Last Week
You can hear all of last week’s show on Mixcloud.
You can listen to all of the music from last week’s show without the talking between the songs on both iTunes and Spotify on the blog. See the running order of all the songs played there, too.
This Week
Music from: Algeria, Brazil, Cape Verde, Catalonia, Czech Republic, Extremadura, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Mali, Morocco, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Tanzania, and Togo.
Music by: Amsterdam Klezmer Band, Ana Lua Caiano, Aziza Brahim, Bab L' Bluz, Bicho Carpinteiro, Carola Ortiz, El Gato Negro & Pat Kalla, Hajda Banda, Hysterrae, Kasvu, Katerina Papadopoulou, Kavita Shah & Bau, Lau Noah, Lenhart Tapes, Les Amazones d'Afrique, Lina_, Luizga & Edgar Valente, Mama Sissoko, Mzungu Kichaa, NaraBara, Omiri, Saso Popovski, Tempus, Togo All Stars, and Yin Yin.
This week’s featured album is Aziza Brahim - Mawja
Aziza Brahim - Mawja (official lyrics video)
"It's about the listener's desire to connect with music and with their own story through someone else's story.” Explains Aziza Brahim about the title song from Mawja. “It refers to that magical moment when you turn on the radio and that song you like just starts playing. It stays with you all day because it makes you happy and it gives you the strength to move forward and face all the everyday challenges."
Mawja is the fifth collection of songs, and fourth on Glitterbeat. Their notes on the release of Soutak in 2014 said “Aziza Brahim's music adeptly travels the expanse between her Western Saharan roots and Barcelona, the European cosmopolis where she now lives. Aziza is both a contemporary sonic poet and a prominent and eloquent spokesperson for the Saharawi people and their ongoing struggle for recognition and justice.”
She was born in 1976 in the Sahrawi refugee camps, in the Tindouf region of Algeria where her mother had settled in late 1975, fleeing from the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. Her father remained in El Aaiun where he later died. Due to the Western Sahara War, Aziza never met him.
Growing up in the severe conditions of the desert camps, Aziza discovered music as both a source of entertainment and a natural way to express and communicate her personal emotions and thoughts of resistance.
At the age of 11, she received a scholarship to study in Cuba, like many Sahrawi students at the time. She wanted to study music, but was rejected. She left school and returned to the refugee camps in 1995, pursuing her musical career. Since 2000 she has lived in Spain, first in León and later in Barcelona. She is married and she has a daughter. [Wikipedia]
With the new release the record company says
“Mawja is an album that shifts across moods, from the loud rattle of “Metal, Madera” through her reimagination of “Marhabna 2.1,” a song that appeared on her debut, to “Duaa” and “Ljaima Likbira,” Brahim’s tender, loving elegies for her grandmother.
“She was a very important poet of the Sahrawi revolution and culture,” Brahim says. “People like her are immortal and her legacy will live forever on the memory of many people. “Duaa” is a prayer to honour her memory. My grandparents’ home was called “the big haima,” where she was the great matriarch. It’s where I was born and raised. Where we were able to learn to be proud, tenacious, to become activists. First in El Aaiun, then in refugee camps and today in Bucraa in Algeria. Life never have been easy for the Sahrawi.”
But there’s an escape from pain into magic and myth that she follows on “Bubisher,” about a legendary bird of Sahrawi literature. “In popular belief, the bubisher is a lucky bird because it brings good news, its sighting is a sign that we will receive good news. Based on that idea, people created a project for those in the refugee camps and it carries the bird’s name.”
The refugees and the camps were Brahim’s childhood. They, and the Sahrawi struggle to reclaim their homeland of Western Sahara from its nearly fifty-year occupation, formed her, and remain a vital part of her identity. “Haiyu Ya Zawar” is a summary of that, she says, “a popular Sahrawi song of resistance and struggle. I wanted to include it because it is very related to my people and the meaning of its lyrics at this time of war is evident.” She made the tune more Spanish and brought in Raúl Rodríguez, an Andalucian guitar player who created the Tres Flamenco, on the Cuban Tres. All three geographical strands of her history come together in the anthem.”
You can find more information about Aziza on Glitterbeat Records website.
Lau Noah & Jacob Collier - If a tree falls in love with a river
There is a rather unconventional beginning to the show this week. Remember when you were younger and you found a record and wanted to share it with all your friends? It’s that sort of beginning.
Lau Noah …
… is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and self-taught artist from Catalonia, Spain, based in New York City. In February 2019, Noah performed a Tiny Desk Concert, making her the first Catalan to perform in the series.
Lau has performed with musicians such as Jacob Collier, Gavin Degraw and Chris Thile, with whom he toured Europe and the UK as an opening act. In autumn 2023 he opened for Ben Folds on his UK tour, playing solo at the Royal Albert Hall and other historic theatres.
“A Dos” features some influential musicians such as Jorge Drexler, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Jacob Collier and Cécile Mclorin Salvant. [Lau Noah Official Website]
Jacob Collier …
… is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator. His music incorporates a combination of jazz and elements from other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reharmonisations and close harmony. [Wikipedia]
Ana Lua Caiano - Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado
Ana Lua Caiano is a music composer and audiovisual artist. She has composed for several short films, documentaries and audiovisual projects. Ana Lua Caiano fuses tradition with innovation, an artist who explores musical fusion through the combination of Portuguese tradition with electronics, sounds from the past united with synthesizers, beat-machines and field recordings. [More here and here]
There’s always more
You can listen as the programme is broadcast or streamed on the radio stations below. You can catch up next week on Mixcloud and you can find out more at davysims.com
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
West Coast FM Namibia 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm Central Africa Time (2:00 to 4:00 GMT)
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:
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 (3:00pm/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:
Reverse FM: 00:00 am GMT (01:00 CET)
SparkFlame Radio: 00:00 amGMT (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)