Songlines Magazine (October 2014, #103)

2 FREE CDs

+ WORLD CINEMA + 10 ESSENTIAL SCOTTISH ALBUMS + CERYS MATTHEWS

DISCOV CO ER A WOR COV RLD OF MUSIC

Sahara Soul

+ REVIEWS

SEKOUBA BAMBINO

The Superstar from Guinea

MUSIC FROM...

Mauritania, India, Portugal, Algeria, Lithuania and more...

000_Cover_SL103 v1.indd 1

NICOLA BENEDETTI

Fulfilling a Scottish Fantasy

MOR KARBASI

Honouring Her Sephardic Roots ISSUE 103 OCTOBER 2014 www.songlines.co.uk www.facebook.com/songlines

18/08/2014 14:38

WELCOME

Songlines Publishing Ltd Eurolink Business Centre, 49 Effra Road, London SW2 1BZ, UK www.songlines.co.uk GENERAL ENQUIRIES & SUBS

+44 (0)20 7274 7215 Fax +44 (0)20 7095 9663 info@songlines.co.uk subs@songlines.co.uk ADVERTISING

+44 (0)20 7326 4251 james@songlines.co.uk THE TEAM

Editor-in-chief Simon Broughton Publisher Paul Geoghegan Editor Jo Frost Deputy Editor Alexandra Petropoulos Art Director Paul Carpenter Subs & Online Manager Edward Craggs Advertisement Manager James Anderson-Hanney Podcast Producer Nasim Masoud Reviews Editor Matthew Milton News Editor Nathaniel Handy Listings Tatiana Rucinska listings@songlines.co.uk World Cinema Editor Yoram Allon yoram@cinephilia.co.uk Production Consultant Dermot Jones Financial Controllers Iwona Perucka & Stevie Good Contributing Editors Jane Cornwell, Mark Ellingham & Nigel Williamson Intern Freddie Griggs

T

here used to be such beautiful associations with Isis – the mother goddess of ancient Egypt, a symbol of nature and fertility. Her tears water Egypt in its annual Nile flood. It was also a poetic name for the Thames – the Egyptian goddess anglicised in Victorian times into the water meadows of Oxford.

But suddenly Isis has acquired a terrifying, nightmarish persona as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria: brutal jihadists targeting the Yazidi and Christian minority groups that make the region so culturally rich and fascinating. Now ‘Islamic State’ seems the preferred term, which hopefully leaves the Egyptian goddess less tainted, but it doesn’t change the fact that this has been a brutal Middle Eastern summer.

In Gaza, UN schools and hospitals have been destroyed by Israeli shelling with around 2,000 casualties, most of them civilians. Israel has the right to protect itself from Hamas, but like this? The casualties are disproportionate and rightly international questions are being asked.

But what individually can we do? We can give to the DEC appeal.

We can protest and sign petitions and there is the question of whether or not to boycott Israeli artists. I’m sure the WOMAD organisers were relieved they had no Israeli musicians programmed this year because there would have been demonstrations. Two Israeli theatre groups were unable to perform at the Edinburgh Festival as a result of protests.

As it was, there was a quiet gathering at WOMAD against the Israeli action in Gaza and, behind the scenes, many artists received letters from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) requesting that they don’t perform there. In recent years artists including Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Natacha Atlas and Oumou Sangaré have cancelled concerts in Israel. I can really understand why people might want to make this stand – it’s about the only way of doing something. But dialogue, discussion and political encounter are the only way forward. I wouldn’t want anyone to think I condone the Israeli response, but cutting off contact only leads to more entrenched positions. We know from Northern Ireland that dialogue and diplomacy can actually achieve something.

Cultural boycotts usually end up harming the people who are most progressive and open-minded: the festival organisers, the theatre companies and the musicians – people like Yair Dalal, who has always tried to break down the barriers. Music is usually a way towards peace and understanding and boycotts work against that.

Cultural boycotts usually end up harming the people who are most progressive and open-minded

Simon Broughton, editor-in-chief

Cover photo Cath’ Legras Printing Polestar Colchester Ltd, Severalls Industrial Estate, Colchester, Essex CO4 4HT. Record trade distribution Worldwide Magazine Distributors, 0121 788 3112. UK newsstand & overseas newstrade distribution COMAG Specialist Division, 01895 433800.

All rights are reserved. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or in part, is strictly forbidden without the prior written consent of the publishers. No responsibility for incorrect information can be accepted. The views expressed in the articles are those of the author, and not necessarily of the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of statements in Songlines, we cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions or for matters arising from clerical or printer’s errors, or for advertisers not completing their contracts. Songlines USPS 4638 is published Jan/ Feb, March, April/May, June, July, Aug/Sept, Oct, Nov/ Dec by Songlines Publishing Ltd. Published by Songlines Publishing Ltd, Eurolink Business Centre, 49 Effra Road, London, SW2 1BZ. ISSN 1464-8113 © 2014 Songlines Publishing Ltd Songlines logo trade mark, registered under No. 2427714. Directors Simon Broughton, John Brown, Mark Ellingham, Paul Geoghegan, Lyn Hughes & Chris Pollard

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE INCLUDE

JAMEELA SIDDIQI Jameela is an award-winning broadcaster, novelist, journalist and educator of Indian classical music, dance and poetry. She has reviewed for Songlines ever since #1. Read her interview with Jyoti Hegde on p40.

RUDOLF ABRAHAM An award-winning travel writer and photographer, Rudolf is the author of eight books and has contributed to many more.

He experienced the impressive Lithuania Song Celebration this year (p57).

ALEXANDRA PETROPOULOS An ethnomusicologist and flautist, Alexandra is also Songlines’ deputy editor.

This issue she talks to old-time buccaneers CC Smugglers (p25) and Afrobeat ambassador Dele Sosimi (p27).

ISSUE 103

003_Editor_SL103.indd 3

› SONGLINES

03

20/08/2014 11:06

CONTENTS

48 Sam Sweeney

Elly Lucas

UPFRONT

FEATURES

REGULARS

REVIEWS

06 Top of the World CD 08 My World interview

30 36 40 42 48

52 Beginner’s Guide:

60 62 68 75 76 78 83 84 86

11 13 21 23 24 27 29

Evelyn Glennie Bonus Polish CD What’s New & Obits Letters Soapbox Introducing...

Gisela João & CC Smugglers Spotlight on Dele Sosimi Quickfire: Sam Lee, Peggy Seeger, Sheema Mukherjee

WIN

Sahara Soul Nicola Benedetti Jyoti Hegde Mor Karbasi Sam Sweeney

54 57 89 95 96 98

Sékouba Bambino Festival Pass: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Postcard from Lithuania Gig Guide Subscribe The Essential Ten: Scottish Albums Cerys Matthews

Africa Americas Europe Asia Middle East Fusion Books World Cinema Live Reviews

Mali All Stars: Bogolan Music box set 16 A pair of tickets to see Dele Sosimi 27 Nicola Benedetti’s new album 39 Sam Sweeney’s Fiddle: Made in the Great War CD 51 Finding Fela official soundtrack 85

COMPETITIONS Send entries, marked clearly with the competition name, your name, address, email and telephone number to the address on p3 or email: comps@songlines.co.uk. Winners will be chosen at random. Only one entry per household. No cash alternatives. If you would prefer not to be sent details of other Songlines products and services, or products from other carefully selected companies, please state clearly on your entry. Closing date October 24 2014 (unless otherwise stated)

