Songlines Magazine (March 2016, #115) by Songlines Magazine

WELCOME

Mark Allen Group St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Rd, London, SE24 0PB, UK +44 (0)20 7738 5454 info@songlines.co.uk www.songlines.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS

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+44 (0)20 7501 6683 Editor-in-chief Simon Broughton Publisher Paul Geoghegan Editor Jo Frost Deputy Editor Alexandra Petropoulos Art Director Calvin McKenzie Content & Marketing Executive, News Editor Edward Craggs Advertisement Manager James Anderson-Hanney Online Content Editor James McCarthy Reviews Editor Matthew Milton Listings Editor Tatiana Rucinska World Cinema Editor Yoram Allon Cover image Javi Rojo Contributing Editors Jane Cornwell, Mark Ellingham & Nigel Williamson Assisted in this issue by Emma Baker

Ch-ch-ch-changes

ast month I was in Chennai, South India for IndiEarth XChange, an ambitious mixture of conferences, workshops and showcases of independent music and film. Over three days there were 33 showcasing artists, most from India, but also from China, Mongolia, La Réunion, Germany, France, Ireland and the UK. The latter was Scottish DJ and producer Howie B whose presentation and DJ set were among the most popular events. For me, the standout showcases were cellist Saskia Rao-de Haas and the band Thappattam. Saskia Rao-de Haas is a Dutch-born musician who got interested in Indian music and studied at the Rotterdam Conservatoire with Hariprasad Chaurasia. Since then she’s married a sitar player and moved to Delhi. While she basically plays Hindustani music, what I really liked was the fact that she was playing cello in an experimental way, with ragas that sounded like Western melodies and adding surprising pauses and silences. Thappattam are a band from the Tamil temple town of Thanjavur. A thappattam is a drum, which they play along with other drums, bass guitar and a large reedy nadaswaram (temple oboe, pictured on p18) swaying like an elephant from side to side. They would go down a storm at a European festival. I was there to lead a music journalism workshop – thanks to the British Council. I chose the live review by Reji Varghese (on p72) for publication as his overnight reviews were thoughtful and evocative. From next issue, this space will be taken over by editor Jo Frost. One hundred and fifteen editorials – I can hardly believe it! But it’s not time for early retirement, I’ll have my own column carved out elsewhere in the magazine.

She was playing cello in an experimental way, with ragas that sounded like Western melodies

Simon Broughton, editor-in-chief

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE INCLUDE

Intern Jamie Kyei Manteaw Subscriptions Director Sally Boettcher Music Editorial Director Martin Cullingford Publishing Director Sian Harrington Managing Director Jon Benson CEO Ben Allen Chairman Mark Allen

© MA Business & Leisure Ltd, 2016. All rights reserved. ISSN 1464-8113. MA Business & Leisure Ltd is part of the Mark Allen Group Printing Pensord Press Ltd Record trade distribution WWMD Ltd 0121 788 3112 Newstrade distribution COMAG 01895 433600 The paper used within this publication has been sourced from Chain-of-Custody certified manufacturers, operating within international environmental standards, to ensure sustainable sourcing of the raw materials, sustainable production and to minimise our carbon footprint.

Bella Hardy The BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year 2014 has recently returned from a six-week musical residency in Yunnan Province, China, organised by the British Council. Read about Bella’s experiences on p83.

Bram Posthumus Amsterdam-born Bram has spent the last 20odd years travelling and reporting on West Africa. He speaks to Burkina Faso’s rap hero Smockey, about the uprising that removed a president, after 27 years in power (p32).

Rachel Harris An ethnomusicologist teaching at SOAS, University of London, Rachel has done field research in many parts of China and Central Asia. Check out her selection of ten Essential Chinese albums, featured on p98.

Songlines was launched in 1999 and is the definitive magazine for world music – music that has its roots in all parts of the globe, from Mali to Mexico, India to Iraq. Whether this music is defined as traditional, contemporary, folk or fusion, Songlines is the only magazine to truly represent and embrace it. However, Songlines is not just about music, but about how the music fits into the landscape: it’s about politics, history and identity. Delivered in both print and digital formats, Songlines, through its extensive articles and reviews, is your essential and independent guide to a world of music and culture, whether you are starting on your journey of discovery or are already a seasoned fan.

@SonglinesMag

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CONTENTS

78 The Chieftains Simon Broughton

UPFRONT

FEATURES

REVIEWS

06 09

Buika

The Gloaming

46 48 52 61 63 64 67 69 70 72

11 16 18 19 20

Top of the World CD Bonus CD – Polish Radio Folk Festival What’s New & Obits Introducing... Imarhan & Dubioza Kolektiv Letters Spotlight: The Other Classical Musics Songlines Music Travel

32 38 40

The Spanish singer confronts her fears The Irish-American group record their second album

Smockey

The soundtrack to Burkina Faso’s revolution

Sidestepper

Colombia’s electrocumbia pioneers

Show of Hands The stalwarts of English folk

“There is no such thing as silence. Silence is just an illusion made by being in perfect harmony with all that you hear” Buika, read more on p22

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

Alex Robinson

Moloney archives

Ireland’s musical ambassadors in China, 1983

REGULARS 74 77 78 80 83 85 87 95 96 97 98

My World: Carrie Gracie Postcard from Alter do Chão, Brazil Beginner’s Guide: The Chieftains Festival Pass: Kazimierz Dolny Dispatch from Yunnan, China Quickfire Gig Guide Overseas Festival Subscribe Soapbox Essential Ten: Chinese albums

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top of the world

01 Baaba Maal ‘Fulani Rock’ 02 Grupo Fantasma ‘Nada’ 03 Mamak Khadem ‘A Thousand Strings’ 04 Show of Hands ‘Walk With Me (When the Sun Goes Down)’ 05 FitkinWall ‘Mapping’ 06 Vesevo ‘’O Rre Rre’ 07 Smockey feat Awa Boussim ‘Fierté Chevaline’ 08 Sidestepper ‘Supernatural Love’ 09 Čači Vorba ‘Yasemi Mou’ 10 Pagoda Project ‘Shipton’

Free tracks

THE BEST NEW RELEASES

CARRIE GRACIE’S PLAYLIST

top

of the world

TOP

OF THE WORLD

ISSUE 115 115 PLUS 5 tracks chosen by Carrie Gracie 11 Shigeru Umebayashi ‘Yumeji’s Theme’ 12 Hanggai ‘Hershut Hero’ 13 Julie Fowlis ‘Tha Mo Ghaol Air Àird a’ Chuain’ 14 Yungchen Lhamo ‘Coming Home’ 15 Shanren ‘Drinking Song’

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

Featuring Baaba Maal, Julie Fowlis, Hanggai, Grupo Fantasma, Show of Hands, Sidestepper, Smockey, Yungchen Lhamo, Shanren and more... SLTOTWCD-115-onbody.indd 1

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STWCD91 This compilation & © 2016 MA Business & Leisure Ltd info@songlines.co.uk, www.songlines.co.uk Executive producer Paul Geoghegan. Compiled and sequenced by Alexandra Petropoulos & Jo Frost. Design by Calvin McKenzie. 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. Left Foot Dance of the Yi (Riverboat Records) & © 2014 World Music Network. Courtesy of World Music Network

05 FitkinWall ‘Mapping’ (5:10)

10 Pagoda Project ‘Shipton’ (5:05)

09 Čači Vorba ‘Yasemi Mou’ (4:33)

04 Show of Hands ‘Walk With Me (When the Sun Goes Down)’ (2:43)

15 Shanren ‘Drinking Song’ (2:29)

14 Yungchen Lhamo ‘Coming Home’ (8:04)

13 Julie Fowlis ‘Tha Mo Ghaol Air Àird a’ Chuain’ (3:09)

top of the world plaYlist tracks 07 Smockey feat Awa Boussim ‘Fierté Chevaline’ (4:53)

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02 Grupo Fantasma ‘Nada’ (3:57)

01 Baaba Maal ‘Fulani Rock’ (4:47)

12 Hanggai ‘Hershut Hero’ (3:59)

06 Vesevo ‘’O Rre Rre’ (5:51)

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Yumeji & theme from In the Mood for Love (Lantis Company Ltd) 2013 First Name Soundtracks/Lantis Company Ltd & © 2013 Lantis Company Ltd. Courtesy of First Name Soundtracks/Lantis Company Ltd

11 Shigeru Umebayashi ‘Yumeji’s Theme’ (2:33) CARRIE GRACIE’S PLAYLIST

TOP OF THE WORLD SELECTION

10 tracks from this issue’s best new albums + 5 bonus tracks exclusively with the March 2016 issue of Songlines

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06 Vesevo ‘’O Rre Rre’

