Around the World
24 May 2024
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This week on Around the World
There's an awful lot of music in Brazil, and very many types of music. There is a big emphasis on Brazilian music new and old on Around the World this week.
Music this week from:Anatolia, Australia, Canada, England, Hungary, India, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Scandinavia, Senegal, and USA
You can hear: ÀTTØØXXÁ, Ævestaden, Ali Doğan Gönültaş, Ana Lua Caiano, Andrew Gurruwiwi Band, Aoife O'Donovan, Bab L’ Bluz, Besh o droM, Carlinhos Brown, Catia de Franca, Céu, Dele Sosimi & The Estuary 21, dossel & Vasconcelos Sentimento, Jackson Browne, Korrontzi, Lina, Luísa Sonza, Maria Mazzotta, Radical Son, Roberta Campos & George Israel, Sam Lee, Stan Getz & João Gilberto, and Tidiane Thiam
This week’s featured album is Comfort Food by Kiran Ahluwalia
Kiran Ahluwalia - Pancake
This week’s featured album is from the Canadian/Indian artist Kiran Ahluwalia [website]. Born in India, raised in Canada, Kiran currently divides her time between New York City and Toronto.
From the time she was seven, she immersed herself in Indian music. When the family immigrated to Canada she continued her musical training alongside her regular school. After graduating from the University of Toronto, she returned to India where she spent years of intense deep study in music. Back in Canada in the late 90s she followed more mundane pursuits – she got an MBA in Finance and started working as a Trader on Bay Street. And there it might have ended if Ahluwalia had not had recurring visions of being on her deathbed not having lived out her passion. So she left the world of business and threw herself totally into a life devoted to the making of her own music.
Her new album has a strong political theme running throughout. The intention is to “confront ethnic nationalism that is stoking fear and hatred in India and the Diaspora.”
Kiran Ahluwalia, two-time winner of Canada’s top music prize, the Juno, is back with a powerful album challenging India’s current “Hindu first nationalism” that is marginalizing Muslims. Her songs also address the societal discrimination of Hindus that are of so-called lower castes. Recent examples of State sponsored Hindu fundamentalism include Prime Minister Modi’s inauguration of the Hindu temple built controversially over the destroyed 16th century Babri Mosque, and the condoning of violent attacks by Hindu Nationalist paramilitary groups against Muslims who consume beef or trade cows.
“Can we say we are human, if we lack humanity?” Ahluwalia asks in “Jaane Jahan,” an anthem about the disturbing rise in cultural intolerance in India and the Diaspora. Its lyrics proclaim, “We bleed the same red, we shed the same salty tears’.
Kiran Ahluwalia - Jaane Jahan (Loved Ones)
Another stirring protest song is “Tum Dekhoge,” based on a poem by Hussain Haidry, written in response to police brutality during a peaceful women’s protest in New Delhi’s Shaheen Baag against laws by the Indian Hindu supremacist government that marginalize Muslims and bar them from becoming Indian citizens even if their families have lived in India for centuries.
Kiran’s lyrics about disenfranchisement are also reflective of rising ethnic marginalization and political polarization around the world. “Our deep entrenchment in tribal identities is depriving us of the ability to talk to people with opposing ideas, and this leaves me with a profound despair,” explains Kiran.
“Tera Jugg” speaks to this disheartenment. “In this world of yours how shall I chart my way / whose hearts shall I appease, who shall I sway?”
Kiran Ahluwalia - Tera Jugg
The album also projects hope with songs such as “Pancake” and “Dil” along with a stirring duet with Algeria’s Souad Massi, “Ban Koulchi Redux”, a shining example of women collaborating across cultures.
Ahluwalia has an uncanny ability for channelling her sentiments into her music. “Comfort Food” is filled with songs of protest and hope for a just society. “Writing these songs gave me an emotional release from my own sense of helplessness – in this way creating this album has been my comfort food.”
But we start …
ÀTTØØXXÁ - Sai da Frente / Da Favela Pro Asfalto part. Carlinhos Brown
There is an awful lot of music in Brazil. And an awful lot of variety. I subscribe to the Brazil Calling newsletter [Web] [Facebook]. And this week’s show is largely influenced by this excellent publication (run by David McLoughlin, an Irish Man living in São Paulo).
Here are some videos from some of the artists featured.
Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz - The Girl From Ipanema (1964) LIVE
Luísa Sonza - Carnificina (The Town 2023)
Where and when to listen.
Friday:
Akaroa World Radio 2:00 pm local New Zealand Time (3:00 am GMT 4:00 am CET)
NAR-GROUP Germany – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m (CET)
Mosel Radio – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m (CET)
NAR-Alf – 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m (CET)
Saturday:
RCFM (Radio City FM) Duisburg, Germany 3:00 – 5:00 pm CET
World FM 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am GMT, 12:00 noon CET)
Essential Radio Midnight to 2:00 am GMT (1:00 am CET)
Sunday:
West Coast FM Namibia 10:00 pm to 12:00 noon Central Africa Time (2:00 to 4:00 GMT)
NFRS Osaka Japan: 12:00 noon local time (3:00 am UK time 4:00 am CET)
973FM in Singapore and 11:00 pm local time (3:00 pm/15:00 hours UTC – Universal Time).
Bangor FM 107.9 7:00 pm local time (8:00 pm CET)
Slice Audio 10:00 pm local time (11:00 pm CET)
Ferry FM 10:00 pm local time (11:00 pm CET)
Radio Larne 10:00 pm local time (11:00 pm CET)
Armagh City Radio 10:00 pm local time (11:00 pm CET)
Monday:
SparkFlame Radio: 00:00 am GMT (01:00 CET)
Waterwaves Radio: 8:00 pm GMT (21:00 CET)
KNC Radio St Lucia 6:00 am local time (10:00 am GMT 11:00 am CET)
BR2 Pure Gold Radio – Costa Blanca, Spain 10:00 pm local time (CET)
Akaroa World Radio 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am GMT, 12:00 noon CET)
World FM 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am GMT, 12:00 noon CET)
Tuesday:
Lisburn’s 98FM – 7:00 pm local time GMT (8:00 pm CET)
FM105 Down Community Radio – 7:00 pm local time GMT (8:00 pm CET)
Wednesday:
World FM 4:00 am local New Zealand Time (5:00 pm Tuesday GMT, 6:00 pm CET)
Slice Audio 4:00 am local time GMT (5:00 am CET)
Radio Skye (Radio Garden) 10:00 pm GMT (11:00 pm CET)
Stirling Community Radio 10:00 pm GMT (11:00 pm CET)
Thursday:
Radio Larne 10:00 pm local time (11:00 pm CET