ISSUE 103

005_Contents-SL103.indd 5

› SONGLINES

05

19/08/2014 16:15

05/08/2014 12:32

top of the world

15

01 Preservation Hall Jazz Band ‘That’s It!’ 02 Chłopcy Kontra Basia ‘Jerzy’ 03 Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics ‘Jaiyede Afro’ 04 Aynur ‘Yar Melek E’ 05 Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar ‘The Call and Answer’ 06 Richard Galliano ‘Nego Forró’ 07 Rachel Newton ‘Queen of Elfan’s Nourice’ 08 Jerry Douglas ‘Panhandle Rag’ 09 Martyn Bennett ‘Blackbird’ 10 Bac Lieu Ensemble ‘Luu Thuy Truong’

Free tracks

THE BEST NEW RELEASES

+ EVELYN GLENNIE’S

top

PLAYLIST

TOP

OF THE WORLD

of the world

CD ISSUE 103 103 PLUS 5 tracks chosen by Evelyn Glennie

On your free CD – the editor’s selection of the top ten new releases reviewed in this issue

11 Dulsori ‘Drum Sinawe’ 12 Rhythms of the City ‘Ilu Ayê’ 13 Various ‘Senggot’ 14 Lusi Kuni & Soria Eyituk ‘Katajjaq’ 15 Evelyn Glennie with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra ‘Heading For’ Exclusively with the October 2014 issue of Songlines. STWCD79.

This compilation & © 2014 Songlines Publishing Ltd

Featuring Martyn Bennett, Orlando Julius, Richard Galliano, Jerry Douglas, Dulsori, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Aynur and more...

SLTOTWCD-103-onbody.indd 1

05/08/2014 12:30

STWCD79 This compilation & © 2014 Songlines Publishing Ltd. Email: info@songlines.co.uk, www.songlines.co.uk Executive producer Paul Geoghegan. Compiled and sequenced by Jo Frost and Freddie Griggs. Design by Paul Carpenter. Mastering by Good Imprint. CD pressing by Software Logistics Ltd. The producers of this CD have paid the composers and publishers for the use of their music.

The Call (Fellside Recordings) & © 2014 Fellside Recordings. Courtesy of Fellside Recordings

05 Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar ‘The Call and Answer’ (4:43) Hevra (Together) (Network Medien) 2013 Sony Music Entertainment & © 2014 Membran under licence from Sony Music Entertainment. Courtesy of Membran

The Don Ca Tai Tu: Chamber Music of the Mekong Delta (Inédit/Maison des Cultures du Monde) & © 2014 Inédit/Maison des Cultures du Monde.

Courtesy of Inédit/Maison des Cultures du Monde

10 Bac Lieu Ensemble ‘Luu Thuy Truong’ (2:55)

Grit (Real World Gold) & © 2014 Real World Records. Courtesy of Real World Records

Ecstatic Drumbeat (BIS Records) & © 2012 BIS Records AB. Courtesy of the Taipei Chinese Orchestra

15 Evelyn Glennie with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra ‘Concerto for Percussion and Chinese Orchestra: Heading For’ (8:00)

Canada: Inuit Games and Songs (UNESCO) 1991 Auvidis/UNESCO/IICMSD & © 1991 Auvidis/UNESCO. Courtesy of Smithsonian Folkways

top of the world plaYlist tracks Rhythms of the City (F-IRE) & © 2008 Barak Schmool. Courtesy of F-IRE

06 Richard Galliano ‘Nego Forró’ That’s It! (Sony Legacy) & © 2013 Sony Music Entertainment. Courtesy of Sony

01 Preservation Hall Jazz Band ‘That’s It!’ (3:25)

TOP OF THE WORLD SELECTION

Richard Galliano au Brésil (Milan) 2008 DEV TV Genève & © 2014 DEV TV Genève/Éditions Milan Music.

Courtesy of Milan Music

06 Richard Galliano ‘Nego Forró’ (4:16)

12 Rhythms of the City ‘Ilu Ayê’ (3:17) Eternal Memory (Music Zoo Entertainment) 2007 Dulsori & © 2007 Music Zoo Entertainment.

Courtesy of Dulsori

11 Dulsori ‘Drum Sinawe’ (5:40)

EVELYN GLENNIE’S PLAYLIST

10 tracks from this issue’s best new albums + 5 bonus tracks exclusively with the October 2014 issue of Songlines

From Richard Galliano au Brésil on Milan

SLTOTWCD-103-sleeve.indd 1

02 Chłopcy Kontra Basia ‘Jerzy’ (3:43)

006_TOTW_SL103.indd 6

› issue

07 Rachel Newton ‘Queen of Elfan’s Nourice’ (4:19)

Java – The Jasmine Isle: Gamelan Music (Nonesuch Records) & © 2003 Nonesuch Records. Courtesy of Nonesuch Records

13 Various Artists ‘Senggot’ (4:39)

06 s o n g l i n e s

Changeling (Shadowside Records) & © 2014 Shadowside Records. Courtesy of Shadowside Records

05

08 Jerry Douglas ‘Panhandle Rag’ (4:22)

10

Oj Tak! (Riverboat Records) & © 2014 Riverboat Records/World Music Network.

Courtesy of World Music Network

09

04

03 Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics ‘Jaiyede Afro’ (6:09)

14 Lusi Kuni & Soria Eyituk ‘Katajjaq’ (2:03)

08

03

Three Bells (Rounder Records) & © 2014 Rounder Records. Courtesy of Rounder Records

07

09 Martyn Bennett ‘Blackbird’ (6:13)

02

Jaiyede Afro (Strut) & © 2014 Strut. Courtesy of Strut

06

04 Aynur ‘Yar Melek E’ (3:41)

01

01 Preservation Hall Jazz Band ‘That’s It!’ From That’s It! on Sony Legacy

Brazilian master accordionist Richard

The eight members of PHJB may employ

Galliano curates an intelligent and

a lighter, more melodic touch, but the

inspired introduction to forró, the

brass band veterans still know how to

soulful country music of the Brazilian

blow up a storm. See p66

nordeste. See p65

02 Chłopcy Kontra Basia ‘Jerzy!’

07 Rachel Newton

The Krakow-based trio, whose name

From Changeling on Shadowside Records

means ‘Boys against Basia,’ encapsulate

Newton focuses on the rich loam of myth

the tension of folkish vocals and a

and folklore concerning faeries and

sprinkling of Polish rhythms, and place

the metaphors of the changeling in the

it all in a jazzy idiom. See p81

Scottish and British tradition. See p69

03 Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics ‘Jaiyede Afro’

08 Jerry Douglas

From Oj Tak! on Riverboat Records

‘Queen of Elfan’s Nourice’

‘Panhandle Rag’ From Three Bells on Rounder Records

From Jaiyede Afro on Strut

This albums tosses together three of the

Fans of Fela Kuti, Ebo Taylor and others

greatest dobro players on the planet for

of their stripe will welcome this fine

a playlist of country songs, Tin Pan Alley

reminder of this master’s abilities as one

and gospel that is self-assured, poignantly

of the pioneers of Afrobeat. See p60

paced and deftly swung. See p62

04 Aynur ‘Yar Melek E’

09 Martyn Bennett

The collaboration with Spanish flamenco

Nine years after Bennett’s untimely

guitarist and arranger Javier Limón

death, the album still exhibits the

allows the listener to focus on Aynur’s

exceptional promise and talent that this

voice: a powerful but subtle instrument

extraordinary musician so effortlessly

with rich colours. See p77

exuded. See p78

05 Greg Russell & Ciaran Algar ‘The Call and Answer’

10 Bac Lieu Ensemble

From The Call on Fellside Recordings

Inédit/Maison des Cultures du Monde

The BBC Radio Two Folk Award-winning

Each musician in the ensemble performs

duo gather an intelligent collection of

elaborately ornamented melodies that

tunes for this album that proves the

provide a crisp and sharp sound to this

startling amount of young folk talent

compelling musical form from Vietnam’s

there is all around the UK. See p70

Mekong Delta. See p75

From Hevra (Together) on Network Medien

‘Blackbird’ From Grit on Real World Gold

‘Luu Thuy Truong’

From The Don Ca Tai Tu: Chamber Music of the Mekong Delta on

103

19/08/2014 15:48

+ Evelyn Glennie’s playlist 11

11Dulsori ‘Drum Sinawe’

From Eternal Memory on Music Zoo Entertainment Dulsori are one of Korea’s leading contemporary folk groups. Korean percussion is “so physical and they are throwing themselves into music and performance.”