From The Traveller on Marathon Artists

From Vesevo on Agualoca Records

Baaba Maal returns with his first album

The Neapolitan trio provide a unique and

in seven years. The Traveller is a career

contemporary take on southern Italy’s

highlight and an exhilarating summation

traditional songs and dances, utilising

of his life in which his activism and music

catchy rhythms and strong harmonies

are seamlessly intertwined. See p46

across nine tracks. See p59

02 Grupo Fantasma ‘Nada’

07 Smockey feat Awa Boussim

The Austin-based nine-piece take on

From Pre’volution: Le Président, Ma Moto et Moi on Outhere Records

a new approach to recording here; the

The hip-hop artist from Burkina Faso

songs have a new-found sheen and are an

releases his new album, made in the

entertaining mix of funk, urban groove,

midst of political unrest and revolution

rap and Latin pop-rock. See p49

in his home country. See p47

03 Mamak Khadem ‘A Thousand Strings’

08 Sidestepper

Despite an undeservingly understated

The electro-cumbia pioneers from

career, the Iranian singer’s third album

Colombia explore the overlooked

showcases stunning vocals and various

traditions of the country’s African music.

musical influences, from the Middle East

The result is a calm, collected and cool

to Eastern Europe. See p61

celebration of musical culture. See p50

04 Show of Hands ‘Walk with Me (When the Sun Goes Down)’

09 Čači Vorba

From Problemas on Blue Corn Music

From The Road on Innova

‘Fierté Chevaline’

‘Supernatural Love’ From Supernatural Love on Real World

‘Yasemi Mou’ From Šatrika on Oriente Musik

From The Long Way Home on Hands On Music

Fronted by the excellent fiddle player and

Respected folk act duo Show of Hands

vocalist Maria Natanson, the Polish group

mark the new year with a new album,

exhibit inventive arrangements and

continuing a long run of two decades’

striking vocals on a distinctive collection

worth of solid material. See p55

of songs of Romani origin. See p52

05 FitkinWall ‘Mapping’

10 Pagoda Project

Via the combination of Gaelic wire-

A meeting between two artists from two

strung and concert harps and various

different musical backgrounds results

electronic elements, Graham Fitkin

in one of this year’s most relaxing and

and Ruth Wall create a suspenseful, yet

pleasurable listens. A carefully crafted and

reserved and cohesive album. See p64

thoughtful album. See p65

From Lost on GFR

06 s o n g l i n e s

08 Sidestepper ‘Supernatural Love’ (3:41)

01 Baaba Maal ‘Fulani Rock’

03 Mamak Khadem ‘A Thousand Strings’ (5:16)

‘Shipton’

From Clarion on Sylvafield

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+ Carrie Gracie’s playlist 11

11 Shigeru Umebayashi ‘Yumeji’s Theme’ From Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Yumeji & theme from In the Mood for Love on Lantis Company Ltd This is used as the signature tune for a BBC news series Gracie has made called White Horse Village, which tells the story of this (once) remote community over ten years.

12 Hanggai ‘Hershut Hero’ From Baifang on Harlem Recordings

“Hanggai are ethnic Monglians in Beijing brought up on punk trying to find the throat singing roots of their Helen Jones

music. I also like that their influences are Pink Floyd and Radiohead!”

13 Julie Fowlis ‘Tha Mo Ghaol Air Àird a’ Chuain’ From Mar a Tha Mo Chridhe on Machair Records

“I do love Scottish folk music and if you get some Gracies together and give them a drink and either a piano or a guitar, some singing will emerge.”

14 Yungchen Lhamo ‘Coming Home’

“Scotland connects with Mongolia and Tibet more closely in music than in any other way. It’s part of the same continuum. There’s a freedom of spirit that’s outside the rule-bound societies that now predominate” Turn to p74 for the full interview with Carrie Gracie

From Coming Home on Real World

Lhamo has dedicated her life to spreading the word about Tibetan culture. “It’s hard not to feel enormous sympathy for exile cut off from their cultural roots.”

15 Shanren ‘Drinking Song’

From Left Foot Dance of the Yi on Riverboat Records Shanren are a band whose name “means ‘people who live in the mountains’ and

New African Women Magazine

Tibetans, and people who have to live in

NEXT ISSUE: Shingai Shoniwa’s Playlist The lead singer and bassist of indie rock band Noisettes chooses her favourite tracks to be featured on the covermount CD of the April 2016 issue (#116).

Yunnan is one of the famously beautiful parts of China, which is still unravaged by modernisation.”

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BONUS CD – ADVERTORIAL

POLISH RADIO FOLK FESTIVAL

YOUR BONUS FREE CD

The New Tradition Polish Radio Folk Festival has been one of Poland’s key folk and world music events since 1998. The Folk Phonogram of the Year and the Roots Phonogram awards recognise the best Polish folk and traditional music, but it is the competition for Poland’s up-and-coming folk artists, inspired by the country’s traditional rural and ethnic minorities music, that continues to be the festival’s highlight ﬁxture. New Tradition is one of many ways Polish Radio’s Programme 2 promotes Poland’s top folk acts. main prize. The multiple-member band, led by Franciszek Szpilman, play expressive contemporary music tinged with jazz, rock, avant-garde, klezmer and Balkan wind orchestra – what they call ‘radical ethno.’

1 Warsaw Village Band ‘Mateusz’ (2007) Poland’s most popular folk act took its ﬁrst steps on stage at New Tradition. Last year saw the release of the band’s seventh album Święto Słońca (Sun Celebration), featuring guest performances by renowned aritists including Mercedes Péon and Kayhan Kalhor. 2 Kwadrofonik ‘Byłem tu, Fryderyk’ (2009) Two duos of grand piano and percussion joined forces in 2005 to form the quartet Kwadrofonik. Chamber music and Polish folk traditions shape their musical output, and the group have won multiple awards in Poland and abroad. 3 Sutari ‘Kupalnocka’ (2012) The all-female trio of vocalists and multi-instrumentalists combine traditional music, theatre and performance art. The driving force behind their simple, even raw melodies is the distinctively vigorous delivery of the female vocalists. 4 Kapela Maliszów ‘Wiązanka mazurków Kacpra Malisza’ (2014) One of the biggest breakthrough groups of the domestic folk circuit in recent years, Jan Malisz and his two children chieﬂy draw on the musical heritage of southern Poland, as well as traditional music from other regions, for their own original works.

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5 Agata Siemaszko & Kuba ‘Bobas’ Wilk ‘Ko kodoj, ko kodoj’ (2011) Agata Siemaszko, who sings and plays Romani and Carpathian music, and guitarist/bassist Wilk ﬁrst met in the Roma band, Kałe Bała. They formed a duo in 2010, bringing together expressive vocals and blues- and jazz-tinged guitar improvisations. They have collaborated with many artists, and in 2012 Agata performed with Mostar Sevdah Reunion at the New Tradition Festival. 6 Čači Vorba ‘Sune Caje’ (2012) A prominent group in Poland and Europe, Čači Vorba are signed to independent German label Oriente. They play Gypsy, Carpathian and Balkan music with heartfelt gusto. Among their ranks is one of the greatest voices in Polish ethnic music, Maria Natanson, who also plays violin. 7 Karolina Cicha, Bart Pałyga & Spółka ‘Białystok majn hejm’ (2013) Vocalist Karolina Cicha, with Bart Pałyga, sings about her hometown Białystok, showcasing its multicultural diversity. The music explores the history of both the city and the larger Podlasie region. 8 Banda Nella Nebbia ‘Screaming Rondo’ (2015) This band stormed the music scene in 2015, scooping New Tradition’s

9 Maciej Filipczuk & the Wedding Guests ‘Mazurki z repertuaru Kazimierza Mety’ (2014) Filipczuk and his band follow the tradition of Kazimierz Meto, a violinist from Mazovia, Rawa District. Ther genuine and simple delivery touched the audience at the Sounds Like Poland showcase at Warsaw’s Cross-Culture Festival in 2015. 10 Muzykanci ‘Kare Konie’ (1998) The Hałas and Słowiński couples, who comprise Muzykanci, have been playing together for nearly 20 years, while also pursuing separate careers on Poland’s ethnic music scene. They were one of the ﬁrst Polish folk bands to win wide acclaim from audiences and critics alike. After several years’ break, the group re-formed in 2010, and have been touring successfully ever since. In October 2015, the band performed at WOMEX in Budapest. 11 Się Gra ‘Oberek’ (1999) This group brings together musicians from Lublin’s local folk scene and draws on Poland and Central Europe’s multi-ethnic heritage, from the Balkans to the Baltic. They won the Folk Phonogram of the Year in 2000. 12 Trzy Dni Później ‘Oj lulaj, lulaj’ (2014) The ﬂawless harmonies of three Silesian vocalists blended with subtle electronic sounds secured this trio a prize at New Tradition in 2014. The band’s latest album, which is inspired by traditional music, is dedicated to their grandmothers.

