Farmers Market - Musikk fra Hybridene (1997)

«The band Farmers Market was formed in Trondheim during the fall of 1991. All members where students of the Jazz Department at the Conservatory of Trondheim. At first Farmers Market started out as a free-jazz quintet, but soon found itself heading in a completely different direction; towards Bulgarian folk-music. Since then, this Bulgarian music, with its odd meters, oriental scales and improvisational possibilities, has become one of the main musical ingredients of Farmers Market.

The music of Farmers Market is a mixture of Bulgarian folk music, jazz standards, popular music and humor. Farmers Market has become one of Norway's most popular live bands, playing at all kinds of venues and festivals: jazz, folk and rock. Farmers Market released their first CD, "Speed/Balkan/Boogie", in February 1995. This was a live recording from Molde International Jazzfestival 1994. The CD features 4 guests from Bulgaria; two singers from the women's choir "Lés mystére dés Voix Bulgares" (now known as "Angelite"), and two folk musicians.

The first Farmers Market saxophonist, Håvard Lund, left the band during fall of 1995 and the band had to look to Bulgaria to get a replacement. Through friends they got in touch with Trifon Trifonov. After an audition over the telephone (..!) he joined the band December 1995.

In 1997, Farmers Market released its second album with saxophonist Trifon Trifonov from Bulgaria. This was an extreme album with elements of many different styles and ideas from bluegrass in odd meters, to Metallica-like versions of traditional Balkan tunes, and slick commercial music mixed with Stockhausen! The album got very good reviews from many contemporary music magazines as well as rock, folk and jazz magazines in Europe. This album made a certain Mr. Mike Patton loose his breakfast and initiate a spam fest towards the band members the result of which might end up in a cd-shop near you. More on this at a later stage...» (Read more)

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Los Guruses - Menos Pregunta Dios Y Perdona (1996)

Argentinian rock band Los Guruses kindly offers their 1996 album. Thanx, guys!

«Hace muchísimos años, en una diminuta aldea de la lejana provincia de Santa Fe, llamada Casilda por sus habitantes y por otras personas, la Mala Suerte de la Música se anotó un garbanzo, tras lo cual sonrió malignamente, como es su costumbre. Unió a un grupo de individuos de dudosa calaña, comportamiento vagamente anormal y facultades mentales un poco argentinas y bastante rocanrroleras, y puso instrumentos musicales en sus manos. Luego les dio una palmadita en el trasero, y les dijo: “Vayan..., joroben”. Creo que corría la primavera del año 1993, después de Cristo. Los individuos se miraron y se encogieron de hombros, como los Superamigos después de la lobotomía. Estos individuos tenían nombres (Gastón Honczaruk, Alberto Castello, Leandro Meneghello, Alejandro Malfassi), pero la palabra con la que cada uno de ellos se autodenominaba (Waino, Beto, Perro, Cacha) tampoco eran los apelativos con los que los ancianos de la aldea los habían bautizado, actitud propia de maleantes. [...]

Y así los conocían los demás por separado. Si los ponían uno al lado del otro, como pasó por primera vez en el verano del '94, la gente señalaba a la formación y decía: “Ah, LOS GURUSES”, pero no se imaginaban por qué les decían así. No importa, porque así se presentaron en una ocasión a cierto concurso organizado por una radioemisora que emitía su programación en frecuencia modulada estereofónica, conocida en la Gran Ciudad de Rosario y aldeas satélites como FM T.L.105.5 de su dial. ¿Para qué?.¿Un concurso de qué? No está muy claro, pero la cosa era entre muchísimas agrupaciones como LOS GURUSES y ellos mismos. Y ganaron ellos mismos. Les regalaron como premio (creo) cincuenta horas de grabación de ruidos varios, que ellos hicieron con los instrumentos que la Mala Suerte de la Música había puesto en sus manos, hasta que el premio se agotó y tuvieron que salir a robar o a mendigar o a prostituirse para poder seguir registrando esos ruidos en los Estudios Godzila de la misma Gran Ciudad, en complicidad con otros como ellos mismos. [...]