12

12 Rhythms of the City ‘Ilu Ayê’ From Rhythms of the City on F-IRE

Rhythms of the City are a British group that play the real street style Andy McCreeth

music of Brazilian Carnaval, just as Glennie would have experienced when she participated in Rio in 1989.

13

13 Various Artists ‘Senggot’ From Java – The Jasmine Isle: Gamelan Music on Nonesuch Records In this Javanese music it’s the cross rhythms between drum and chimes that makes it interesting. “I love its gold-like sound – very resonant.”

14

“ There’s always this tendency when you’re studying music to say it has to be done like this or that and you get tied up in the system. For me there is no method, but there has to be respect” Turn over for the full interview with Evelyn Glennie

14 Lusi & Soria Eyituk ‘Katajjaq’ From Canada: Inuit Games and Songs on UNESCO/Auvidis

It was a concert with Tanya Tagaq at Carnegie Hall that introduced Glennie to Inuit music. This is traditional katajjaq, which underlies much of Tagaq’s extraordinary music.

15

15 Evelyn Glennie with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra ‘Heading For ’ From Ecstatic Drumbeat on BIS Records

All Top of the World and playlist albums are available to purchase through the new Songlines CD Shop.

Delivered worldwide and with free P&P for all UK orders. See p22 for more details.

www.songlinescdshop.co.uk or call+44 (0)1689 888 888

The Taipei Chinese Orchestra is like a symphony orchestra of Chinese instruments accompanying Glennie in the final movement of the concerto.

issue 103

006_TOTW_SL103.indd 7

› songlines

07

19/08/2014 15:49

NEXT ISSUE

Exclusive playlist by novelist Ian Rankin

+

A special bonus 15-track CD from Galicia Photo by Rankin

Nov/Dec (#104) on sale in the UK from October 10

To guarantee your copy, new subscription and renewal orders need to be received by September 28. To subscribe to Songlines and receive the next 4 issues for just £4 (T&Cs apply, UK offer only), visit www.songlines.co.uk/SL103 ISSUE 98

010_next_SL103.indd 1

› SONGLINES

1

19/08/2014 16:17

DISCOVER POLAND YOUR BONUS FREE CD

BONUS CD – ADVERTORIAL

Polish parliament proclaimed 2014 as a tribute year to Oskar Kolberg, the spiritual godfather of Polish roots music and pioneer of Polish cultural anthropology. From 1839 to 1890 Kolberg noted more than 20,000 peasants’ songs from all over Poland.

DISCOVER POLAND offers an insight into the sort of music Kolberg might have collected had he been alive today.

9. Dzikie Jabłka ‘Jabłoneczka’ The group (‘Wild Apples’) create music that is a thrilling mix of Polish songs with a West African energy.

There’s much anticipation for their forthcoming debut release. www.dzikiejablka.wix.com/dzikie

10. Muzykanci ‘Kołysała Ryba Wodę’ A quartet under the charismatic leadership of Joanna Słowińska and Jacek Hałas who were 1999 winners in the New Tradition contest. www.bit.ly/muzykanci

11. Duberman feat. Magda Sobczak ‘Moving Around’ Polish reggae is probably the biggest scene of all the former communist countries. This lovely track features Warsaw Village Band’s vocalist and dulcimer player Magda Sobczak. www.karrot.pl/duberman

5. Chłopcy Kontra Basia ‘Oj Tak! (Oh Yeah!)’

The group (‘The Boys Against Basia’) won World Music Network’s Battle of the Bands contest, resulting in the first ever Polish band to release an album on Riverboat Records.

19.

taken from “Neon Fie

lds”, Transkapela, 20

Transkapela – Quite

1. Warsaw Village Band & Mercedes Peón ‘Fly my Voice!’

This track comes from Warsaw Village Band’s forthcoming album, a two-year collaboration with the Galician musician Mercedes Peón.

ADANA , 2015 taken from “LP”, DAG (4:47) , 2014 Żywiołak – Skrzeble lema”, Karrot Kommando Psychoaktywnego Sto

18.

17.

DAGADANA & North

Lab [China/

taken from “Tu nie ma

Maria Pomianowska

15.

Mosaik – Kośnik (4:58

14.

Mongolia]

– Koby ne moroz (If

miejsca na strach”, S

Studium Instrumentów

16.

14

a ride (5:04)

taken from “Muzyka

taken from “Całe szc

IE.records, 2014

Etnicznych – Tu nie ma

it wasn’t for the frost

) (4:07)

miej

014 aye Family project”, 2 mianowska & Bakh Y sca na strach (4:15)

taken from “Maria Po

& Bakh Yaye Family

www.warsawvillageband.net – Obe

taken ) sała ryba wodę (3:24 10. Muzykanci – Koły zykanci, 2014 taken from “LP”, Mu ing Around (4:06) Magda Sobczak – Mov 11. Duberman feat. ot Kommando, 2014 erman Is Back”, Karr taken from “Dub sza (2:20) 12. Hańba – Depe yfer Records, 2013 a i Gówno EP”, Karor taken from “Gum ka (3:12) 13. Sutari – Kupalnoc ri, 2014 taken from „LP”, Suta ) 13 zęście”, Verge Sound, 20 [Senegal] rkafrika (2:12)

www.facebook.com/chlopcykontrabasia

6. Trzy Dni Później ‘Oj Lulaj, Lulaj’ After 15 years of performing together, these three female vocalists sing in perfect harmony, winning the Grand Prix of the last Polish Radio’s New Tradition contest.

9.

taken from “VOŁOSI

www.facebook.com/trzydnipozniej

1.

a & Spółka – Bialystok

taken from “Warsaw

Warsaw Village Band

majn hejm (3:35)

Village Band & Merc

) [Galicia] – Fly my voice! (4:49 dien, 2014 ommando/JARO Me edes Peón”, Karrot K

& Mercedes Peón

011_bonusCD-SL103v2.indd 11

www.karoryfer.com/hanba

13. Sutari ‘Kupalnocka’ Sutari are also winners of the Battle of the Bands contest, playing ‘folk kitchen avant-garde’ music. www.sutari.pl

14. Mosaik ‘Kośnik’ The colourful music of Mosaik searches for the connections between Polish village songs and music of the Orient. www.mosaik.pl

15. Maria Pomianowska & Bakh Yaye Family ‘Oberkafrika’ Playing her sarangi-like Polish knee chordophone, Płock fiddle and suka

www.pomianowska.art.pl

16. Studium Instrumentów Etnicznych ‘Tu Nie Ma Miejsca Na Strach’ This young group from SkarżyskoKamienna near Kielce recently won a big indie music competition, supported by Polish Radio. www.sie-band.pl

17. DAGADANA & North Lab ‘Koby Ne Moroz (If It Wasn’t for the Frost)’ A Polish-Ukrainian crossover of folk, electronica and jazz. This track was recorded in Beijing, during the group’s third tour of China. www.dagadana.pl

18. Transkapela ‘Quite a Ride’ Old sources of Carpathian music meet the modern musical imagination of Transkapela’s musicians. Their previous albums were praised by Polish Radio and have been released in the US and Europe. www.transkapela.com

NB Due to a technical error, the Żywiołak ‘Skrzeble’ track listed on the booklet does not appear on the CD Check out the videoclip of the folkmetal group’s new track online: www.bit.ly/zywiolak DISCOVER POLAND 2014 was produced as part of the strategic activities of Oskar Kolberg Year 2014. Supported by Music and Dance Institute and Adam Mickiewicz Institute. www.kolberg2014.org.pl www.culture.pl www.transetnika.pl

“Discover Poland 2014” was produced as part of the strategic activities of Oskar Kolberg Year 2014.

www.cacivorba.pl/en

7. St Nicholas Orchestra ‘Hosadyna’ Launched in 1988 the St Nicholas Orchestra have been instrumental in building up the roots music scene in the country.

