Around the World Preview – 21 & 23 November 2021
Around the World is on Slice Audio, Ferry FM, and Radio Larne on Sundays at 10:00 pm to midnight. On Tuesdays at 7:00 pm the show is broadcast on Bangor FM, Lisburn’s 98FM and FM105 Down Community Radio.
See last week’s running order is here
Listen to Part 1 of last week’s show on Mixcloud here
Listen to Part 2 of last week’s show on Mixcloud here
Greetings from my home studio. I hope you are in the best of spirits and looking forward to a great weekend. Here’s something to look forward to hearing on Sunday or the following Tuesday or anytime on Mixcloud.
Album of the Week: An annual event Melpignano, a small city in Salento “La Notte della Taranta” began in 1998. (Excerpts and full concerts are available on YouTube.) It is a unique stage where musicians from all over Grecìa Salentina meet.
In 2010 the concert master was Ludovico Einaudi who five years later produced Taranta Project album. Among the musicians involved were Mauro Durante and Justin Adams.
Mauro Durante plays violin and frame drum and has been a member of Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino from a very early age. Both his parents were founder members and has led the band since 2007.
Justin Adams is an English guitarist who has played with Jah Wobble, Robert Plant, Brian Eno, Sinéad O'Connor, Lo'Jo and musicians from African, Arabic and Irish traditions.
In 2020 they booked a studio in Salento between two lockdowns and recorded Still Moving. One session - no overdubs. What you hear is what they played.
Still Moving tonight’s featured album.
According to Rough Trade “Together they found what was essential in their common sound, reaching into traditional music from Italy (folk songs like 'Damme La Manu', classics like 'Amara Terra Mia') and America ('Little Moses', the Carter Family classic). Original songs, like 'Dark Road Down' mix the wild pizzica rhythm of Southern Italy and trance boogie, while 'Djinn Pulse' goes from serene instrumental minimalism to hypnotic catharsis. The title song 'Still Moving' evokes Mediterranean migration with the ancient frame drum and raw electric guitar providing a starkly beautiful landscape.”
All that Folk Rock stuff: Folk rock often plays an important part in the weekly Around the World, but there is a particularly strong theme this week, starting with the Adams/Durante album.
At the top of the show, a folk music duo, the like of which you probably have never seen before. Futuristic sci-fi outfits, electronic music, they are Mélisande [électro- trad] from Quebec., just this week releasing their fourth album. As an opener a bit more “traditional” folk rock from Hrdza the Slovakian band whose album 22 is largely re-recordings of earlier work (wayyy before … well, months before Taylor Swift did the same).
From the Caribbean – from Saint Lucia – Taj Weeks, a Rastafarian singer-songwriter who fronts reggae band named Adowa. He’s from the Caribbean island St. Lucia where he founded a children’s charity, They Often Cry Outreach (TOCO). That led to him becoming the UNICEF Champion for Children for St. Lucia. His first album was in 2005 and his new one is Pause – just out
Then, Namgar - Namgar Lhasaranova from Mongolia who combines trad Mongolian and rock. Trad Japanese and Rock from the Yoshida Brothers & Les Freres. Les Freres are a jazz piono duo. Together they have worked on a new album Yoshida Brothers X Les Freres.
I met Nani Noam Vazana a few weeks ago at Womex. She sings in the Ladino language which is also called Judeo-Spanish, or Sephardi, and is spoken by Sephardic Jews living mostly in Israel, the Balkans, North Africa, Greece, and Turkey.
Nani – who started out as a Jazz singer – is at the fore front of reviving Ladino Music. Ladino being the language of her family and the music she learned from her grandmother and she was to rediscover in Morocco after the Fez Jazz Festival a few years ago. Her album Ke Haber was released a few weeks ago – more from it on the show in weeks to come.
And there is the wonderful Monsieur Doumani from Cyprus who must be one of the most played bands on the show.
Pulcinella – from Toulouse in France along with Maria Mazzotta from Salento in Italy and a track from Grifon who merge traditional French, Italian and rock(ish) musics.
I’ve been a fan of Mon Laferte for a while now and one of the aspects of her work is her ability to constantly re-invent herself. Her last album SEIS was different to anything she had recorded before. The Chilean artist had explores the country music of Argentina. Previouisly her work had included aother forms of latin music not the least being tango. Her new album Carmen 1940 had an intriguing title. Would it be n the style of mid-20th century Gypsy music or French opera? Buth not unlikely – but both wrong.
She told Rolling Stone that one day, while living in Los Angeles earlier this year, Mon Laferte jumped in her car, rolled down the windows, and began to drive through Malibu. She had the music turned all the way up and she felt, for the first time in a long time, brave and completely free
And Carmen 1940 was the address of the Air B & B she was staying in.
Paddy Molony died on 12 October and I’m only catching up with that now. I wanted to play a couple of tracks to the memory of a great man and great musician. Of course, he was best known for the work he had done over decades with The Chieftains. But he played in sessions with other musicians and bands too – and not just those drawn from a traditional background. There was a band who started out as Rodeo – they lived on the north coast – Portrush direction and eventually went their own ways. Some re-appeared as Albania. And a while ago I was watching one of their video and in the background was a lone uilleann pipes player – Paddy Maloney. This is The Chieftains’ Galicia and Go Go Go from Albania.
World Music Chart Europe: Every month around 40 broadcasters and journalists who specialise in "World Music" nominate 10 albums for the World Music Chart Europe. The top 20 list is published every month, but the full list can contain upwards of 100 nominations.
Here are my nominations for December 2021. You can see the top 20 here.
Album Artist Label Country
1 Sita - Alessia Tondo - Ipe Ipe Music - Italy
2 Notes For a Maiden Warrior - Dani Larkin - Larkin Records - Ireland
3 Still Moving - Justin Adams & Mauro Durante - Ponderosa - Italy/UK
4 Umbral - Sofia Rei - Cascabalera - Argentina
5 Pissourin - Monsieur Doumani - Glitterbeat - Cyprus
6 Grifone - Maria Mazzotta & Pulcinella - Compaagnie Pulcinella - Italy/France
7 Yoshida Brothers & Les Freres - Yoshida Brothers X Les Frères - Universal Music - Japan
8 Viimane Suusataja - Puuluup - Ounkaviks - Estonia
9 Still as Your Sleeping - Karine Polwart & Dave Milligan - Hudson Records - Scotland
10 Shanu - Monoswezi - World Music Network - Mozambique/Norway/Sweden/Zimbabwe
The Around the World archive on Mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/davysims/
Slice Audio:
https://www.slice.audio/
Ferry FM:
https://ferryfm.com/
Radio Larne:
https://www.radiolarne.co.uk/
And on Radio Garden
Bangor FM 107.9:http://radio.garden/listen/bangor-fm-107-9/IycUhUbT
Lisburn’s 98FM:http://radio.garden/listen/facebook/ASeqAEl8
FM105 Down Community Radio:http://radio.garden/listen/fm-105-down-community-radio/K8lBDGFf