La banda pagó las deudas de la grabación del disco con giras por la provincia, y encaró la producción del clip junto a una re-masterización para difundir su trabajo. ¿Qué más se puede decir? Lo ignoro redondamente, ya que redondo es el CD que la Mala Suerte de la Música hoy ha puesto en su mano. Que lo disfrute con salud.»

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African Jazz Pioneers - The Best Of (2002)

«The background of the African Jazz Pioneers stretches back to the 1950’s, when jazz was the fashion and big bands were the name of the game.
The late Ntemi Edmund Piliso, leader and founding member of AJP, nourished the group from their humble roots to their current international acclaim.

In the early 1950’s Bra Ntemi and his Alexandra All Star band hit the cutting edge of South Africa’s music scene, blending American big band sound with traditional Majuba tempo’s and Marabi influences. The African Jazz Pioneers enjoyed enormous success and had a huge following in those days. Sadly, all this came to an end in the late sixties with the demolition of Sophiatown, when big bands went out of fashion.

However, in June 1981, Bra Ntemi decided it was high time to re-unite the band and get them back on stage. African Jazz Pioneers were back on the road, their first performance was at a church in Alexandra. Despite the pass laws, discriminatory practices and censorship, African Jazz Pioneers survived apartheid and evolved their music.

International fame came soon after their first overseas tour as part of the Casa conference in Amsterdam in 1987. After the easing of the boycott in 1990, the African Jazz Pioneers were among the first to travel all over the world and perform at festivals throughout Europe. During these years they shared the stage with the likes of Youssou N’Dour, Quincey Jones, Gilberto Gil, Nina Simone and Chick Corea, to name but a few. Their music has been released in more countries than can be named here.

Since that first performance in Alexandra, African Jazz Pioneers have evolved to a point where their invigorating concerts have become famous at venues throughout the country and neighbouring states. The band reaches everyone, from high society to liberation movements and political rallies, including the honour of performing several times for out country’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela.

The driving force behind the Pioneers has always been Bra Ntemi. Musicians have come and gone, but he was always at the core of the band, ensuring the continuance of its unique township jazz sound. But even he found it difficult to categorise the Pioneers’ music. It derives from Marabi and evolved to include the instrumental sound of the big swing bands of Duke Ellington, and Count Basie. Since the band’s early days, Bra Ntemi has changed from one structure to another without giving up anything along the way.

Just over fifty years ago the young Ntemi settled for the saxophone, after his cherished trombone got stolen. The saxophone soon became his trademark and he was one of the country’s best and most enduring saxophonists, fact for which he was honoured by Minister Ben Ngubane in August 2000, during a ceremony at Morelete park, Mamelodi. Bra Ntemi passed away on 18 December 2000.

The African Jazz Pioneers are honouring their promise to Bra Ntemi to keep the music going. The Ikageng Jazz Festival, established in 2001, has been named ‘The Night of the Pioneers’ and AJP closes each edition as top of the bill. […]

There are few bands in South Africa – and, indeed the world – that do the big band sound more infectiously and with more accomplishment and just plain love for the genre than the African Jazz Pioneers. There is profound feeling in their music, as well as humour too. Like Sip ‘n’ Fly, an ode to African tactics for sneaking booze past the police pass patrols. With their wonderful happy music that celebrates life, the African Jazz Pioneers will make your head spin with joy.» (Jam Ally)

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The Countries in the Southwestern Sea (from the Kuang Yü T'u or The Mongol Atlas)

«The culmination of indigenous Chinese cartography is found in the contributions of Chu Ssu-Pen and his successors who, beginning in the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1260 -1368), established a mapping tradition that provided the basis of China's cartographic knowledge which was not seriously challenged until the early 19th century. The Mongol conquests, besides promoting the unification of Asia and extending its sphere of influence as far as the boundaries of Europe, also combined growing commercial and intellectual contacts with Persians and Arabs to bring to China a wave of fresh information about the countries beyond its borders. Taking advantage of this explosion of knowledge, Chu Ssu-Pen (1273-1337) built upon a scientific cartographic heritage that extended back to P'ei Hsiu (Chin Dynasty, 3rd century A.D.) and the astronomer Chang Hêng (a contemporary of Ptolemy). Chu synthesized and collated the work of his predecessors with new knowledge acquired through both personal travel and the increased contact with the West to produce, between 1311 and 1320, a large roll-map of China and the surrounding regions. […]