Supported by Music and Dance Institute and Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

4. Čači Vorba ‘Te Aştept Neica de-o Lună’ The magnificent voice of singer and violinist Maria Natanson, the leader of Čači Vorba (meaning ‘True Speech’ in Romani) is a real highlight within the country’s roots scene.

Selected by Mateusz Dobrowolski.

Executive producer: Ethnic Arts Association “Transetnika”, transetnika@transetnika.pl +48 792 024 754, Płochocińska 122b/1, 03-044 Warsaw, Poland

łka, 2014

zka (4:19)

2. Karolina Cich 2013 ges”, Karolina Cicha, raks’ fate) (2:23) taken from “9 Langua [Belarus] – Batracka dola (Bat a Niakrasava Kommando, 2012 3. R.U.T.A. feat. Nast m Or Death.”, Karrot od. - Go East. Freedo taken from “Na usch aştept (3:51) 4. Čači Vorba – Te riente Musik, 2013 v / Secret Marriage”, O taken from “Tajno Bia (4:10) a – Oj tak! (Oh Yeah!)

4 5. Chłopcy Kontra Basi t Records, 2013/201 Art2Music/Riverboa taken from “Oj tak!”, Oj lulaj, lulaj (3:19) 6. Trzy Dni Później – j, 2014 oznie cieniom”, Trzy Dni P taken from “Pokoj jej ) estra – Hosadyna (4:30 7. St. Nicholas Orch , 2013 ”, St. Nicholas Orchestra taken from “EP 2013 (1:56) 8. VOŁOSI – Downhill OSI, 2013 live in Kyiv ” DVD, VOŁ

www.facebook.com/RUTA.GORE

Distributed exclusively with the October 2014 issue of Songlines Magazine (#103) www.songlines.co.uk

from “EP”, Dzikie Jab

Dzikie Jabłka – Jabłonec

3. R.U.T.A. feat. Nasta Niakrasava ‘Batracka Dola (Batraks’ Fate)’ The stars of the Polish punk and folk underground scene who reinterpret the lyrics of original peasants (batraks) anti-nobility folk songs, collected by Oskar Kolberg.

CD for promotional use only, all rights reserved.

www.karolinacicha.eu

www.kolberg2014.org.pl www.transetnika.pl

2. Karolina Cicha & Spółka ‘Białystok Majn Hejm’ Cicha is an experimental theatre actress, born in Białystok, the capital of the Podlasie region. Boasting a multicultural heritage and beautiful landscapes, it’s one of the unknown treasures of Poland.

12. Hańba ‘Depesza’ If punk rock hadn’t started in 1970s working-class Britain but in Poland’s urban backyards, then it might have sounded a little like this.

from Biłgoraj, Maria Pomianowska tours the world and collaborates with musicians such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

www.mikolaje.lublin.pl

8. VOŁOSI ‘Downhill’ An extraordinary meeting of three folk musicians from the Beskidy mountains region and two classically trained musicians. Since winning the Grand Prix Award at Polish Radio’s New Tradition contest in 2010, they’ve toured across Europe. www.volosiband.com

19/08/2014 16:18

The Spirit of Andy Morgan talks to the leading artists performing at Sahara Soul in September about their desert homeland and what makes it so unique

the Sahara

Catherine Legras

30 S O N G L I N E S

030_sahara_SL103 v2.indd 30

› ISSUE

103

19/08/2014 17:07

SAHARA SOUL

D

ishes piled high with couscous and

griotte Noura Mint Seymali. She gave me a top five:

Timbuktu to Tamanrasset has a guitar, or wants

roast; the shrieks of children in the

Family. Sharing food and eating with hands from

one. The songs of Tinariwen or their equivalent in

morning yard; Mbous the joker folding

a common plate. The ritual of making mint tea.

Niger, Takrist N’Akal, are part of the landscape. It’s

us up in stitches; old Mehdi away with

Seeing the women in their melahfa, that riotously

as if they had always been there. That creative flood

coloured cloth of their robes. The climate.

just swells and swells and a whole new generation

the djinns again; dazzling new robes at the Tabaski feast; bubbles spluttering from the teapot lid; the

The nostalgia of the Saharan soul for his or her

of bands are bringing us their assouf: Tamikrest,

crackle of the camp fire in the moonlit oued; a bowl

desert is something intense, all engrossing. Not

Terakaft, Bombino, Atri N’Assouf, Kel Assouf,

of camel’s milk from a cousin’s herd; the silence that

the Sahara as a whole, but that small corner of the

Groupe Imarhan, Group Inerane, Mdou Moctar. It’s

falls when the engines stop; the noontime snooze

desert that is home. A generation of young Touareg

the silver lining to the Touareg tragedy of the late

under an acacia tree; the jackals chattering in the cold

guitarists built an entire musical genre on that

20th century; it’s the harvest of adversity.

of the night; Hamid’s stories for hours on end; guitars

feeling of nostalgia back in the late 1970s and early

moaning through the Peavey amp; a mother’s finger

80s. They were still living in the Sahara, but they had

other genres and styles get sidelined or forgotten.

writing in the sand; a winter breeze caressing the

been exiled from their native corner of northern

“It’s a shame,” says Nabil Othmani, the current

grass; half of Lula’s smile behind a veil; lounging on

Mali. That separation and the heartache it caused

incumbent of the musical Othmani clan from

mats beneath the sheltering sky; counting the stars

generated a flood of creativity. Those young ishumar

Djanet in southern Algeria, “because the ishumar

before we sleep; that’s it. That’s all it is: Sahara soul.

poets in exile – ishumar is the Tamashek word for

style has become commercialised. Everybody plays

a clandestino vagrant Touareg youth – began to

ishumar [music] and calls themselves ishumar.

words – vast, infinite, majestic or impoverished,

use one of the most profound and evocative words

But even that [style] comes from the tindé and most

fundamentalist, thirsty – but it’s the small things

in their language to refer to their new style: assouf.

people don’t even know what a tindé is.”

that tug the heart. I asked the Saharawi singer Aziza

It means longing, separation, emotional pain, the

Brahim what she misses most about her desert

darkness beyond the campfires of home.