13 The Cracow Klezmer Band/ The Bester Quartet ‘Miłosna orchidea’ (2000) Now performing under the name Bester Quartet, this band is one of the world’s best-established acts of their genre. The artists move freely across musical styles, including jazz, klezmer and the avant-garde. They have been releasing their albums on John Zorn’s celebrated Tzadik label for many years. 14 Chłopcy Kontra Basia ‘Mam męża’ (2010) The winners of the World Music Network Battle of the Bands in 2012, the group draws on Polish, Ukrainian and Balkan music, as well as traditional poetry for their original music, while keeping jazz as an essential inﬂuence on their compositions. Their music explores folk-style stories and legends with a contemporary sound. 15 Vołosi ‘Walc Stanisławów’ (2015) Here, highlanders from the Beskid Sądecki Mountains meet classically trained musicians. The two musical worlds ﬁrst collided at a wedding – of one of the future band members – and they have been playing together ever since. Carpathian music lies at the core of their work. The artists themselves say they create a new soundscape for those deeply rooted in tradition. The band won numerous awards at New Tradition in 2010. 16 Adam Strug ‘Źiła śwanta Dorota’ (2012) Strug is one of the greatest singersongwriters interpreting Polish songs. He has garnered acclaim for both his a capella recitals, particularly his renditions of pieces originating from the Kurpie region, and his original songs performed with his group. In 2015, he released an album with Kwadrofonik, Requiem Ludowe (Folk Requiem).

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What’s new Views, news and events from around the world

One of Zaatari’s refugees and oud player, Abu Abdullah

The Grammy Goes to... Here are the nominations for the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album. Winners will be announced on February 15. Gilberto Gil – Gilbertos Samba Ao Vivo Angélique Kidjo – Sings Ladysmith Black Mambazo with Ella Spira & The Inala Ensemble – Music from Inala: A Zulu Ballet Anoushka Shankar – Home Zomba Prison Project – I Have No Everything Here Other nominees: Best Tropical Latin Album: Juan Luis Guerra – Todo Tiene Su Hora Best Americana Album: Punch Brothers – The Phosphorescent Blues Best Folk Album: Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn – Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn

Recording Earth

Longing for Syria Just a few kilometres east of Mafraq in Jordan, the Zaatari refugee camp stretches over three square kilometres. Originally established in 2012 to host Syrians fleeing the violence in their home country, the camp is now home to an estimated 83,000 refugees. In November, filmmakers Olly Burton and Alex Blogg of Recording Earth visited the camp. They were so moved by what they found they set out to make a series of short documentaries about Zaatari, and how music and poetry are helping its residents to cope w w w . s o n g l i n e s . c o. u k

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with life in the camp. After recording and speaking to several musicians and a poet they quickly discovered that almost all of the songs and poems shared a common theme – Syria, nostalgia and a longing for home. In a place where freedom of speech easily gets you arrested, refugees have daringly turned to music in order express their feelings. +O NLINE www.recordingearth.com +M ORE Read more about this story and listen to music from Zaatari’s refugees on our blog, www.bit.ly/songlines-zaatari

“Certainly we didn’t have to worry too much about them pulling a disappearing act mid-session… the way musicians are so often known to do!” Ian Brennan talks about recording the Zomba Prison Project album. Read more about their surprise Grammy nomination on p14

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INTRODUCING...

Jo Bongard

Imarhan

The young Touareg band are striking out from under Tinariwen’s shadow and doing their own thing. Andy Morgan reports

ack in 2010, I stayed with Tinariwen’s bassist Eyadou Ag Leche at his home in Tamanrasset, southern Algeria. When I arrived a bunch of youths were rehearsing with their guitars in one of the bedrooms. As soon as we entered they stopped and left. They seemed shy but self-reliant and clearly on a mission. One of them, Iyad Ag Ibrahim, aka ‘Sadam’, was a cousin of Eyadou. Now that band of reticent teenagers have become the rising stars of Touareg music. They call themselves Imarhan, which means ‘The Closest Ones’ in the Touareg language of Tamashek. It’s stronger than the word imidiwan, which often crops up in modern Tamashek lyrics and simply means ‘Friends’ or ‘Companions’. Your imarhan are your most intimate soul-buddies, bar none. These particular imarhan first got together in 2006. They were childhood friends who grew up in Tamanrasset. “I’ve always lived there,” says Sadam. “Same neighbourhood [Sersouf ], same school, always the same.” Considering the recent history of the Touareg, that’s significant. Sadam and his friends aren’t old ishumar rebels from the ‘home country’ in northern Mali, like

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Tinariwen. They’re a new generation, born ‘in exile’. Their music is different. So are their clothes, their ideas, their outlook, even the slang they use. Journalists are already calling them ‘the sons of Tinariwen.’ “I don’t like the term that much,” Sadam tells me, “because I think that our own work, our research, have made us different. They’ve led us to more of a mix, something a bit more modern. We’ve still kept the Touareg touch of the ishumar, but we’re open to the world. We’ve searched for our own style.” Looks alone offer a stark demarcation: Imarhan’s woollen beanies, combat trousers and stoner mini-dreads are a far cry from the traditional robes of Tinariwen. Sadam, who’s recently been touring with Tinariwen, standing in for the semi-retired Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, doesn’t mind those majestic traditional threads. He just feels a Touareg should be allowed to wear what he or she wants. But Tinariwen were still the teachers. Sadam and his fellow band members – Tahar Ag Kaddor, Hicham Ag Boubas, Kada Ag Chanani, Hachim Ag Abdelkader and Habibalah Ag Azouz – cut their teeth on the first two Tinariwen albums, as well as the

traditional sounds of the Touareg tindé (drum) and tazaghmat (flute) and desert sounds from further afield. “Ibrahim [Ag Alhabib] is like the father of all this music,” Sadam says. “He’s very important. So, yes, ‘the sons of Ibrahim’… why not!?” But it’s Sadam’s uncle who’s had the most direct input into Imarhan’s sound. “Eyadou has guided me since I was small,” Sadam says. The Tinariwen bassist also produced Imarhan, their forthcoming debut. A Touareg musician producing other Touareg musicians! That’s a big leap forward, long overdue. But what’s the message? “I think you have to look for every solution before taking up arms,” Sadam tells me. “The Touareg are often taking up arms, but I don’t think it brings the result that people hope for. Everybody must go to school, because there aren’t enough welleducated leaders among the Touareg.” And an independent Touareg state? “Even if they give independence to the Touareg, there aren’t enough welleducated administrators to manage all that independence.”

+D ates Imarhan will play London and Brighton on March 10 & 11

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Dubioza Kolektiv

Garth Carthwright talks to the Bosnian band who have become a Balkan phenomenon and aren’t afraid to speak their minds

osnian band Dubioza Kolektiv are a Balkan phenomenon. Not just popular in former Yugoslavia, where they have packed 10,000-seat arenas, they also command a large following across much of eastern, northern and central Europe. Indeed, the only part of Europe where they remain largely unknown appears to be the UK. But this is changing; in 2015 they played at Glastonbury in June, and then debuted in London with two soldout nights at The 100 Club in November. Dubioza Kolektiv formed in 2003 when several friends in Zeneca and Sarajevo decided to pool their energies. Fusing all kinds of influences, the band embraced a punk DIY spirit and began playing anywhere and everywhere. They have released eight albums, all on their

Goran Lizdek

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own label, Gramofon, and every one is available as a free download from the band’s website. They also manage themselves. To call the band ‘furiously independent’ is an understatement: they do everything on their own terms and refuse to compromise to commercial or political interests. I mention ‘political’ as Dubioza Kolektiv are more than simply outspoken; the band often lampoon politicians across former Yugoslavia (on stage and in song) as well as express their thoughts on international leaders and events. So much so that there have been attempts by certain politicians to ban them from performing in the towns where the elected member holds power. Such attempts to censor the band only add fuel to their fire and make them more popular. And they

certainly are popular: no other musical artist from Eastern Europe has come close to matching what Dubioza have achieved: their dynamic blend of rock, ska, electronica and folk music has captured a wide, youthful audience who respond to both their high-energy performances and the surge of idealism and anger that runs through their music. I met the band in Sarajevo in 2013 and was impressed by their intelligence, commitment and refusal to compromise. Their popularity has seen them deluged with offers from record labels but as Dubioza insist that all their recordings are available as free downloads, it suits the band to retain control over their music. Former Yugoslavia always had a strong rock culture and placed a high value on satire, ensuring the band won over audiences disillusioned with nationalism and corruption. The band’s stand against the ethnic divisions that divide Bosnia and Herzegovina makes them a voice for those who believe in peace and unity. But rather than preach, Dubioza challenge stereotypes and ask their audiences not to worship them or any other prominent figures. Singing in Bosnian, English and Spanish, the band have collaborated with the likes of dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah and Mush Khan from polemical British Pakistani band Fun-Da-Mental. Their 2013 album, Apsurdistan, is very powerful while their new album, Happy Machine, features Manu Chao, Macedonian trumpeter Dzambo Agusev, Punjabi singer BEE2 and Catalan ska-rumba band La Pegatina. Happy Machine is a brilliant fusion of radical ideas and sounds that sees Dubioza Kolektiv ready to extend their international audience.