Apart from the general map of China, there were sixteen sheets of the various provinces, sixteen of the border regions, three of the Yellow River, three of the Grand Canal, two of sea routes, and four sheets devoted to Korea, Annam, Mongolia and Central Asia. […]In spite of Chu Ssu-Pen's caution about far-distant regions, it is remarkable that, as Walter Fuchs has pointed out, Chu and his contemporaries had already recognized the triangular shape of Africa. Among the map sheets of Lo Hung-hsien's atlas, one is entitled The Countries in the South-western Sea which covers a considerable portion of the Indian Ocean and a large part of Africa. In European and Arabic maps of the 14th century the tip of Africa is always represented as pointing eastwards, and this is not corrected until the middle of the 15th century; the atlas revised by Lo Hung-hsien, however, has it pointing south, and other evidence shows that Chu Ssu-Pen must have drawn Africa in this way as early as 1315. Furthermore, in the interior of the continent, two rivers are shown flowing north, one emptying into a large body of water and the other leading further north but terminated by the margin of the map. The name of the latter river was rendered as Ha-na-i-ssu-chin, which is a possible corruption of the Arabic words Al-Nil-Azrak , meaning the Blue Nile. The island off the east coast is called San-pa Nu, apparently designating the source of the Zanzibar Slaves. On the upper left corner of the map, the coastline turns sharply westward, suggesting the orientation of what appears to be the Guinea coast. Between the west coast and the inland water body, one sees an area named Sang-ku, a Chinese transliteration of the Arabic term Zangue, or the Black People, hence the Congo. Below the inland water area and to the southwest of the river discharging into the lake is a name pronounced as Che-pu-lu-ma. The first three syllables combined are recognizable as a corruption of the Arabic word djebel, meaning "mountains". An obvious conjecture is that it is an elevated area which the Arabs called the Ma Mountains, corresponding closely to the titled plateau of the Drakensberg, and evidenced by a later map produced in 1402 by the Ming cartographer named Ch'üan Chin. […]On the upper right-hand corner of the map, one sees the southern portion of Asia, gridded by vertical and horizontal lines and bulging out toward Sumatra, the largest island on the map, with Java next on the right. Near the edge of the continent are marked Such places as Chan-ch'eng [Champa or Vietnam], Mien-tien [Burma], Hsien-lo [Thailand] and Meng-to [the Tenasserim Coast]. Areas covered by a wave pattern are ocean waters stretching from the South China Sea in the lower right to Africa on the upper left and doned with a score of island names. The empty portions in the lower left and at the bottom of the map naturally suggest areas totally unknown. […]» (Read the full monograph)

Geoffrey Oryema - Beat the Border (1993)

«There's a quiet, contemplative side to African music, and it is from this lineage that Geoffrey Oryema's music emerges. Although his musical roots lie in Uganda, his work has been inspired by a myriad of influences, including those from other regions of Africa, a complete understanding of Western pop music and the need to define his own unique musical identity. Singing in both English and Acholi, Geoffrey possesses a silky-smooth, sumptuous voice that can flow from lower to upper registers like water. His songs range from moody ballads to tender soul musings - an orchestral mix of organic and electronic music. […]

Geoffrey's music is as affecting as his personal history. Growing up in war-torn Uganda during the height of Idi Amin's Reign of Terror, Geoffrey was the son of a governmental minister. Every night as a child in Kampala, Geoffrey would sit by his father's side and listen to him playing the nanga, a seven-string harp. He was lucky enough to grow up absorbing both the folk music of his culture through traditional routes and Western techniques through his schooling. However his family's position in Uganda's ruling class proved disastrous. In February 1977, at the age of twenty-four, Geoffrey's father was secretly assassinated and Geoffrey was forced to spend hours in the trunk of a car until he crossed the border safely into Kenya. Today, exiled in France, Oryema has emerged as the one of the most respected songwriters in Paris. […]

