustic guitars. They are so in tune with eachother that the rhythm and lead swap back and forth bewteen them like a thread being woven into a complex tapestry.

The majority of the songs on their new album "Pilgrim" are their own compositions, apart from a couple of traditonal songs that they have adapted and a fantastic rendition of Mason Williams' "Classical gas". They have travelled the world and have blended the sights and sounds into their songs, so there are elements of the Carribean in the traditional "Bimini Gal", there are elements of Arabia in "Dromadari", and there is a beautiful blues feeling to "Night Train"."

After they had visited The Golden Hind, they realised that they had no seafaring songs in their repertoire so they added the Traditional "Cliffs Of Moher" and and "Out Of The Ocean", so there's a hornpipe influence here as well.

The most beautiful track on this album, in my opionion, is "Wildflower". It is a song written for their daughter, Daisy. I could listen to that track over and over again.

When he plays, Will looks pained. He suffers for every note: his guitar is an instrument of medieval torture and his audience are vampires, draining the notes from his soul.

When Angela plays, she seems to enter a state of bliss. She closes her eyes as if she has left this earthly realm and entered some higher Astral plane from where she channels beautiful music back to Earth.

Together, though, they make a beautiful sound.

Despite being instrumentals, the songs on Pilgrim are rich in colour and imagery. Each tells its own little story. So, close your eyes and drift off to that Astral plane and ride across the Arabian desert on the back of a dromedary - with me.

Pete Bradley