+ Album Happy Machine will be reviewed next issue

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Buika

Living Without Fear Singer Buika speaks to Alex Robinson about the music she discovered when she confronted her fears and let go of others’ expectations of what she ought to be p h oto s

J av i

R oj o

hat first strikes me about Buika is how alive she is. Within the first five minutes of our meeting in the drizzle of a dreary London autumn, her face – at first hidden – emerges from under her anonymous winter hood, Eartha Kitt cat eyes twinkling, lips in a smile that broadens into a mischievous gaptoothed grin and then erupts into a rippling laugh – a cackle with cadence as I ask my first question. “Am I pleased with the new album? Of course! I love it.” As she talks it becomes clear that her new album Vivir Sin Miedo (Living Without Fear) is indicative of a new spiritual and emotional state – that her music and her inner self are inextricably connected. Buika has, she explains, attained a new existential level. “Finally this is me! With no fear! With no filters! I’ve found the key to my freedom, to my world!” The journey to freedom has been long and hard. Buika was born María Concepción to parents from Equatorial Guinea in

Palma, the small provincial capital of Mallorca in Spain, and the fourth daughter in a family of six. Her father, the writer Juan Balboa Boneke, left home when she was a little girl, leaving her mother, Honorina Buika, to bring up six children in poverty and in a predominantly white neighbourhood. As Honorina struggled to make ends meet, young María struggled to understand her identity. Was she African? Was she Spanish? Or was she some unique mixture of the two? Who was she? Who should she be? Trapped between alienation, expectation and dominated by the fear of a lack of identity María reacted. She became the family’s tough kid, the rebel. “As a little girl I was always in trouble,” she says, “running away, escaping from my mum, staying out all night. I was a wild. I was scared. Then one night when I was about eight years old I had a breakthrough. I’d run away again and I knew my mum had called the police. When I was far from home, before I came back, I vividly became aware that I was completely alone,

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SMOCKEY

The Rap Revolution

In Burkina Faso music is at the heart of a movement that last year chased an autocrat from power. Bram Posthumus finds out how hip-hop artist and activist Smockey used rap and reggae to change the country’s political course P H OTO S

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ook, here they are; you can see for yourself.” Serge Martin Bambara, the 45-year-old better known as Smockey, shows the damage done to his Studio Abazon in Burkina Faso’s capital city Ouagadougou. “Here the bullets went in. And these two big holes you see there, those were rockets. They probably thought I was here…” The iron door at the entrance has been repaired, sort of, but a glass partition has been shattered and in the wall at the back we count at least nine bullet holes. Who did this? The – now disbanded – private guard of the man Smockey helped remove from power, Burkina Faso’s

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ex-president Blaise Compaoré. They attacked on September 17 2015, one day after they staged a coup d’état, which failed only two weeks later. The name Smockey is a French pun, taken from se moquer – to make fun of people, especially those in power. That is what he has been doing, mercilessly, for years, on his own and as part of a larger group of rap and reggae artists who have woken up an entire people. The attack on his studio was the last stand of an old guard clinging to its power and privilege. If anything, it has left the country’s revolutionary musicians more determined than ever to finish the work they started. W W W . S O N G L I N E S . C O. U K

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20/01/2016 14:56

SHOW OF HANDS

Show and Tell The English folk duo Show of Hands are highly popular stalwarts of the folk circuit, regularly performing sell-out shows across the UK. They chat to Nathaniel Handy about the people behind their songs

ruce Springsteen has few peers. It’s not a matter of his music so much as his commitment. His singleminded faith in where he is taking his audience; his legendary stamina in delivering the ultimate night, every night, in venues big or small; and his pursuit of a near spiritual connection with his audience. All this makes Springsteen stand out from the crowd. But why the hell would you want to know about that? This isn’t a rock’n’roll mag. The reason is that Steve Knightley – one half of the Devon folk duo Show of Hands – never has the example of The Boss far from his mind when he steps out onto a stage at night. “It’s your contract,” he says of the Springsteen ideal. “You’ve done a deal with the people out there. You don’t know who’s rolling up, but they’ve made that journey to be here tonight. You’re looking out at guys who may have pulled someone from a car crash, may have just had the worst day of their life, but they’ve come out. You can’t forget that.” Like the big man himself, Knightley holds the stage with an easy swagger and a ready wit. Yet behind all the banter is an awareness that music is a serious business. It can enrich lives and as a performer you have a responsibility. He has no time for the grumpy artist with the slouching, vacant indifference that passes for cool. “It’s not fair and it’s not right,” he says with the conviction of an old West Country farmer. Knightley is standing under the blue glow of the stage lights in the vast, whispering space of the Hackney Empire in London. Beside him is a man who has shared his musical path since they were teenagers in the folk clubs of Exeter: the multi-talented Phil Beer. They are in the early stages of another nationwide tour in support of their latest studio album, The Long Way Home. It’s their first ever show at the Empire and East London is perhaps not their natural stamping ground, but they are an act that can rely on a dedicated following. It’s about more than the music – it’s that contract again. As Knightley explains, the duo’s love of Americana runs deep – right back to their earliest musical experiences growing up in Exeter. “A lot of the guys we used to listen to were into the ragtime and the blues as much as the folk,” he explains. “Wizz Jones, Bert Jansch, Cliff Aungier and 40 s o n g l i n e s

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Gerry Lockran – a lot of them used to get a feature on local television on their way down to Cornwall. That’s why there’s always been a smattering of blues and slide.” That smattering is there again on their latest album in the track ‘Sweet Bella’ – “genuine, West Country frontier gibberish,” as Beer calls it. Their 2012 studio outing – Wake the Union – was a study in Americana. “We had been touring with Richard Shindell, Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin, Rodney Branigan and Leonard Podolak & Matt Gordon – hanging out with six Americana artists,” says Knightley. “What do you do at soundchecks? You tend to play that stuff. There’s a common language between Americana and British music.” Finding the common language has always been a central endeavour for Show of Hands, from their early work with exiled Chilean musicians to the many songs that connect Britain with the migrant communities that settled around the world from Australia to Canada. The new album features a bare, stripped-back transportation tale discovered by Beer in a rare book of folk ballads. Called ‘Virginia’, it reveals links between the US and Britain that most would find extraordinary today. “I found it in A Ballad History of England: from 1588 to the Present Day by Roy Palmer,” says Beer. “It’s about white slavery and the only other reference to that I know of in recent years is [Giles Milton’s] White Gold about a Cornish lad who worked for the caliphate for 20 years after being sold by Barbary pirates and who finally managed to escape.” The idea that plantation slavery in Virginia was anything other than black African slavery would be a shock to many. “I think it was too brief a period for it to become established in memory, because with the discovery of Australia they started shipping them there,” says Knightley. “We’re only talking a 30or 40-year period of sentencing to plantations in Virginia.” Such informative spotlights on hidden areas of our collective past are a Show of Hands speciality. They draw on the work of Dick Gaughan and Aly Bain for another track – ‘John Harrison’s Hands’ – that tells the life story of the man who invented a way of measuring longitude at sea. It is one of those epics that seem intent on laying down a manifesto for an entire way of life. “The only song I know that is as ambitious w w w . s o n g l i n e s . c o. u k

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Steve Knightley (left) and Phil Beer have been performing together since the 80s

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Africa REVIEWS Dieuf-Dieul de Thies Aw Sa Yone Vol 2 Teranga Beat (68 mins)

★★★★★

Lost and found: Senegal’s best-kept secret from the 80s

MARTIN SINNOCK

TRACK TO TRY Jirim

Mariem Hassan & Vadiya Mint El Hanevi Baila Sahara Baila Nubenegra Records (68 mins)

★★★★★

A celebratory swansong from a Saharawi champion This is the final album from one of the great voices of the Sahara: Mariem Hassan died in August 2015 in a refugee camp in Algeria. She had devoted her life and her music to the cause of the Saharawi people and her three previous solo albums were notable for their political songs. But the

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ROBIN DENSELOW

TRACK TO TRY Eknu

Pierre Kwenders Le Dernier Empereur Bantou Bonsound (44 mins)

★★★★★

A surprising mix of styles from Congolese Canadian Pierre Kwenders’ first full-length project is an electro-fused delight. Kwenders currently resides in Montreal but has Congolese heritage and his album is wonderfully eclectic, with a bold mix of styles on show. Opening gambit ‘Cadavere’ packs a real punch, with its Miami bass-tinged beat juxtaposed with Kwenders’ alluring vocal talents. ‘African Dream’ is equally enticing, with a fresh down-tempo flavour and upbeat lyrics.