Geoffrey's sophomore release, Beat The Border, surrounds Oryema's soothing vocals with a spacious and virginal bed of synthesized and acoustic sounds. It was with Beat The Border that Geoffrey became one of the first world musicians to crossover into mainstream markets.» (RealworldUSA, read more)

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Sunset

The Rough Guide to Central America (2001)

«This is the first comprehensive single-disc collection of the various popular and folk styles from the Central American region of the world. Included on this album's 17 selections are representative tunes of the styles of Guatemala (marimba), Belize (brukdown), Nicaragua (trova), Honduras (punta), and countless variations incorporating reggae, salsa, son, cumbia, and local styles. The performers are well-known in the region, and especially in their native countries, so this is not a collection of field recordings. Nowhere is this more evident than in the album's opener by Belize's Andy Palacio; "Nagúara," from his album Keimon, is a solid blend of infectious pop with a traditional rhythm (garifuna). He makes a second appearance with "Lasmiselu," and it too is irresistible in its pop appeal and killer rhythmic invention. Also present is the truly wonderful Guadalupe Urbina with "Agosto Azul," from Costa Rica, a sublime blend of poetry and music. The crossbreeding, the miscegenation here, is almost unbelievable for its invention of new styles from old. Take Philip Montalvan's "Bilwi Luhpia Mairin," which is a seamless fusion of reggae and folk music from Nicaragua's indigenous Miskito tribe. But there are folk elements too, from Mr. Peters & His Boom & Chime, with his virtuoso accordion playing fronting a band playing brukdown, a form of black Creole music from Belize, or Guatemalan musician Jursino Cayetano's paranda, which uses garifuna drums, acoustic guitar, and Latin and Spanish rhythms in a folk song. There are also tracks here from Panama, El Salvador, and other nations. Whatever your taste is, it is at least reflected here. But for most listeners, this music will be a revelation, a stunning wake-up call that, even in the widespread marketplace ghetto called "world music," there is much that is within easy distance of our ears, yet never heard on these shores. Thank goodness for the Rough Guides and others like them. This isn't just good music, it is essential music for everyone interested in the world around them. A fantastic collection.» (AMG)

Dedicated to Andy Palacio

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Louise Attaque - Louise Attaque (1997)

Elle est parisienne, elle est pas presentable
Elle est pas jolie,
elle est pas moche non plus
Elle est pas a gauche, elle est pas a droite… (Louise Attaque, Léa)

«French folk-rock quartet Louise Attaque emerged as one of the most successful new acts of their generation via their award-winning 1997 debut LP. Singer/guitarist Gaëtan Roussel and bassist Robin Feix first met as school children, bonding over their common obsession with popular music. While studying in Paris, they formed the group Caravage, enlisting drummer Alexandre Margraff to play the local nightclub circuit. An extended acoustic tour followed, and upon returning to Paris the trio added violinist Arnaud Samuel, whose string accompaniment heralded their embrace of richer, more folk-inspired melodic textures. After adopting the name Louise Attaque, the new lineup recorded its first demo tape and returned to touring. Following a breakthrough appearance at the Printemps de Bourges festival, they signed to the Atmosphériques label and traveled to Brussels to begin work on their debut, produced by Gordon Gano of American college rock legends Violent Femmes. Issued in April 1997, Louise Attaque's self-titled album slowly but surely proved a grassroots success, ultimately selling more than 2.5 million copies in spite of limited marketing. » (AMG, read more…)

French Bio here

Official site: http://www.louiseattaque.com/

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The Indestructible Beat of Soweto Vol. 1 (1985)

«This has to be one of the seminal series of recordings of what has come to be called "world music." When Trevor Herman collected and released these albums of South African township music from the 1980's on his Earthworks label, it pretty much created the genre with music that demanded a bin of its own in the record store. Here was a rock solid collection of folk, jive and groove that told the world what South Africa already knew, that this music could absolutely rock you to your bones. It introduced us to Mahlathini, the voice of mbaqanga. His groaning style, an outgrowth of a gimmicky style developed by studio producers in the 70s, became a respected and important sound, and with the Magaona Tshole Band and the Mahotella Queens, he became one of South Africa's most unique artists.