We talk about the Sahara in widescreen

home and her answer was simple and concise: “Family.” I put the same question to the Mauritanian

Now, with the success of Tinariwen both local and global, assouf is everywhere. Every kid from

The danger of this assouf guitar takeover is that

The tindé is the cardiac pulse of all Touareg music, ancient or modern. There’s not much to it; a wooden mortar normally used to pound grain covered with goatskin that the drummer keeps

ISSUE 103

030_sahara_SL103 v2.indd 31

› SONGLINES

31

19/08/2014 17:08

Mor Karbasi

Simon Fowler

36 s o n g l i n e s

036_Nicola_SL103.indd 36

› issue

103

19/08/2014 12:05

Nicola benedetti

Scottish Encounters Nicola Benedetti is proud of her Scottish roots and her latest release delves into the country’s traditional folk music. She talks to Jo Frost about the challenges for a classical violinist tackling folk fiddle

U

nless you’ve been living like a hermit for the last

natural to always be looking for your own personal connections to

few weeks, it won’t have escaped your notice that

those cultures. With Scottish culture, it immediately turns to the

Scotland has been the centre of a fair bit of media

fiddle – it’s something that I’ve been hyper-aware of for so long.”

attention. From the acrimonious TV debates on

Although the classical and trad worlds don’t tend to mix,

Scottish independence to the more salubrious celebrations in

Benedetti has known Bain, Cunningham and Fowlis for some

Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games, Scotland is very much

time. “We’ve played alongside, but not with each other on

in the spotlight. Perfect timing then for classical violinist Nicola

numerous occasions, so we got to know each other quite well.

Benedetti to release an album exploring her Scottish roots.

But this is the first really substantial project I’ve done with any

It turns out that the release of Homecoming: A Scottish Fantasy

of them.” Their first performance together was the opening

this July is entirely coincidental. “It’s been an ongoing desire,”

concert at this year’s Celtic Connections, commissioned by

Benedetti says. “The idea to record Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy has

festival director Donald Shaw. Initially there was the fear factor to

been in my diary for years, so the referendum and all of that

overcome, so Shaw talked to Benedetti about classical cellist Yo-Yo

wasn’t even remotely set until way after we had decided that this

Ma’s collaboration with bluegrass musicians on The Goat Rodeo

was what we were going to record.”

Sessions album (reviewed in #81). They then spent time delving

Benedetti is hot property right now. When she’s not performing

into Scottish tunes books together with fellow violinist Greg

alongside the likes of Rod Stewart at the Commonwealth Games

Lawson who plays with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Opening Ceremony or doing flash mobs in Glasgow, she’s

as well as with Moishe’s Bagel, who mix up all sorts of different

playing with a host of prestigious orchestras like the New York

styles from klezmer, classical and Gypsy jazz. “She definitely

Philharmonic or touring India with the BBC Scottish Symphony

immersed herself into it, like a great sportsman,” reports Shaw.

Orchestra. It’s only ten years ago that she first stepped into

Benedetti admits that she was initially out of her comfort zone.

the limelight, winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year

“There are so many subtleties and so many layers of experience

competition, aged 16, having been mentored by Yehudi Menuhin.

and understanding of the music that they’re playing that I simply

Although she is now the quintessential classical music superstar, Benedetti’s latest release is not a purely classical affair.

don’t have,” she says. “So, yes, it was definitely nerve-wracking.”

Benedetti’s commitment to immersing herself into the music is

The first part is the aforementioned Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy,

indisputable. So perhaps it’s a naïve question to ask whether the

followed by three popular songs written by Scotland’s most loved

experience had been fun? “I’m always really wary about having

national poet, Robert Burns. Benedetti, like Burns, was born in

too much fun,” she confesses. “The best things I’ve done musically,

Ayrshire, so there’s a strong connection. The final focus of the album features a selection of Scottish folk tunes performed by some of the country’s top folk talent including Aly Bain, Phil

I would never say that I’ve enjoyed them. I would say they’ve been unbelievably fulfilling, and they’ve been exhilarating.” And this particular experience? “It was very emotional for me and extremely intense. The guys in the band [Bain, Cunningham, Chisholm and Éamon Doorley], they are potentially the funniest

Cunningham, Julie Fowlis and

people I have ever come across in my life! But I was basically very

Duncan Chisholm.

focused and quite challenged by the whole thing.”

“The importance of the violin in Scottish music is

When talking to violinists – whether classical or traditional – there’s always a big debate about bowing technique. “I think one of

undisputed,” says Benedetti.

the first things that really strikes you when you’re really attempting

“When your profession is

to get into the nature of any folk tradition is the difference in

an expression of so many

rhythmic quality,” Benedetti says. “Classical music is very linear and

different cultures, it’s

generally has a natural rubato to it. When all you’ve done your

issue 103

036_Nicola_SL103.indd 37

› songlines

37

19/08/2014 12:05

sam sweeney’s violin

Tim Cumming talks to Bellowhead’s Sam Sweeney as he sets out to retell the incredible story of his violin steeped in history and made during World War I

T

he story you are about to hear is touched

six, made in 1915, and Howard was called up in 1916,

original luthier. “It’s an instrument maker’s dream

by myth, the tragedy and pity of war

so it is almost certainly the last one he worked on, and

that someone loves your instrument,” says Sweeney.

and by what was, in 1917, the biggest

never lived to finish, pick up or play.

“It’s not a museum piece. It’s there to be played and

explosion in history. What comes out

From the regimental diary of the Duke of

I do play it, and I love it. And finding out the story

of it? An old fiddle, you say? Not just any old fiddle.

Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, in which he was

Listen, we’re with Bellowhead’s Sam Sweeney – not

conscripted, the Sweeneys discovered exactly when he

as he is now, a veteran of countless gigs and folk

was sent to Belgium, even the minute he died. “And the

bandmate Paul Sartin, concertina player Rob Harbron,

groupings – but 17-year-old Sam, a talent on the rise

battle that he died in was astonishing,” says Sweeney.

and storyteller Hugh Lupton. “Sam told me about

who has come into a little money, and off he goes to

“In Flanders, it had been a stalemate for two years at

it and immediately I thought it was a very exciting

town and finds himself pushing at the door of a violin

a place called Hill 60 in Messines. The British army

idea,” says Lupton. “It’s always good to take one

maker’s shop on an obscure back street of west Oxford.

dug enormous tunnels 60 feet under the Germans,

human strand – everyone knows the big events but

and packed it with a million tonnes of explosives. The

it’s the individual human stories that really touch

“I played something like 40 fiddles that day, and

Germans were planning exactly the same thing – there

people. And the fiddle – it’s such a great little story.

whittled it down to a couple and fell in love with this

are tales of German and British soldiers digging into

It seems to me to be a story about remembering, as

one.” The fiddle in question had only gone into the

each other’s tunnels and having fights.”

opposed to dismembering. In the remembering of the

“It was Roger Claridge’s violin shop,” recalls Sweeney.

shop that morning. “I took it home and had a look

makes me want to play it more.”

Joining Sweeney will be fellow Bellowhead

On June 17 1917, a million tonnes of explosives did

fiddle, this person is remembered. I love the idea of

inside – if you look in the F hole you can find out

go up beneath the Germans, and it was this battle that

reconstructing what happened to Richard Howard.”

where it was made, by whom, and when.” Sweeney’s

Richard Howard died in – curiously, one of the day’s

fiddle was made by one Richard S Howard of Harehills,

few British casualties. “They’d rehearsed the battle in

appealed to Lupton as soon as he set about writing.