The album’s highlight ‘Mardi Gras’ features a swelling bass and some infectious Cajun rhythms – this album was partially recorded in Nova Scotia, an early home to Acadian balladry that later fed into the music of Louisiana – and a great performance from the Montrealbased rapper Jacobus. Indeed, there are welcome guest appearances throughout from various MCs that add significantly to this record’s fluency. The Posterz bring gritty realism to album closer ‘Mami Wata’, while Belgian-Congolese rapper Baloji adds real flair and contrast to ‘Kuna Na Goma’, with a strong and cutting delivery. Le Dernier Empereur Bantou is an expansive and remarkably accomplished debut record. ALEX DE LACEY

TRACK TO TRY Mardi Gras

Rob O’Connor

In the early 1980s in the city of Thies in Senegal, a group recorded approximately two-and-a-half hours of music that was never to receive a release – not even on cassette, the preferred local medium at the time. Dieuf-Dieul are one of the great West African bands that never really happened. In 2002 a couple of tracks appeared on CD and now, with a second volume of Aw Sa Yone, their entire output is available for all to enjoy. Their music is a diverse mixture of mbalax and more traditional Senegalese music, with influences from Casamance and the Gambia, and even a little bit of salsa too. The seven lengthy tracks include five songs that feature the soaring voice of Bassirou Sarr, the youngest of their three vocalists. His thick and syrupy voice is similar to that of Youssou N’dour when he was the young rising star of Senegalese music in the Star Band and Etoile de Dakar. The epic track ‘Jirim’ is as impressive as Youssou’s ‘Jalo’. However Dieuf-Dieul perform less of the hard mbalax that Etoile de Dakar were famous for. Their repertoire is more varied: loaded with psychedelic guitars and wah-wah effects, funk bass, and a breezy horn section of trumpet, trombone and saxophone. Some of it is raunchy and upbeat, and some of it slinky and seductive. It’s a glorious sound: the group deserves to be added to the list of West African legends.

mood here is very different. It’s an upbeat album of dance songs, and it was completed and released by her manager Manuel Dominguez as ‘a gift to the Saharawi people in the refugee camps.’ Most of the songs were recorded in 2009, around the time Hassan was recording her Shouka album, and they feature the backing vocals and traditional tebal (drum) work of Vadiya Mint El Hanevi, who toured with Hassan as a dancer. Even more potent is the rousing guitar work of Lamgaifri Brahim, which ranges from loping desert blues to a furious pitch, driven on by Hassan’s powerful vocals. Also included are tracks from her earlier albums, and a recording from WOMAD New Zealand in 2010. A powerful reminder of a remarkable singer.

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OFTHE WORLD

Baaba Maal The Traveller

TRACK 1

Marathon Artists (42 mins)

★★★★★

This traveller has finally returned Since 2001’s acoustic set Missing You (Mi Yeewnii), Baaba’s only new studio album in 15 years has been 2009’s Television, a bland and insubstantial affair that suggested that his best was behind him. So it’s a pleasant surprise to report that The Traveller not only stands alongside past career highlights such as Firin’ in Fouta and Nomad Soul but sounds like a mature pinnacle. It’s an exhilarating summation of Baaba’s life and vision in which finally his activism and his music are seamlessly intertwined, the personal and political woven into a single purposeful journey. Key to this revivification are some well-chosen collaborators – principally Johan

Hugo of The Very Best, who produced most of the album and who lends sympathetic electronic textures to tracks such as the pulsating opener ‘Fulani Rock’, the haunting ‘Gilli Men’ and the glistening ‘Kalaajo’. A couple of members of Mumford & Sons turn up on the surging Afro-pop dance fusion of ‘Lampenda’ and the album finishes with the diptych of ‘War’ and ‘Peace’, featuring the spoken-word contributions of British-Ethiopian poet Lemn Sissay. On first listen the two pieces sound like an odd, even jarring, coda. Yet once the shock has been absorbed, they make total sense as climax and resolution. Welcome back, Baaba Maal. NIGEL WILLIAMSON

TRACK TO TRY Fulani Rock

GET THIS ALBUM FREE Readers can get The Traveller when subscribing or renewing with Direct Debit. See CD

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Africa reviews Gasper Nali Abale Ndikuwuzeni Spare Dog Records (43 mins)

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One-string wonder from Malawi

Martin Sinnock

TRACK TO TRY Malawi Dziko Lantendele

Oum Zarabi MDC (46 mins)

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North African singer brings subtle shades of soul and jazz The Moroccan/ Saharawi singer Oum El Ghaït has followed up her 2013 album Soul of Morocco – her first international release – with a deft and eclectic fusion of Moroccan forms. Opening track ‘Nia’ features a spectral oud and jazz vocals, while the second, ‘Lila’, rides on desert blues guitar with bowed bass and percussion weaving in and out of the musical theme. Yelfris Valdés’ muted, skeletal trumpet calls from some distant clime on the likes of ‘Hna’, which both brings the

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TIM CUMMING

TRACK TO TRY Lila

Tinariwen Live in Paris Wedge Records (54 mins)

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A desert-blues sirocco blows into the French capital For a while, it seemed that the world’s favourite desert blues sultans had lost their swing. Their performance at the Songlines Music Awards concert in 2012 coincided with the Islamist uprising in northern Mali and found them in understandably subdued and sombre mood. Thankfully, as better news emerged from back home, their groove and vitality returned; a 130-date world tour in 2014 found them back at their best. Recorded on the tour’s final night, this live set finds them in celebratory form, their chops tight and road-toned and their performance fired by happy anticipation of an imminent return to their desert home. Drawing mostly on their most recent studio album Emmaar, the stinging guitar lines and camel-gaited rhythms rock with a heft that gets more thunderous as the set proceeds, spiced by the previously unrecorded blues lament ‘Azawad’ and a trio of exotic interventions by the 75-year-old Touareg poet, singer and matriarch Lalla Badi, ululating deliriously in the centuries-old traditional desert style known as tindé. Nigel Williamson

Sophie Garcia

Let’s start by introducing Gasper Nali’s instrument, which is known as a babatoni. Once seen, it’s never forgotten. It is a homemade bass guitar with a single string and a neck that stretches almost three metres in length. The resonator is a cow-skin drum and the instrument is played with a stick and a beer bottle. Gasper Nali himself is a 35-yearold from Malawi who has spent many years entertaining tourists in the popular lodges in the area surrounding Nkhata Bay on the west side of Lake Malawi. His music is simple but joyous, and totally infectious. He rhythmically whacks the single string with his stick and uses his empty Carlsberg bottle as a slide. His huge fretboard is marked out with six numbers but, as he rather charmingly explains, he only really uses four positions. With one foot he operates his homemade cowskin kickdrum, which delivers an incessant and pleasing thump. He sings in Malawi’s Chichewa language and although his music is essentially Malawian there are other influences that can be heard. It reminds me of acoustic Zulu maskanda music – an edgy, almost punky rural troubadour folk style. It’s very likeable, and anyone in any doubt can easily check him out on YouTube.

musical horizon into close-up, and provides a sense of some epic, rolling landscape at the same time. Zarabi was recorded in the Moroccan desert of M’Hamid El Ghizlane, and is rooted in the sound cultures of the Sahara, while Oum’s voice, fusing Saharawi styles with Western jazz and soul inflections, is backed by an atypical but finely balanced septet focused on oud, double bass, percussion and trumpet. There are guest spots from Cherif Soumano’s kora on ‘N’nay’ and Anana Harouna’s guitar on ‘Lila’. ‘Wali’ features the qaraqab (metal castanets) of Gnawa music, while ‘Mansit’ has a bowed doublebass melody that harks back to classic Middle Eastern songs styles. Zarabi shows Oum’s attachment to specific, local Moroccan arts and musical traditions while pushing open the windows to North African modernity and the influences of soul and jazz.

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Smockey Pre’volution: Le Président, ma Moto et Moi

track 7

Out Here Records (61 mins)

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Revolutionary songs written right on the frontline In October 2014, the people of Burkina Faso took to the streets to demand the removal of Blaise Compaoré, the country’s despotic ruler of 30 years. He fled and democratic elections were announced, but then cancelled following a military coup. Burkina hip-hop star Smockey was a key player in the protests, leading the youth movement Le Balai Citoyen, and this album collects the songs Smockey wrote before and during the uprising. Mixing hip-hop beats with reggae and African rhythms, he sings in French and it’s a shame that translations are not provided for the lyrics are not only militant but full of sharp

and savage wit. On the title-track he imagines giving le président a ride on his moto (motorbike) to show him the capital’s poverty-stricken slums. There’s a power-cut, the traffic lights fail and an accident occurs, so Smockey takes the dictator to the city hospital (named after Compaoré himself ), where he can’t be treated because the facilities are inadequate. He follows this with ‘On Passe à l’attaque’, a stirring call to the barricades, ‘Dossier Zongo’, about the murder of a journalist critical of the regime, and a dozen more well-targeted musical missiles. Not just a collection of protest songs, this is the soundtrack to a revolution. Nigel Williamson

TRACK TO TRY Le Président, ma Moto et Moi

TRACK TO TRY Azawad

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Fusion reviews Geoff Berner We Are Going to Bremen to be Musicians Oriente Musik (54 mins)

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Canadian klezmer cabaret with a satirical edge Geoff Berner is an accordionist, singer and songwriter. This album quickly establishes that he’s Jewish and Canadian – both subjects crop up regularly in his songs – and a satirist. Also that he’s not much of a singer. Not that he needs to be – he approaches most songs with a raucous punk attitude. In song after song, Berner lashes out at the Mayor of Vancouver’s desire to fill the city with condos for the rich, chastises

conservative Christian groups who now embrace Jews, when not too long ago they were labelling them as Christ killers, and entertainingly admits his ambivalence to Hanukkah. And then he sings the brilliantly titled ‘I Don’t Feel So Mad at God When I See You in Your Summer Dress’. The music is largely secondary to the words and this is a little unfortunate as the title-track and ‘Slouching Towards Bremen’ suggest Berner and pals are capable of conjuring up an atmospheric East European ambience. Berner is smart and sharp but, like a Tom Lehrer album, the songs here would work far better in a cabaret where the audience are laughing – and singing – along. Garth Cartwright