It was our first taste of the Zulu neo-traditional style of acoustic guitars, bass and drums, often with fiddle or accordion, brought to life here by the amazing Moses Mchunu, whose "Qhwayilahle" is still one of my all time favorite recorded works with its grinding fiddle (reminiscent of a good Holy Modal Rounders set) and thumping bass line.

The driving bass, drum and accordion sound of Nganezlyamfisa No Khambalomvaleliso was a revelation. And it was the proving ground for the classic vocal sound made famous by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, whose mix of traditional choral music and a touch of American gospel laid the foundation for Graceland a few years later. The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto is world unto itself, still one of my most frequently visited recordings, both at home and on my radio program. It sings of a time of political unrest and cultural hope. It is one of the few compilations I would ever call "perfect."» (Cliff Furnald, Rootsworld)

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King Sunny Ade and His African Beats - Juju Music (1982)

«Nigeria's King Sunny Adé and his 20-piece African Beats hypnotize audiences with juju --deeply layered, percussive groove music. Juju started in the '20s as local bar music and developed over the years absorbing new technologies and influences. In the '50s, amplification made it possible to combine acoustic elements, such as guitar melodies and solo singing from the older palm wine music, with full-force ensemble Yoruba drumming to create the rich, dense sound of modern juju. The top ambassador of juju, King Sunny Adé sparked an international Afropop invasion with his sensational tours in the early 1980s. KSA, as Nigerians know him, was just 17 when he eluded the expectations of his courtly family to pursue music playing in Lagos highlife bands. Soon, he latched on to the juju craze, forming his first band the Green Spots in '67. The group emulated the style of juju elder statesman I.K. Dairo and his Blue Spots, but by the time KSA launched the African Beats in '74, he had overshadowed Dairo and gone head-to-head with Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey.

Adé, with his percussive "synchro system," and Ebenezer, with his melodious "miliki" system, drove juju music to unprecedented heights as they competed to update the sound. Ebenezer introduced the three-guitar lineup and the trap drums; KSA overlaid a pedal steel guitar, and later synthesizers. But juju's core rested in percussion topped by eloquent talking drums, and in harmonized call-and-response vocals mixing Yoruba proverbs and Christian themes. Adé has a gentle, silky voice and diving, birdlike dance moves, which his four backup singers follow as part of the group's masterful stage choreography. With a tilt of his guitar, Adé damps his musicians down to a tap and a whisper, only to have them surge on cue with a rally of drums, shakers, bells and tangling guitars.
Returning to the USA in 2000, Adé recalled the legendary 1982 tour when he first introduced his expansive music to large American audiences. "Then I was a stranger," he said, "but now it's like we are all part of a family." […]
Born Sunday Adéniyi, the son of a Methodist minister, Adé left the religious path to pursue a musical career early on…» (Afropop, read more)

«After nearly 15 years as Nigeria's biggest musical draw and juju music's reigning monarch, King Sunny Ade went global in 1982 with a brief but fertile stint on the Mango label. The three albums that resulted – Juju Music, Synchro System, and Aura – gave Ade unprecedented exposure on the Western market and introduced a slew of music lovers to the sounds of Afro-pop. Juju Music was the first of Ade's Mango titles and remains the best of the lot. Over the course of seven extended cuts, King Sunny Ade & His African Beats lay down their trademark mix of talking drum-driven grooves, multi-guitar weaves, lilting vocal harmonies, and pedal steel accents; for this major-label debut, the band also chucks in some tasteful synthesizer bits and a few reggae-dub flourishes. Besides classic juju pop like "Ja Funmi" and "Ma Jaiye Oni," Ade and his 20-piece entourage serve up percussion breakdowns like "Sunny Ti de Ariya" and a heady blend of soul, dub, and synth noodlings on "365 Is My Number/The Message." Throughout, Ade deftly inserts Hawaiian slide guitar licks and Spanish-tinged lines reminiscent of Hendrix' "All Along the Watchtower." Juju Music should not only be the first-disc choice for Ade newcomers, but for the Afro-pop curious as well.» (AMG)

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Istanbul II

Courtesy: Cri & Chris

Mikis Theodorakis & Zülfü Livaneli - Together (1997)

«Theodorakis et Livaneli ont initié l'Association d'Amitié Gréco-Turque en 1987, à un moment où les armées des deux pays étaient face à face, prêtes au conflit militaire.