Leeds in 1915. “So I rang Roger back, and said, how is it

England many, many times,” says Sweeney. “It was the

“That was my skeleton,” he says, and as with Sweeney’s

possible it was made in 1915 if it was brand new?”

biggest man-made explosion, at that point, in history.”

fiddle, there was a lot of reconstruction involved in

The explosion could even be heard in London. God

putting flesh to the human story behind it. “Think

knows what it sounded like from Hill 60.

of Homer, The Iliad,” says Lupton. “You get the story

And therein lies the twist in the tale of Sam Sweeney’s Fiddle: Made in the Great War. Turns out that it was old but newly built – Claridge had come by

“So from wanting a lovely new fiddle to play,” says

The fiddle itself telling the story of its maker

of this enormous war but what really touches you is

it at an auction, in pieces in an old manila envelope,

Sweeney, “we discovered this unbelievable tale of

seeing Hector with his wife and his child. And I tried

reconstructed it and put it on sale. That was all he

an amateur fiddle maker who tragically died.” Said

to do the same with this story. You see Richard with

knew. So Sweeney and his father, a keen genealogist,

fiddle has featured on two Bellowhead albums, on

his wife and his daughter and in his workshop, in the

set about investigating Richard Howard. “In 1901 he

innumerable tours and gigs, “but now I know about

music halls, before he goes to the front. Then he goes to

was listed as a stone mason, aged 18. In 1911, he was a

the guy’s life, I’m a bit scared to take it out,” he admits.

the Battle of Messines and it was a great victory for the

music hall performer,” says Sweeney. “Then we found

“It’s priceless, now that I know the story.”

allies, but he was one of the unlucky ones.”

out that he died in Flanders, in the Battle of Messines,

He will be taking it out for an autumn stage tour of

From there, Lupton sinks down to a more

the forthcoming album, in which the World War I

mythological level. “I thought about that great family

fiddle maker, because Sweeney’s fiddle was number

fiddle is as central a character in the story as its

of stories about someone who’s killed, and either a

48 s o n g l i n e s

048_Violin_SL103.indd 48

› issue

Elly Lucas

on June 17 1917.” It is likely that he was an amateur

103

18/08/2014 16:54

048_Violin_SL103.indd 49

18/08/2014 16:54

Africa REVIEWS King Ayisoba Wicked Leaders

Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics Jaiyede Afro

Makkum Records (50 mins)

★★★★★

Strut (51 mins)

★★★★★

Afro-disco hitmaker teams up with some sunny Londoners Orlando Julius should be much more famous outside his native Nigeria.

One of the pioneers of Afrobeat, this is the man who co-wrote the Odyssey smash ‘Goin’ Back to My Roots’ with Lamont Dozier. Indeed, you can hear echoes of that track’s infectious chugging riff throughout, on the punchy ‘Love Thy Neighbour’ or the hypnotic jam ‘Be Counted’, for example, and particularly on a delicious title-track inspired by a childhood experience.

This is his first internationally released studio album and using his raucous tenor sax, his gruff vocals and a pressure-cooking little big band, Julius revisits several

compositions from his early years. Listen to ‘Aseni’ or ‘Buje Buje’ and you could almost be listening to the leader’s Afro Sounders from the 70s. The Heliocentrics add a fuzzy guitar here and a spacey organ there and generally tidy the sound without any taint of slickness.

Perhaps it is because the London-based group are a little less prominent than in other Strut-sponsored collaborations (with Lloyd Miller or Mulatu Astatke) that this meeting of the spirits succeeds so well. Fans of Fela Kuti, Ebo Taylor and others of their stripe will welcome this fine reminder of a past master’s abilities.

MARK SAMPSON

TRACK TO TRY Jaiyede Afro

Hiplife ruler goes traditional Ghanaian popular music is currently dominated by both religious music and the genre known as hiplife. King Ayisoba is well-known in Ghana for mixing electronic beat-driven tracks with traditional songs. However his new album Wicked Leaders is a highly energetic recording made using traditional instruments. Although based in Accra, he originally comes from the north-east region, and it is instruments from that area that dominate this recording. King Ayisoba plays kologo (lute) as well as sings.

Drums, horns and xylophone make up the rest of the instrumentation.

King Ayisoba’s singing is certainly striking: a strident, shrieking voice that could belong to a scary carnival clown. It is not exactly attractive or comforting, but it is certainly entertaining. He animates his songs around other guest vocalists who provide a more musical structure. The singing is a mixture of English and the Ghanaian languages Frafra and Twi. The title-track is the album’s highlight: sung in English, it has a lyric worthy of Fela Kuti and an infectious rhythm.

MARTIN SINNOCK

TRACK TO TRY Wicked Leaders

Tiken Jah Fakoly Dernier Appel Wrasse Records (34 mins)

★★★★★

African reggae’s brightest and best help Fakoly out

TOP

OF THE WORLD TRACK 3

GET THIS ALBUM FREE Readers can get Jaiyede Afro by Orlando Julius with The Heliocentrics when subscribing or renewing with Direct Debit. See CD flyer for details

60 S O N G L I N E S

060-Africa-SL103.indd 60

› ISSUE

The singer Tiken Jah Fakoly is next in line to Alpha Blondy on the somewhat specialised Ivory Coast reggae scene, and his album features that elder mentor figure as a guest vocalist on one song. There are two other two guest singers: Patrice and Nneka.

Both of them are of German-African descent, via Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

This variegation is eminently suited to Fakoly’s cross-genre interlocking of reggae and West African sounds.

These sessions were recorded in Bamako, where Fakoly once lived in exile, and in Paris. Drums, bass, guitars and borderline-cheesy keyboards are woven into an acoustic assemblage that includes kora, balafon and tama

103

18/08/2014 17:13

Africa reviews drum. Fakoly’s voice has a well-worn leatheriness and many of his songs are blessed by potent melodies.

The heavy keyboard bass of ‘Le Prix du Paradis’ redeems any taste failures elsewhere, ensuring this is one of the album’s best cuts. Blondy joins in on ‘Diaspora’, one of the mellower moments, which speaks a universal pop-reggae language. ‘Tata’ immediately follows it, moving in the other direction with a deeply resonant bass drum and some stuttering underarm tama drumming, making it the most West African-sounding track on the album.

Martin Longley

perfunctorily accompany Tessema’s vocal, rather than taking it in any meaningful new direction or recontextualise it. The closer ‘Sewasew’ displays a mournful and lush string arrangement that points to a direction that feels genuinely promising; it’s a shame that this wasn’t explored further over the rest of the album.

Chris Menist

TRACK TO TRY Mastawesha by Kassa Tessema

VARIOUS ARTISTS Maghreb Lyon

TRACK TO TRY Tata

Frémeaux et Associés (3 CDs, 132 mins)

Kassa Tessema Éthiopiques 29: Mastawesha

The history of Arab chanson

Buda Musique (67 mins)

HHHHH

Daniel Techane ÉthioSonic: Jammin’ with Kassa Buda Musique (49 mins)

HHHHH

Plaintive harp’n’vocals from a soulful Ethiopian legend These two latest releases from Buda are in some respects polar opposites, though connected by a common theme. One is an archival collection, another an attempt to rephrase the same material in a modern context, both focusing on the musical talents on Kassa Tessema. He was a key singer in pre-Derg-rule Ethiopia and was part of the Imperial Body Guard from the age of 17. ‘Mastawesha’ captures his plaintive delivery, accompanied by sparse krar (harp) playing, his voice to the front of the mix to ensure focus on his vocal and lyrical dexterity. It’s a deeper outing than previous volumes, and the traditional ‘Tezeta’ and ‘Antchi Hoy Lene’ contain a soulful simplicity.

Mastered from old vinyl, the usage of what sounds like some kind of noise reduction technique interferes with the sonic clarity, which is a pity.

While Daniel Techane’s project is undoubtedly a personal response and interpretation of what Tessema’s music means to him, it is hampered overall by rather hackneyed electronics and production that lacks depth. The music beds, while well composed, merely seem to

HHHHH

The role of Paris and Marseille in the production of North African music in France is well documented: less so that of France’s third city, Lyon.

