I don’t think it’s really one for the purists. If you’re a real flamenco nut, then this maybe wouldn’t be the choice. I don’t know too much about the story of it. Sometimes it’s better that way. If you don’t know too much about a record, it exists in your imagination, at least partially. 

It has some beautiful, subtle bits of orchestration on it, and [Dolores Montoya Rodríguez’s] voice is just out of this world. One second, she sounds like a little boy, the next second she sounds like an old woman. It’s this completely timeless, ageless, shape-shifting voice, like some kind of spirit or something. It’s not quite human. 

Lole y Manuel are Spanish-Romani, and I found out recently that I have Romani heritage, so that’s added a dimension to it. It wasn’t an oral culture, and there aren’t a lot of histories written, or a lot of texts you can look back at. So another way of connecting with it is to listen to the music. There’s so much great music from that culture.