TRACK TO TRY Slouching Towards Bremen

Billy Hill with Ramon Goose & Friends Re-Think Arts Council England (25 mins)

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Teenage fiddle wunderkind shows us his tricks Sixteen-year-old fiddler Billy Hill has been performing at folk festivals since he was nine, supporting the likes of Eliza Carthy and Dave Swarbrick. Over the last 18 months Hill has been working with the blues guitarist Ramon Goose, whom Songlines last encountered with his West Africa Blues Project, which he put together after travelling around the Sahara and hooking up with musicians from Baaba Maal’s band,

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FitkinWall Lost

track 5

GFR (53 mins)

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Harp meets electronica: no cracks in this wall For this new recording with her partner Graham Fitkin, Scottish harpist Ruth Wall employs both Gaelic wire-strung harp and concert harp, combining their sounds with the electronica patterns of Fitkin’s synthesizers and autoharp. Lost is like a series of musical equations that work their way through the ears into the mind, their rhythmic and melodic themes interweaving, rising and falling. It feels by turns widescreen and microscopic – indeed, the duo have a fine track record of making music for films. There’s much to visualise here, the patterns of the music evoking its own narrative as the harp and Moog merge and separate.

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It’s subtle, uncluttered, minimal and extremely focusing. You feel the concept of the album come through: Lost encompasses loss of company, understanding and faculty – and the embracing of such states. This, their third album, proves to be a quiet, cohesive and original conceptual piece. The pulses and spare pattern-weaving builds throughout to more expressive, melodically bound pieces, with vintage analogue synthesizer basslines and chimes merging with the harp’s clear, limpid strings to create an album that is a thoroughly absorbing world of tension, suspension and release. tim cumming

TRACK TO TRY Trace

among others. Keen to encourage youthful talent and innovation, the Arts Council of England gave Hill and Goose a grant in 2015 to make this nine-track album – an admirable move in the current funding crisis. It’s a lovely record that reveals Hill as a precociously gifted fiddler with a poise and timing way beyond his years. The set comprises trad Irish jigs and reels, American roots tunes and a brace of Balkan fiddle. Remember the name: we’re going to be hearing a lot more of Billy Hill. Nigel Williamson

TRACK TO TRY Glory in the Meeting House

Karavan Sarai Woven Landscapes Karavan Sarai (49 mins)

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Travelling music man Karavan Sarai is a band led by composer, singer and multiinstrumentalist Narayan Sijan, who plays a variety of Turkish and Middle Eastern lutes: oud, bouzouki, setar, baglama, kopuz and saz. Producer Carmen Rizzo supplies keyboard drones and electronica, and often an expansive, reverb-laden sound. Yet only on the most complex piece, ‘Caspian Sea’, do we hear chilled-out electronic rhythms; elsewhere it’s acoustic hand drums keeping Sijan’s jammy pieces moving, such as the wonderful rumble of zarb that looms through ‘Schirin’. He cites the Persian mystic poets Rumi and Hafiz as inspiration, and the liner notes describe his travels, which have taught him several of the melodies here; ‘The Journey’, for instance, was picked up from Rajasthani Gypsies in the Thar desert. Other material was sourced from Turkey, Egypt, Israel and Central Asia. This is an accomplished but only moderately engaging album, and it’s commendable that Sijan credits his sources, even if he doesn’t exactly radiate vocal charisma. Jon Lusk

TRACK TO TRY The Road to Hijaz

The Kora Band New Cities Whirlwind Recordings (54 mins)

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Jazzy West African adaptations New Cities is the third album from a collective exploring the possibilities that emerge from adapting source

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Fusion reviews material from the West African Mande music tradition into a jazz idiom. This outing includes tracks inspired by many diverse themes and topics that vary from a popular brand of Senegalese beer to the consequences of urbanisation. The playing is exemplary and particularly exciting on tracks such as ‘Teriyaa’, developed from a popular Gambian song, and ‘5 Ans d’Effort’, on which bandleader and pianist Andrew Oliver demonstrates great melodic development. However, owing to the piano’s prominence throughout, this album primarily comes across as a straight, albeit solid, jazz release, with the kora cutting a markedly peripheral figure. Aside from ‘Teriyaa’, which really is the most accomplished piece on the album, and the title-track, the kora functions more as a sporadic solo instrument. ‘Slip Coach (For Chet)’, for example, is a great piece, featuring some lovely work from Lee Elderton on the clarinet, but the kora’s flourishes are emblematic of a strong conceptual framework that unfortunately never quite reaches the expected level of musical integration. Alex De Lacey

Track to Try Teriyaa

Slow Moving Clouds Os Slow Moving Clouds (41 mins)

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Who needs a clear blue sky? Os opens with a familiar tune turned on its head. ‘See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes!’, Handel’s triumphant, war-celebrating melody becomes a halting, introspective instrumental combination of Swedish nyckelharpa, fiddle and cello, before some gentle vocals join. It’s a powerful first statement on this debut album by this trio: Finnish musician and sound artist Aki (vocals, nyckelharpa), and two Irish players, fiddler Danny Diamond and cellist Kevin Murphy. Their chosen pieces are mostly traditional but sound startlingly modern: minimalist string lines are broken up by fiddle solos from Diamond – the finest of which is on the dance called ‘Hatchet Field’ – and gently building or sometimes soaring vocal-led pieces. And while the mixed string sounds lend the instrumental ballads and dances a mournful and rather austere quality, Aki’s ringing vocals, catchy tunes and the reverberant recording give the songs the feel of pop tracks. This isn’t a

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criticism: the slow title-track, for example, barely moves from its string phrases and repeated lyrics, but is beautifully peaceful. Taken together, the careful instrumental balance and melodic warmth makes for a winning combination of musical understanding, warmth and skilful playing. Tim Woodall

TRACK TO TRY The Conquering Hero

Världens Band Transglobal Roots Fusion Nataraj Records (41 mins)

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A world-music party with a huge guest list In 2012, the Swedish folk group Kolonien set up Världens Band as an experiment, creating an unlikely mash-up that combines the music and cultural input of 14 musicians from seven countries in three continents. Transglobal Roots Fusion is their second album, a follow-up to 2014’s Världens Band Live at Nataraj Records. It finds Charu Hariharan (the champion All India Radio Competition Karnatic Devotional Singer) adapting to a galloping punk rock vibe, racing to keep up with blazing Swedish fiddles. This makes way for a swooning Scottish air featuring Galician pipes and multilingual Israeli/Tunisian singer Navah Elbaz. Then Senegalese kora player Abdou Cissokho brings in a bouncing, pop-flavoured take on the West African griot tradition. When the mix seems to gel best, there’s a surprisingly agreeable frothiness. There isn’t really much that’s new here, but much of the naive charm of this album is the way it seems to hark back to the early days of world music, when there was still an exciting sense of discovery in finding new styles. Nevertheless, that also gives it a somewhat dated feel. Jon Lusk

TRACK TO TRY Leva/Na Balou/Jivaa

Yorkston Thorne Khan Everything Sacred Domino Records (51 mins)

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There was an Englishman, an Indian and a Scotsman… Fifty years ago the Incredible String Band emerged from the Scottish folk scene to create an extraordinary

fusion of folk, acoustic pop and world music that was so singular, idiosyncratic and inimitable that the spirit of its magical, wide-eyed wonder has never since been matched. Until now, perhaps. For this inspired teaming of Scottish folk singersongwriter James Yorkston with the young Indian classical singer and sarangi player Suhail Yusuf Khan and Jon Thorne, double-bass player with Lamb, operates within a similarly eclectic and freewheeling orbit. Much of their ensemble playing is improvisational, as on the ethereal opener ‘Knochentanz’, the exquisite double-bass and sarangi duet ‘Vachaspati/Kaavya’ and the haunting

instrumental ‘Blues Jumped the Goose’. But they’re arguably even better when they’re working within the structure of a song and stretching its boundaries, whether it’s the covers of Ivor Cutler’s enchanting ‘Little Black Buzzer’ and Lal Waterson’s bucolic ‘Song for Thirza’, Yorkston’s ‘Broken Wave’ or Khan’s ‘Sufi Song’, on which he adapts the lyrics of the Sufi poet Bulleh Shah. The sympathetic contributions of Irish singer and pianist Lisa O’Neill should also be commended and would surely have merited headliner status but for the fact that she’s only heard on three of the eight tracks. Nigel Williamson

TRACK TO TRY Sufi Song

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Pagoda Project Clarion

track 10

Sylvafield (47 mins)