Comme premier artiste grec, Theodorakis a alors donné des concerts publics en Turquie - ensemble avec Livaneli - et a exigé à plusieurs reprises une Confédération Gréco-Turque d'après le modèle scandinave.
Livaneli a enregistré un CD avec des chansons de Theodorakis en turc et a également donné plusieurs concerts en Grèce.
Auparavant, les deux artistes avaient passé de longues années en prison dans leur patrie et devaient par ailleurs aller en exil pour quelques ans.
Livaneli est aussi connu en Turquie que l'est Theodorakis en Grèce.
Les deux artistes sont devenus des symboles pour une mentalité anti-dogmatique et gênante, qui met la conscience au-dessus du calcul politico-politicien et ne se laisse pas intimider par la critique.
Musicalement, la même aspiration à la qualité et à l'expression d'une substance et d'un contenu dans leurs chansons et leurs grandes œuvres musicales les unit également.» (MikisTheodorakis.net)

Thanx to JTC for this post

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Pictures of Greece: Mykonos Harbor, Cyclades

Courtesy: JTC

Nick Haeffner - The Great Indoors (1987)

A (lost) masterpiece of British Folkedelia, in the vein of Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers and Nick Drake, and still one of my favourite albums from the 80’s.

«The Great Indoors is an album of songs released in 1986 on the Bam Caruso lable. Although out of print it is still available second hand on LP and CD.
Extracts from reviews at the time of release:

“The best sixties-style psychedelic release of the week is not Sgt Pepper on CD but the debut by Nick Haeffner... an album that is varied, unexpected and wonderfully refreshing.” (Robin Denselow, The Guardian)

“...reminiscent of the best of English psychedelia” (Jon Savage, The Observer)

“Pink Floyd... Nick Drake... to undergo these influences, so well, is to demand a hearing.” (Paul Oldfield, Melody Maker”

“A truly great album that could only have been made by someone with real talent and a genuine understanding of music past, present and future.” (Underground)

“The Great Indoors is a melting pot of ideas strung out over melodious rhythms as diverse as folk, punk, psyche and classical... the lyrics are witty and embracing, the final delivery charming and effective... a remarkably good album... Just 12 inches that leap over all barriers.” (Music Week)» (From Nick Haeefners’s official site)

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Eugenio Finardi - La Radio (Parco Lambro 1976)

Eugenio Finardi - Non Gettate Alcun Oggetto dai Finestrini (1975)

A masterpiece of Italian rock.

« Singer, lyricist, guitarist and pianist. Eugenio Finardi was born in 1952 in Milan, the son of an Italian sound engineer and an American opera singer who had come to Italy to sing at the LA SCALA Theatre in Milan.
His first recording experiences came early in his childhood when he sang in children’s’ records and in recordings of American classics for the expatriate community in Europe.
As a teenager he started singing the blues with friends like Fabio Treves and Alberto Camerini.
He went to the American School in Milan and then studied theatre at Tufts University in Boston.
Upon his return to Italy he started working as a studio session man and as a radio DJ in the first underground FM radio stations.
In 1975 he released his first album, for “Cramps”, a pioneering “alternative” label, which single-handedly created Italian rock, blending lyrics inspired by the cultural and political issues of the seventies “movement” with a sound influenced by rock but with jazz, blues and traditional Italian folk influences. His highly original “Musica Ribelle” from Sugo became the soundtrack of that period and started the evolution of Italian pop music.» (Read more)

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Pale Nudes - Wise to the Heat (1995)

«Amy Denio, Wadi Gysi, Mitch Gerber and Will Dowd in a post- (ec) Nudes. More 'acoustic' and much less experimental than the (ec) Nudes, but smoothly listenable. Well recorded and the addition of contrabasse is a plus. Usual good performance from Tone Dog Dowd.» (Chris Cutler, Squidco)