This compilation by the hard-working Frémeaux brothers begins to remedy the situation for the outside world, at least for the period between 1972 and 1998. And, in particular, the booming recording scene centred round the city’s Place du Pont, where producers like Merabet, Bouarfa and El Bahia churned out hundreds of cassettes for the patrons of the dozens of little workers’ cafés and cabarets. The performers consisted of Moroccans, Tunisians, and above all Algerians, usually holding down day jobs as leather workers or railway maintenance staff, and often working under stage names reflecting their origins: Zaid el Batni (from Batna) Samir Staïfi (from Setif ) or Omar el Maghrebi, whose geographically ambitious name reflected his relatively major fame. The music on the records is heavy on tinny synthesizers, and backed up by bendir and darbuka percussion, sometimes screeching gasba flutes, and occasionally fiddles or guitars. There’s plenty of rai and assorted regional micro-traditional styles, divided thematically across the CDs. One Maghreb Sonny & Cher-style duo named Tazi Boukhari & Aouicha provides a highlight, ‘Comment Faire?’, in which the former bewails his ditching by the latter after he’d left Algeria to follow her, a tale ending in tears, hand-clapping and much ululation to the fade-out.

Philip Sweeney

TRACK TO TRY Comment Faire?

by Tazi Boukhari & Aouicha

Mali All Stars: Bogolan Music

Wrasse Records (2 CDs, 118 mins; DVD 59 mins)

HHHHH

Bogolan-recorded in Bamako You might have thought there were already enough compilations of Malian music in the world. But this well presented box-set puts a fresh spin on it: since all the featured artists have recorded at Bamako’s Bogolan Studios, that is the overall concept, and the set includes a bonus disc with archive footage of the artists at work in the studio itself. The first disc is more traditional, albeit focusing on contemporary acoustic and electric music rather than folkloric field recordings: all the expected names are mostly present, with the exception of a few such as Les Ambassadeurs.

The second disc helps outline why Mali’s Mande music has exerted such an influential pull on world music fans (including Western musicians) over the last quarter-century. Dee Dee Bridgewater sounds perfectly comfortable sparring with Kassé Mady Diabaté, while Björk makes herself at home over a ruminative digital backing with Toumani Diabaté on ‘Hope’ and even the overrated Damon Albarn puts in an effort that doesn’t sound nearly as hammy as he did back in 1992.

Jon Lusk

TRACK TO TRY Bad Spirits by Dee Dee Bridgewater & Kassé Mady Diabaté

Memoirs of an Arabian Princess Winter & Winter (75 mins)

HHHHH

Conjuring up a hazy Zanzibar This album takes its title from a 19th-century autobiography

by Emily Ruete.

Born Sayyida Salme, the daughter of the Sultan of Zanzibar and Oman, she married a German merchant and went to live in Hamburg. This CD is a sort of evocation of memories of Zanzibar. Taarab is the distinctive music there, here provided by the slimmed-down ensemble of qanun (zither) player Rajab Suleiman & Kithara. But alongside it is rootsier kidumbak music and devotional Sufi singing from Tarbiyya Islamiyya and the wonderful Mtendi Maulid Ensemble chanting and swaying over insistent drumming. These are interleaved with soundscapes of the

sea, a storm and most spectacularly the sound of simultaneous calls to prayer from the many mosques of Stone Town overtaken by the sound of a church choir. But they seem rather cursory – generalised street sounds rather than vivid close-ups – and some of the music recordings, particularly the kidumbak of the Sina Chuki group is focused on the percussion rather than the violin or vocals of Makame Faki. As an evocation of Zanzibar, it is not quite vivid enough.

Simon Broughton

TRACK TO TRY In the Morning

Rough Guide to the Music of the Sahara World Music Network (2 CDs, 123 mins)

HHHHH

Digging the music of the desert The rich river of talent flowing from beneath the sands of West Africa has rather hijacked our perception of music from the Sahara in recent years. But, as the liner notes remind us, the Sahara is ‘almost as big as the USA’ and spans an area that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. It has a diversity of cultures and traditions to match. The distinctive, snaking desert blues of the Touareg and Wodabe peoples is well represented by four tracks from the extended family around Niger’s Etran Finatawa – three of them previously unreleased. Samba Touré and Anansy Cissé represent the Songhai blues tradition that Ali Farka Touré made famous. Mauritania’s Moudou Ould Mattalla and Libya’s Touareg de Fewet offer further earthy variants of the now familiar desert blues template, and the soulful voice of the Saharawi singer Mariem Hassan confirms why her album El Ajun Egdat went to number one in the WMCE (World Music Charts Europe) in 2012.

Although there’s plenty of cultural diversity between these artists, there is also a sonic cohesion. The same isn’t necessarily true when we travel to the eastern Sahara for tracks by Sudan’s Abdel Gadir Salim and Emmanuel Jal. The Nubian/Egyptian sounds of Ali Hassan Kuban, Salamat and Mahmoud Fadl sound as if they come from a quite different world. Separated by three and a half million square miles of sand, in a sense they do, and the contrast they offer is more than welcome. There is also a bonus disc from Mamane Barka.

Nigel Williamson

TRACK TO TRY Wodaabe Blues by Bammo Agonla & Tankari

issue 103

060-Africa-SL103.indd 61

› songlines

61

18/08/2014 17:14

the essential

Scottish Albums

With classical violinist Nicola Benedetti paying tribute to her Scottish roots and the country being on the verge of voting on their independence, what better time to highlight some of our current favourite Scottish albums?

Words Jo Frost

01 Martyn Bennett Grit (Real World Gold, 2014)

Recently reissued including two previously unreleased tracks, this album by the late young Scottish maverick is a testament to his spirit and untamed musical approach to mixing up traditional Gaelic songs with techno beats.

This is an album to get you bouncing around the kitchen, try out the track on this issue’s covermount CD (see p6).

02 Breabach Ùrlar (Breabach Records, 2013) Recently featured as part of Boomerang (in #101), together with indigenous Maori and Aboriginal musicians, the young quintet have deservedly proved themselves worthy recipients of the Scots Trad Music Award for Best Group. Their combination of new and traditional material, bagpipes and vocals has proved a winning formula. Reviewed in #98.

03 Capercaillie At the Heart of it All (Vertical Records, 2013) The doyens of the Scottish trad scene, who celebrated their 30th anniversary at this year’s Celtic Connections festival. Lead singer Karen Matheson and husband Donald Shaw recently featured in the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, proving they’re still very much at the forefront of Scottish music. Reviewed in #96.

04 Duncan Chisholm Live at Celtic Connections (Copperfish, 2013) It is very difficult to single out one album from Chisholm’s superb Strathglass Trilogy (Affric, Farrar, Canaich), so instead try this live album of the fiddler performing tracks from 96 s o n g l i n e s

096_Essential10_SL103.indd 96

› issue

all three albums together with his band, at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery during Celtic Connections. Coincidentally Duncan Chisholm also features on Benedetti’s latest album, see p36. Reviewed in #98.

05 Julie Fowlis Gach Sgeul – Every Story (Machair Records, 2014) A Songlines cover star earlier this year (#99), the Gaelic singer also features on Benedetti’s album, performing a traditional waulking song. Fowlis’ latest release stays true to the very heart of the Gaelic tradition and it’s a beautiful collection of songs, showcasing her talent in puirt à beul – the incredibly fast ‘mouth music’ vocal style from the Highlands. Reviewed in #99.

06 Lau Race the Loser (Reveal Records, 2012) OK, admittedly they’re only two-thirds Scottish but accordionist Martin Green is practically a Scot, having lived north of the border for some time.

The trio excel when it comes to their thrilling live performances, winning them numerous Radio 2 Folk Awards. This latest offering is as innovative and exciting as their debut, Lightweights & Gentlemen. Reviewed in #88.

07 Karine Polwart

Traces (Hegri Records, 2012)

There’s something about Polwart’s understated yet poignant singing that really hooks you in.

