Caamaño&Ameixeiras is a duo whose name combines the surnames of its two members – Sabela Caamaño and Antía Ameixeiras.
Founded in 2018, the group is dedicated to the traditional music of Galicia in Spain. This focus stems in part from the personal histories of both musicians.
Sabela Caamaño grew up surrounded by traditional music. At the age of seven, she began learning the accordion, later complementing her practical experience with formal academic training. Although she has taken part in numerous musical projects over the years, she considers this duo to be her main and most personal artistic endeavour.
Antía Ameixeiras first encountered traditional folk music as a young child in her hometown of Baio, a small community on the Costa da Morte. It was there that she learned to dance and play the pandeireta, the Galician frame drum. At the same time, she began studying the violin, eventually pursuing higher education in traditional rather than classical performance.
Together, the artists bring tradition into dialogue with their own original music. As they explain, every stage of the creative process is collaborative: they develop each composition and arrangement together, discussing every note and every chord in search of a distinctive artistic language.
They also pay close attention to the themes explored in their work. While preparing their debut album, they drew on archival recordings from the 1950s and 1960s and looked to the legacy of legendary local musicians to recreate the spirit of Galician dance music. For their second album, they immersed themselves in ancient rituals and folk beliefs, seeking to understand them more deeply. They visited the Museum of the Galician People in Santiago de Compostela and worked with anthropologist Rafa Quintía, who introduced them to Galicia’s traditional healing rituals.
Through him, they met women believed to possess a special gift – the ability to remove the so-called “air of the dead”. According to a long-standing local belief, the dead may bring pain and illness upon the living. Traditional healers therefore seek to identify the source and location of an affliction before removing it through rituals such as burning specific herbs while reciting ritual formulas. The process is believed to transform the harmful “air of the dead” into the “air of the living”. This tradition, together with many other Galician beliefs and rituals, inspired the nine pieces featured on the duo’s latest album.
Sabela Caamaño plays the accordion, while Antía Ameixeiras performs on the violin and provides vocals.
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Instagram: caamano_ameixeiras