«Strange and experimental but full of hooks--that defines almost everything Amy Denio touches, and certainly this disc. With some slightly mellower songs and a little more acoustic-sounding than most of Amy Denio's solo work (though really not very different from her solo work), this is a really lovely collection of songs. Amy Denio's sound (accordion, sax, her vocal techniques) is all over this, though. Highly recommended.» (Ectoguide)

«Denio (rhymes with ‘Ohio’ or ‘gennaio’) is a multi-instrumentalist composer and singer based in Seattle, WA. Home-taper since the Dark Ages of Analogue, she started her label Spoot Music in 1986, with the release of her first cassette, ‘No Bones.’ Since then, she’s recorded & released other cassettes, LPs and 35 CDs created solo and with an array of international musicians.

She has been creating & producing soundscores for dance, theater and film since 1983. She has received commissions to compose and produce soundscores for Berkeley Symphony, Italian National Radio, New York Festival of Song, Die Knodel, Victoria Marks, Pat Graney Dance Company, and many other inspired artists. […]She has toured solo and has played with various groups and musicians such as the Tiptons Sax Quartet, Kultur Shock, Francisco Lopez, Danny Barnes, Relache Ensemble, Curlew, Fred Frith, Tone Dogs, Matt Cameron, Bill Frisell, Chris Cutler, Guy Klucevsek, Pauline Oliveros, Pale Nudes, Danubians, Hoppy Kamiyama, Ronin, Il Parto delle Nuvole Pesanti and has played with Chuck D's Fine Arts Militia. […]A pacifist & practicer of non-violence, she is a member of the American Civil Liberties Union.» (Read more)

Thanx to Toby for this post

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Carnival of Lights

Putumayo Presents Carnival (2001)

«Carnival, the ecstatic release of carnal desire in the days leading up to Lent, has a long history. With its roots firmly buried in the Dionysian festivities of ancient Greece, the celebration was appropriated by the Romans for their Bacchanalian homage and then adapted by Roman Catholics to fit pre-Ash Wednesday festivities. Celebrated by Catholics and Bacchanalians alike, contemporary carnival celebrations are especially fervent among the African Diaspora in the Caribbean and the Americas. And from the parading samba schools in Rio to the calypso tents on Trinidad, the art form most identified with carnival is that of music. On Putumayo's Carnival, ten festive tunes, performed in the spirit of carnival, are presented. Among the featured artists are New Orleans' own Eddie Bo building slide trombone riffs on top of shuffling beats, Colombian salsa group Fruko y sus Tesos singing about a particular kind of foppish carnival reveler, and Rio's distinguished sambistsa Martinho da Vila beautifully performing the carnival classic "Canta Canta, Minha Gente." Though some of the CD's cuts have more to do with festivals in general than with carnival in particular — such as Big Davy's Crop Over celebration song — all the songs contribute to the ebullient atmosphere of the compilation. If you're looking for field recordings of actual carnival celebrations then this CD is not for you. On the other hand, if you're looking for contemporary studio recorded songs that reference carnival either directly or indirectly, then Putumayo's Carnival should probably find its way onto your stereo.» (AMG)

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Emmanuel Jal & Abdel Gadir Salim - Ceasefire (2005)

«The old meets the new, and Northern & Southern Sudan are united, briefly, in this fine offering. Abdel G. Salim is one of the old-guard Sudanese oud players from even before the civil war. That war put an end to most of the music in the country and is still going on in the worst display of international ineptitude in the face of genocide since Rwanda. Salim suffered more than being silenced when he was stabbed by some fundamentalist who wanted to wipe out music in Khartoum. Emmanuel Jal is one of the child soldiers press-ganged into the Liberation army on the other side of the conflict and trained to kill by the age of 8. Children have no fear and make ideal soldiers, as the various fighting factions in the world have discovered. After a failed assault on Juba, thousands of these child soldiers set out to walk to the Upper Nile region they had started from but most perished on the way. Hunger, thirst, disease and animal attacks led to cannibalism & the decimation of their ranks till only a handful made it back. During a ceasefire, when he was 11, Jal met an international aid worker from UK who snuck him in her baggage to Kenya and saw that he was enrolled in school […]. Jal has grown up a bit and turned rapper and his songs are about his experiences. He is now a spokesman for the campaign to stop the recruitment of child soldiers but it's rather a moot point.