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Quip-loving Feastie Boy meets contemporary classicist Paul Hutchinson, half of the fabulous Belshazzar’s Feast, teams up here with clarinettist Karen Wimhurst from the world of contemporary classical music. Hutchinson writes all but two of the 12 tracks – Wimhurst’s name is on the mellifluous ‘Introduction’ and the closing ‘Wish List’ – on Pagoda, a folk-jazz-classical fusion project. Hutchinson’s accordion and Wimhurst’s bass clarinet improvise from folk melodies as well as adding touches of Balkan-style klezmer on ‘Shipton’, which Hutchinson amusingly notes takes its name

from ‘a town in the Cotswolds, which is largely responsible for keeping Farrow & Ball solvent.’ Hutchinson is renowned for his decidedly laconic sense of humour – always on display at any of his shows with Paul Sartin. While there’s plenty of that in his song titles and brief song descriptions, the music itself is beautiful and measured, a real pleasure to settle in and get familiar with. This CD arrived shortly after the horrific attacks in Beirut and Paris, and it proved to be music of calm and balm, bringing a measure of sympathy and healing to a strange and deadly world. Tim Cumming

TRACK TO TRY Life in the Bus Lane

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› songlines

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Gig Guide 01363 84309; 10 MAR Chapel Arts Centre, Bath 01225 461700; 11 MAR Hinckley ACT, Leicester 01455 631609; 12 MAR Upwood Village Hall, Huntingdon 01487 814114; 17 MAR* Salisbury Arts Centre 01722 321744; 18 MAR* The Chapel, Canterbury 01227 831493; 19 MAR* Hailsham Pavilion 01323 841414; 24 MAR Winchester Discovery Centre 01962 873603; 25 MAR Ropetackle, Shoreham-by-Sea 01273 464440; 26 MAR Chettle Village Hall, Blandford Forum 07776 323198; 30 MAR Bisley Village Hall 01452 770252; 31 MAR Youlgreave Village Hall 01629 630282. *Phil Beer Band

The Dublin Legends

ON TOUR

Breabach

New album from Scottish band 12 FEB The Brunton, Musselburgh 0131 665 2240; 13 FEB The Civic, Barnsley 01226 327000; 22 FEB Nettlebed Folk Club, Henley-onThames 01628 636620; 23 FEB The Fleece Inn, Bretforton 01386 831173; 25 FEB Colston Hall, Bristol 0844 887 1500; 26 FEB Music Room, Liverpool 0151 709 3789; 27 FEB The Met, Bury 0161 761 2216; 2 MAR Eastgate, Peebles 01721 725777; 3 MAR New Greenham Arts, Newbury 0845 5218 218; 4 MAR Grayshott Folk Club 01428 607096; 5 MAR The Pound, Corsham 01249 701628; 6 MAR Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton 01298 72190; 10 MAR The Convent, South Woodchester 01453 835138; 11 MAR The Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple 01271 324242; 12 MAR Emsworth Baptist Church wegottickets.com; 13 MAR 100 Club, London wegottickets.com; 19 MAR The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen 01224 641122.

Martin Carthy & John Kirkpatrick

12 FEB Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury 01227 787787; 13 FEB Salisbury Arts Centre 01722 321744; 14 FEB Folk Three Festival, Cheltenham 0844 576 2210; 15 FEB Nettlebed Folk Club, Henley-on-Thames 01628 636620; 17 FEB Cecil Sharp House, London 020 7485 2206; 18 FEB Guildhall Arts Centre, Grantham 01476 406158; 19 FEB The Greystones, Sheffield 0114 223 3777; 25 FEB St George’s, Bristol 0845 402 4001; 26 FEB The Hawth, Crawley 01293 553636; 27 FEB The Stables, Milton Keynes 01908 280800; 28 FEB Key Theatre, Peterborough 01733 207239.

CC Smugglers

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7 FEB Churchill Theatre, Bromley 020 3285 6000; 8 FEB Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury 01743 281281; 9 FEB The Stables, Milton Keynes 01908 280800; 10 FEB Beck Theatre, Hayes 020 8561 8371; 11 FEB Watford Colosseum 01923 571102; 12 FEB The Capitol, Horsham 01403 750220; 13 FEB White Rock Theatre, Hastings 01424 462288; 14 FEB Theatre Royal, Brighton 0844 871 7650; 15 FEB Princess Theatre, Hunstanton 01485 532252; 17 FEB Floral Pavilion, New Brighton 0151 666 0000; 18 FEB The Concorde Club, Eastleigh 023 8061 3989; 19 FEB Lichfield Garrick 01543 412121; 20 FEB Grove Theatre, Dunstable 01582 602080; 21 FEB Octagon Theatre, Yeovil 01935 422884; 22 FEB Royal & Derngate, Northampton 01604 624811.

The East Pointers

Stomping Canadian folk

Maz O’Connor New album from rising English folk star

Two great figures of English folk

Members of The Dubliners

O’Connor is a gifted talent who has been a part of the UK folk scene since she was only 13 years old. Singing both traditional folk songs and original material, she plays the harmonium, piano, guitar and shruti box in accompaniment with her unique voice. Her previous album This Willowed Light (reviewed in #102) displayed a rich sound and confident songwriting. Her new album, The Longing Kind, will be reviewed in the next issue. 2 FEB St Neots Folk Club 01234 376278; 6 FEB Salisbury Arts Centre 01722 321744; 11 FEB The Forum, Barrow-in-Furness 01229 820000; 12 FEB Staveley Roundhouse, Kendal musicglue.com; 14 FEB The Castle Hotel, Manchester 0161 237 9485; 15 FEB The Musician, Leicester 0116 251 0080; 16 FEB Kitchen Garden Café, Birmingham 0121 443 4725; 17 FEB St Pancras Old Church, London musicglue.com; 18 FEB The Portland Arms, Cambridge 01223 357268; 20 FEB The Convent, South Woodchester 01453 835138; 21 FEB Henry Tudor House, Shrewsbury 01743 361666; 24 FEB Talking Heads, Southampton 023 8067 8446; 25 FEB The Greystones, Sheffield 0114 266 5599; 17 MAR Chapel Arts Centre, Bath 01225 461700.

29 JAN Celtic Connections, Glasgow 0141 353 8000; 1 FEB Ropetackle, Shoreham-by-Sea 01273 464440; 2 FEB Green Note, London wegottickets.com; 3 FEB The Stables, Milton Keynes 01908 280800; 4 FEB Black Swan Folk Club, York 01904 632922; 5-6 FEB* Glassel Hall, Banchory 07771 621577; 8 FEB Kingskerswell Parish Church 01803 875527; 10 FEB West End Centre, Aldershot 01252 330040; 12 FEB Otley Courthouse 01943 467466; 13 FEB* Thomas Hughes Memorial Hall, Uffington 01367 820282; 14 FEB Riverhouse, Walton-on-Thames 01932 253354. *supporting Gordie MacKeeman & His Rhythm Boys

Vieux Farka Touré

The Malian musician with band 29 JAN Music Room, Liverpool 0151 709 3789; 30 JAN Sage Gateshead 0191 443 4661; 31 JAN Celtic Connections, Glasgow 0141 353 8000; 2 FEB Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton 0845 127 2190; 3 FEB Yellow Arch Studios, Sheffield 0114 273 0800; 4 FEB Howard Assembly Room, Leeds 0844 848 2727; 5 FEB Turner Sims, Southampton 023 8059 5151.

Faustus

Innovative English folk trio 27 FEB The Brewhouse, Burton-uponTrent 01283 508100; 4 MAR Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth 01453 837537; 5 MAR South Street, Reading 0118 960 6060; 6 MAR Gill Nethercott Centre, Whitchurch 01256 896270; 9 MAR South Holland Centre, Spalding 01775 764777; 10 MAR Marlowe Theatre,

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Gig Guide Canterbury 01227 787787; 11 MAR Ropetackle, Shoreham-by-Sea 01273 464440; 12 MAR The Golden Lion, Ripon wegottickets.com; 13 MAR Haydon Bridge Community Centre wegottickets.com; 17 MAR Abberton Reservoir Visitor Centre, Colchester 01206 738172; 18 MAR Bromley Cross Folk Club 07427 613783; 19 MAR Tuppenny Barn, Southbourne 01243 377780.

Fay Hield

Singer with her Hurricane Party 3 FEB The Haymarket, Basingstoke 01256 844244; 4 FEB Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton 01298 72190; 5 FEB Caroline Social Club, Saltaire 07855 164182; 11 FEB Artrix, Bromsgrove 01527 577330; 12 FEB RNCM, Manchester 0161 907 5555; 13 FEB Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford on Avon 01225 860100; 14 FEB Tavistock Wharf 01822 611166; 15 FEB St Pancras Old Church, London wegottickets.com

Square Tower, Portsmouth 02392 382888; 2 MAR The Seagull, Lowestoft 01502 589726; 3 MAR Cley Marshes Visitor Centre, Cley next the Sea 01263 740008; 4 MAR Blackfriars Theatre, Boston 01205 363108; 9 MAR Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff Bay 029 2087 7959; 10 MAR Christ the King Club, Liverpool 0151 280 9394; 11 MAR Glasson Dock Village Hall, Lancaster 01524 840539; 17 MAR The Café on the Green, Widecombe-in-the-Moor 07957 280129; 18 MAR Severn Beach Village Hall, Bristol 01454 631500; 24 MAR Bridgwater Arts Centre 01278 422700.