Beautiful melodies and incisive lyrics on songs inspired by subjects as diverse as the Occupy movement protests to Donald Trump’s controversial golf course plans. One of Scotland’s finest contemporary songwriters, Polwart also gets brownie points for her love of birds – Hegri, the name of her label, is the Gaelic word for heron. Reviewed in #87.

08 Patsy Reid The Brightest Path (Classy Trad Records, 2014) The young fiddler cut her teeth with Breabach, but since leaving the group, she’s become one of the UK’s most in-demand musicians, with appearances in the Cecil Sharp Project, VAMM and Kathryn Tickell’s Northumbrian Voices project. Her latest solo release sees her mixing up both self-written and traditional material and also showcases her fine vocal skills too. Reviewed in #99.

09 Salsa Celtica The Tall Islands (Discos Leon, 2014) And now for something completely different – Scottish ceilidh meets Latino salsa. The pioneering group started off as a bunch of mates jamming in a club in Edinburgh (see Beginner’s Guide in #98) and since then they’ve got audiences up and dancing around the world, most recently in Colombia where they made their debut appearance earlier this year. An album guaranteed to get you in a party mood. Reviewed in #99.

10 Various Artists Transatlantic Sessions 6 (Whirlie Records, 2014) Again, not a strictly purely Scottish affair, but the incredibly successful concept of bringing a range of leading folk musicians from the UK and Ireland together with a host of talent from across the pond was masterminded by Shetland fiddler Aly Bain. Plus the recording sessions take place in the Highlands. If you’re a fan of the BBC TV series, then you’ll love this album – the latest release that highlights why the series is the best music programme on TV and has been such a hit. Reviewed in #99.

+ LET US KNOW Who did we miss? Write and let us know, letters@songlines.co.uk

103

19/08/2014 16:35

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE As a Songlines print subscriber you get:

£29.75*

E xclusive compilation one year subscription CD free with every issue (8 issues) Save 25% off the cover price* Bonus CDs throughout the year Subscriber-only offers and competitions D iscounted access to Songlines Digital for only £9.75 L ive outside of the UK? Europe (incl Eire) £36 Rest of the World £44

Claim one of the following Best Albums of 2013 for free if you subscribe or renew by Direct Debit**

Claim your free Songlines Best of 2013 album**

www.songlines.co.uk/subs or call +44 (0)20 7274 7215

* Full retail price for a year (8 issues) is £39.60; One-year subscription £29.75 UK, £36.00 EU, £44.00 ROW. ** Direct Debit is only available to UK customers.

A free CD can only be claimed when paying with Direct Debit. Overseas readers can claim a free CD when subscribing or renewing for two years.

issue 103

095-SubsPage_SL103.indd 95

› songlines

95

19/08/2014 17:39

cERYs matthews Cerys calls on all festival-goers with a craving for the good life to bring their love of music and sense of adventure to Wales

NEXT ISSUE On Sale October 10 Afrobeat Masters Orlando Julius and Tony Allen Kassé Mady Diabaté The Malian veteran releases a new album Jyotsna Srikanth Karnatic music from Bangalore to London Bonus CD A Galician music sampler

98 s o n g l i n e s

098_Cerys_SL103.indd 98

Nenad Obradovic

W

hat a wonderful world it would be if everyone shared just a little more of the easy-going, musicloving, Madras Cafe dhal-eating, cider-drinking ways of the folk at WOMAD festival. Alas, this is too much of an imaginative leap for even this Pollyanna. But WOMAD did provide plenty of other highlights: Anna Cinzia Villani and her super-fast vocal delivery (which, to my ears, nodded at times to Rossini’s Barber of Seville), Songhoy Blues, Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita, and Dom Flemons & Martin Simpson.

It was an interesting visit this year for another reason. I’m walking straight past all the red light warnings to never invest in restaurants, football clubs or festivals and straight into new territory – after 25 years of being the ‘turn,’ I’ve now decided to turn the tables and become the co-owner and organiser of my very own festival.

The seeds were sown several months ago after I spotted a manifesto in a local shop window. It was called the ‘Manifesto for a Better Life’, and it went like this: ‘Play the whole album in the right order. Open the window. Hold the grumpy email until the morning. Say hello. Smile at strangers.

Turn off your phone...’ and so on. Of course I walked into the shop, Pedlars (found next door to Rough Trade off Portobello Road in London), and right into the company of my future festival-owning partners, Caroline and Charlie Gladstone.

‘For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction’ goes the physics equation that just keeps popping into my head because it seems the reaction to all of our screen time and fast living seems to be a growing hankering for the good life – for home baking, foraging, campfire cooking, outdoor pursuits. Basically, there’s a yearning to turn off the phones, go off grid for a while, and get one’s hands down and dirty in the traditional crafts that we have floated so far away from.

I admired another manifesto that the Gladstones and their loyal Pedlars customers had compiled called the ‘Manifesto for the Kitchen’ (see picture), and together we decided to walk the walk not just talk the talk and start a festival with a difference – The Good Life Experience.

This new festival would offer total value for money and present not just beautifully curated music and locally sourced whole foods and drink, but also a huge dollop of the

great outdoors – a chance to learn different skills so that you would leave knowing more than when you arrive.

So weaving around the Balkan music of the London-based band Paprika, the storytelling of Dessislava Stefanova with her London Bulgarian Choir, the poetry of Musa Okwonga and the welcoming strains of old-time buccaneers CC Smugglers, there will be activities like abseiling, archery, bushcraft, axe throwing, wild swimming talks with Kate Rew, foraging, truffle hunting, baking with one of the Fabulous Baker Boys and Bill Granger, a vintage fairground, yoga, sausage making and campfire cooking.

Another point we prioritise is a one-price entry to cover everything – so as well as the music, all talks and activities are included.

Meaning festival-goers need only pay for food and drink, but the food will be capped at £7 pounds and sourced from organic farms within a 30-mile local radius, so no overpriced festival gloop here. Add to that the largest collection of artisan beer ever collected in one space in Wales, and I think we have the recipe for a rather special festival.

Where and when is it? It’s two hours from Euston, 45 minutes from Liverpool or Manchester and held in the green hills of the Hawarden Estate on the border of Flintshire and Cheshire. The main day happens on Saturday September 20, but you are welcome to pitch up and spend the whole weekend camping – there are fringe events from Friday to Sunday in surrounding venues. Bring a tent and a guitar.

The reaction to our fast living seems to be a growing hankering for the good life

› issue

+O NLINE www.thegoodlifeexperience.co.uk +D ISCOUNT Save 15% on The Good Life Experience tickets by calling 01244 784 122 and quoting ‘TGLSL’

+ C ORRECTION The tank made of books, described in the last column, is called ‘Weapons of Mass Instruction’

103

19/08/2014 16:30

£10

DI G I TA L Only £19.75 and includes free access to the Songlines Tablet edition for iPad, Kindle Fire & Android

OFF for print subscribers.

Only + £9.75!

Songlines Digital looks and reads just like the print edition, is fully indexed and searchable.

In each edition you are able to zoom in and print features, navigate easily throughout the issue and link to external websites from editorial articles and advertisements. Songlines Digital will allow you to read your copy of Songlines on any computer and web browser worldwide.

As a digital subscriber you get: Eight editions of Songlines to view online a year Instant access – each issue goes live before our on-sale date Access to all the back issues from #48 (December 2007)

TABLET

+ Download the free Songlines app from:

www.songlines.co.uk/digital +44 (0)20 7274 7215

*Use your Songlines Digital login for free access within the app.

Songlines Digital doesn’t include the Top of the World CD but the Tablet edition includes streamed excerpts from each I S Strack U E 9(available 6 › S O N Gfrom L I N E#89) S 97

097_Digital_page_SL103.indd 97

19/08/2014 18:11