The Merdoum All Stars, Salim's band, add their funky sax and guitar to the young rapper's songs while his posse, the Reborn Warriors, get to throw down during the Merdoum pieces. (Merdoum is a 6/8 beat from Western Sudan's desert.) The result is not chaos but a great mix around the central theme of "Peace." The opener "Aiwa (Yes)" is a strong blend of rap over a thudding backbeat that reminded me a little of On-U Sound but overlain with atmospheric flute, xylophone and arabic bass rather than reggae bass. The first two tracks flow well together like a mini hip-hopera, but then we arrive at the familiar terrain of the Merdoum All Stars: accordion, hand-percussion and soothing vocals. Just when you get mellowed by the Merdoum kings, Jal drops his big one on you: track 6, "Gua," which has already appeared on the Rough Guide To Sudan, and went to Number One on the East African charts in September 2004. The word means "good" in Nuer and "power" in Arabic. […] A great encounter and a ray of hope for Sudan.» (Muzikifan)

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Gulf War Montage: The Aftermath

Footage from the documentary Lektionen in Finsternis (Lessons of Darkness) by Werner Herzog showing some of the destruction and enviromental issues that followed after Desert Storm in 1991.
The destruction seen is mainly caused by the heavy air and artillery bombardment from allied forces. The enviromental issues "Oil spill/fires" were caused by the burning oil wells sat on fire by the retreating Iraqi troops in the desert of Kuwait.
Music: Rob Dougan - Born Yesterday

Posted in YouTube by LoFFeN1987

Ilham Al-Madfai - Baghdad (2003)

«Ilham commence à jouer à 12 ans comme guitariste. Il forme sont premier groupe ‘Twisters’ dans les années 60, le premier en Irak à incorporer des instruments modernes (guitar, piano, bass&piano) à la musique arabe. Une expérience plutôt mal accueillie par les médias de l’époque qui l’accusent de dénaturer la musique traditionnelle. Quelques années plus tard, il quitte Bagdad pour l’Angleterre où il étudie l’architecture, où il joue et se produit avec Al Bayt Al Baghdadi et découvre Paul Mc Cartney et le jazz. Il retourne à Bagdad en 1967 et forme le groupe 13 ½ qui devient populaire au cours de la décennie suivante et le place en tête des musiciens les plus réputés du pays. En 1979 il quitte l’Irak à nouveau, voyage et poursuit sa carrière à l’international pour n’y revenir qu’en 1990. Il forme alors Firqat Ilham, formation qui allie influences est/ouest.

Combien de fois la lui a-t-on posée, cette question: Peut-on être un artiste irakien de nos jours, et faire dans la légèreté ? Peut-on intituler son album Baghdad et chanter autre chose que la guerre ?
On peut, quand on est amoureux de son pays et soucieux d’en préserver les trésors. On peut, en musique, immortaliser les plus belles debkas, les plus beaux poèmes, les plus douces berceuses. On peut même se payer le luxe de le faire sur des airs de jazz. Mode fusion? Ilham, joue de la guitare et chante accompagné d’instruments orientaux et occidentaux depuis plus de 30 ans. Dans le monde arabe, c’est un inclassable qui a déjà plusieurs tubes à son effectif dont Shlonak, qu’on retrouve dans l’album. L’Ilham, en arabe, c’est "l’Inspiration".» (Mondomix)

«“Ilham gave us a chance to taste the sweetness of life again,” writes a young Iraqi fan on the aramusic.com website. The comment neatly encapsulates Ilham Al Madfai's extraordinary significance. From the moment he picked up a guitar and formed The Twisters, the Middle East's first rock'n'roll combo, back in 1960s Baghdad, this maverick Arabic musician has been giving his peers reasons to dance, to dream, to keep struggling and to 'taste the sweetness'. Ilham's own struggle has been fierce and intense...» (Ivan Chrysler, BBC Radio 3 Awards, read more)

Official site: http://www.ilhamalmadfai.com/

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