Leveret

The trio releases new live album 25 FEB The Forge, Basingstoke 01256 844244; 26 FEB The Guildhall, Leicester 0116 253 2569; 27 FEB Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan 01239 621200; 28 FEB The Winemaker’s Club, London wegottickets.com;

3 MAR The Met, Bury 0161 761 2216; 4 MAR Kingskerswell Parish Church 01803 875527; 5 MAR The David Hall, South Petherton 01460 240340; 6 MAR The Convent Club, South Woodchester 01453 835138.

Kodo

See p89 for tour details

Gordie MacKeeman & His Rhythm Boys

New album from Canadian outfit 30 JAN Celtic Connections, Glasgow 0141 353 8000; 3 FEB The Festival Drayton Centre, Market Drayton 01630 654444; 4 FEB The Met, Bury 0161 761 7107; 5-6 FEB* Glassel Hall, Banchory 07771 621577; 7 FEB Theatre by the Lake, Keswick 01768 774411; 10 FEB Music Room, Liverpool 0151 709 3789; 11 FEB The Greystones, Sheffield 0114 223 3777; 12 FEB The Witham, Barnard Castle 01833 631107; 13 FEB* Thomas

Hughes Memorial Hall, Uffington 01367 820282; 14 FEB The Fleece Inn, Bretforton 01386 831173; 16 FEB Ansley Village Church Hall 07973 537289; 18 FEB The Musician, Leicester 0116 251 0080; 19 FEB Norden Farm, Maidenhead 01628 788997; 20 FEB Seaton Town Hall 01297 625699; 23 FEB Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury 01227 787787; 24 FEB West End Centre, Aldershot 01252 330040; 26 FEB The Apex, Bury St Edmunds 01284 758000; 27 FEB The Pound, Corsham 01249 701628. *support: The East Pointers

Eleanor McEvoy

Celtic pop singer-songwriter 1 MAR Bootleggers, Kendal 01539 723824; 2 MAR Kitchen Garden Café, Birmingham 0121 443 4725; 3 MAR Gullivers, Manchester 0161 819 2970; 5 MAR Gala Theatre, Durham 0300 026 6600; 6 MAR Alexander’s, Chester 01244 340005; 9 MAR The Greystones,

The James Brothers

ON TOUR

Old-time roots music from duo 24 FEB Ludlow Assembly Rooms 01584 873229; 25 FEB Redbourn Folk Club 01582 629629; 26 FEB The Stables, Milton Keynes 01908 280800; 27 FEB Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury 01635 244246; 28 FEB The Convent, South Woodchester 01453 835138; 29 FEB Colchester Arts Centre 01206 500900; 1 MAR Green Note, London 020 7485 9899; 2 MAR The Old Ship Inn, Lowdham 0115 966 3596; 3 MAR The Black Swan, York 01904 632922.

Seckou Keita

Support from Gwyneth Glyn

Frédérique Miguel

18 FEB St George’s, Bristol 0845 402 4001; 19 FEB Torch Theatre, Milford Haven 01646 695267; 20 FEB Pontardawe Arts Centre 01792 863722; 27 FEB The Forge, Basingstoke 01256 844244.

Steve Knightley

Half of Show of Hands, p40 30 JAN The Ropewalk, Barton-uponHumber 01652 660380; 3 FEB Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis 01297 442138; 4 FEB Ropetackle, Shoreham-by-Sea 01273 464440; 5 FEB Playhouse Theatre, Whitstable 01227 272042; 7 FEB Kingsand Village Hall 01726 879500; 10 FEB Oborne Village Hall 01935 813829; 12 FEB The Flavel, Dartmouth 01803 839530; 13 FEB Epworth Hall, Helston 01326 568936; 20 FEB Matthews Hall, Topsham 01392 879107; 24 FEB Calstock Village Hall 07870 727747; 25-26 FEB

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Ballaké Sissoko & Vincent Segal Sublime combo of two string masters

The French-Malian duo return to the UK to showcase their latest album Musique de Nuit (reviewed in #111), released last September. They have managed to replicate the intimacy captured on their first collaboration with renewed invigoration and a deeper understanding for each

other’s playing. The pair have been intertwining the subtle features of their cello and kora for seven years, redefining and developing their collaboration on stage via constant experimentation and improvisation. They’ll undoubtedly continue to surprise audiences with their delicate interplay.

1 MAR Turner Sims, Southampton 023 8059 5151; 2 MAR St George’s, Bristol 0845 402 4001; 3 MAR Union Chapel, London 0871 220 0260; 4 MAR The Haymarket, Basingstoke 01256 844244; 5 MAR RNCM, Manchester 0161 907 5555.

ISSUE 115

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essential

Chinese Albums

Chinese music is often overlooked, but this issue all eyes look East as BBC’s China editor Carrie Gracie selects her playlist (p74), singer Bella Hardy visits the country (p83) and Rachel Harris picks ten first-rate Chinese albums

01 Carsick Cars

Carsick Cars

(Maybe Mars Music, 2008) Calling themselves ‘perhaps China’s best Indie band,’ Carsick Cars are gloriously brash and enthusiastic, with their combination of upbeat songs, layers of distortion and irreverent lyrics to songs like ‘The Best VPN So Far’, which refers to the Virtual Private Networks used to circumnavigate the Great Chinese Firewall.

02 Cold Fairyland

Seeds on the Ground

(Cold Fairyland, 2008)

A Shanghai-based progressive rock group who play a fusion of East Asian traditions and ambient and symphonic rock, with influences from Portishead to Faye Wong. Founder Lin Di’s arrangements create a moody, original sound from the rock line-up, plus cello and pipa.

03 Tan Dun,

Wu Man, & Kronos Quartet Ghost Opera

(Nonesuch, 1997)

Tan Dun is best known to Western listeners for his soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Ghost Opera is one of his more serious and less flashy compositions, which juxtaposes a Bach prelude with the Chinese folk song ‘Little Cabbage’. Kronos Quartet are joined by the outstanding pipa player Wu Man. The string playing is intense and expressive, and the musicians double their roles with vocalising, bowing gongs and bowls of water.

04 The Hua Family

Shawm Band Walking Shrill

(PAN Records, 2004)

This amazing band sound at times almost like they are playing free improvisation, but this is the traditional 98 s o n g l i n e s

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sound of the northern Chinese countryside: music for funerals and festivals. It must be the most commonly heard music in China, but it is the least likely to hit YouTube. These field recordings catch outstanding virtuosos at the height of their powers. Reviewed in #27.

05 Shanren

Left Foot Dance of the Yi

(World Music Network, 2014)

Shanren are my current favourites in a crop of Beijing rock groups who have ventured out of the city to rediscover their roots. Left Foot Dance of the Yi pays homage to the music of Yunnan Province in south-west China, mediating tradition with regional instruments woven into the standard rock line-up. Reviewed in #101 and featured on the covermount CD (track 15).

06 Tianjin Buddhist

Music Ensemble Buddhist Music of Tianjin

(Nimbus Records, 1995)

This disc introduces the magnificent world of ceremonial Chinese ensemble music, performed on wind and percussion instruments by musicians linked with the Buddhist temples of Tianjin. Directly handed down from the ritual music of imperial times, it contrives to be both serene and uplifting.

07 Sanubar Tursun

Arzu: Songs of the Uyghurs

(Felmay Records, 2013)

Sanubar Tursun is the preeminent Uyghur female singer today, whose songs provide a constant backdrop to bus and taxi journeys across China’s north-west region of Xinjiang. The Uyghur style lies between the Central Asian heartland and the sound worlds of Mongolia and China, and Sanubar’s songs are at the classical end of the spectrum. This

disc brings her most popular recordings to the West, on Felmay Records. Reviewed in #94.

08 Xinxin Wang

Farewell My Emperor

(Wind Music, 2008)

Xinxin Wang is an eminent Taiwan-based singer of Nanguan ballads. In this disc she interprets the classic repertoire, accompanied by the traditional ensemble of lutes, fiddle and flute. An elegant and refined performance, perfectly conveying Nanguan’s exquisitely controlled expression of longing and pain.

09 Lin Youren

Music for the Qin Zither

(Nimbus Records, 2001)

Only the qin, the ancient zither of the Confucian scholars, lays claim to greater refinement than Nanguan. Recorded in the UK during the 1998 World Cup, this disc includes an unlikely improvisation for Michael Owen. But it is the interpretations of the core qin repertoire that perfectly convey the Daoist virtues of tranquility and flow in the hands of the old master Lin Youren.

10 Various Artists

The Muqam of the Dolan

(Inédit, 2006)

Dolan music has recently enjoyed a vogue in China thanks to UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage programme, but this CD introduces the traditional Dolan muqam – music of the Taklamakan Desert Uyghurs– performed by singer-drummers, lute, zither and spike fiddle. With its ecstatic outbursts, raw vocal style and powerful drumming, this style is often nicknamed ‘Uyghur jazz.’ Reviewed in #48. Thanks to Frank Kouwenhoven, Stephen Jones, Mu Qian, Shzr Ee Tan and Ruard Absaroka

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