Around the World Preview – 27 February 2022 & 2 March
Around the World's third birthday
From this week, another radio station adds Around the World to its programmes.
From Sunday, Armagh City Radio will carry Around the World on Sunday evenings at 10:00 pm. Around the World is also 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.
If you want to suggest music to play on the show, you can either contact me here or through the blog.
See last week’s running order here (Around the World – 20 & 22 February 2022). You can listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of last week’s show and all previous shows on Mixcloud here
This week I’ll be playing music from Brazil, Canada, Chile, Finland, Ireland, Korea, Libya, Mali, Senegal, Spain, Tibet, Turkey and Azerbijan, USA, and starting with Slovenia.
Laibach’s Spectre was released 8 years ago next week (4 March 2014). About 18 months later when I was living in Slovenia I interviewed Ivan Novak one of the founding members who established Laibach in 1980 when Slovenia was a socialist republic, part of Yugoslavia. Many of Laibach’s themes still reflect their opposition to authoritian regimes and governments.
Ivan confirmed the claim in Wikipedia “In 1984, the group moved to London and started working as labourers, acted as soldiers in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and worked at a pier in Belfast.” In fact they were painting a ship in Belfast shipyard.
The featured album is Rokia Koné & Jacknife Lee’s Bamanan which has just been released.
The album of the week, probably of the month and likely album of the year.
“Rokia Koné was a core member of the West African collective Les Amazones d’Afrique on their 2017 album “Republique Amazone.” Her new LP with Jacknife Lee is an equal partnership.” New York Times
“The LA-based Dublin producer who worked with U2, REM and Snow Patrol” Irish Times
Rough Trade says “It’s a voice that soars – pure, clear and true — above bass and synths, traditional percussion and infectious Mande guitar grooves. A stop-you-in-your-tracks voice instantly familiar to anyone in Mali, West Africa: Rokia Koné, aka the Rose of Bamako. On her debut international release, she’s teamed with Irish-born, California-based rock producer Jacknife Lee — and reimagined the Malian sound in ways leftfield and ground breaking.”
There’s more about Rokia Koné on her website and Jacknife-Lee on his website.
You can get the album on Bandcamp
A few words about a few others on the show.
Ade: Born on the island of Maio, Cabo Verde, Adê is 33 years old, has lived in Spain for 14 years and is launching his new musical project entitled “Hello Cabo Verde”, in which he seeks to rescue Creole tradition and culture with a modern and current sound. The album features ten tracks that translate traditional Cape Verdean music mixed with a contemporary style, with a strong presence of Afro-Brazilian music and Continental Africa. In addition, the project has the participation of important names, such as Cape Verdean artists Tibau Tavares and Jenifer Solidade and the Brazilian accordionist Mestrinho. [Vivente Andante]
Ahmed Ben Ali from Habbi Funk 012 “Reggae from Libya, recorded at Ahmed Ben Ali's home studio in Benghazi in 2008. Ahmed Ben Ali was born in 1971 in Benghazi. He went to boarding to school in Canada for 8 years, and returned to Libya. For a couple of years he also worked in the UK. Music was never his main job but his “main hobby” as Ahmed says Bandcamp
Dagadana “Since 2008 Dagadana has triumphantly merged elements of Polish and Ukrainian culture through jazz, electronic, and world music. It all started with a jazz workshop in Cracow, where a mutual love for music has become a spark that ignited a great friendship and lead to the formation of the band.” Band’s website
FlamenGrass: “FlamenGrass is the name of a new group from Barcelona that blends bluegrass with flamenco, the traditional folk music from the Andalusian region of Spain. The band consists of Lluís Gómez on banjo, Carol Durán on fiddle, Javi Vaquero on guitar, and Maribel Rivero on bass… Alegria is an interesting mix of styles, one which the band hopes will stimulate greater interest in the banjo and bluegrass performance in Spain and other Spanish-speaking nations. They certainly seem to be having fun with it, and it sounds great.” [Bluegrass Today]
Leenalchi (이날치) is a South Korean pansori pop band formed in 2019.They have a unique lineup, with three female and one male traditional Korean singers, two bassists and a drummer. The four traditional singers are graduates of Seoul National University's traditional music department. Bassist Jang Young-gyu scored the films "The Wailing" (2016) and "Train to Busan" (2016) and played bass for SsingSsing. Fellow bassist Jeong Jung-yeop previously played bass for Kiha and the Faces. Drummer Lee Chul-hee was also drummer for SsingSsing. The band is named after Lee Nal-chi, a pansori master and jultagi performer of the 1880s. All members participate in coming up with a song in a rhythmic way, "like a Wikipedia article written by many contributors". The band members met during a 2018 performance of "Dragon King" at the Asia Culture Center in Gwangju. [Wikipedia]
Maruja Limón “presents a variety of musical influences that move between Latin rhythms, Mediterranean music and pop, all of them articulated around a flamenco root. They are composers and arrangers of their own songs, which reflect their personalities and their complicity. [Band’s website]
Tiganá Santana & BaianaSystem
Born on December 29, 1982, in the city of Salvador (Bahia), the composer, singer, instrumentalist, poet, music producer, artistic director, curator, researcher, teacher and translator Tiganá Santana began his musical studies on guitar at the age of 14. , in his native land, with Alberto Batinga. He started composing at this stage, after having had the experience of poetic writing since he was 9 years old. [Tiganá Santana’s website]
BaianaSystem is a musical project formed in 2009 with the aim of finding new sound possibilities for the Bahian guitar, an instrument created in Salvador - Bahia in the 1940s and which was responsible for the creation of the electric trio. The name comes from the junction of "Bahian guitar" with "sound system", which are sound systems created and popularized in Jamaica. The initial idea was the use of new and / or known bases where the guitar could assume the role of "singing" in this system, dividing and dialoguing with the voice. [Discogs]
Yungchen Lhamo is a Tibetan singer-songwriter living in the United States. She won an Australian Record Industry Association award for best folk/world/traditional album in 1995 and was then signed by Peter Gabriel's Real World record label. [From Wikipedia & Artist’s wewbsite]
I’ll be playing something from the Lili Del Sol & Manu Linois Hominum EP. Here’s a different song.
I’ll be on Slice Audio, Ferry FM, Radio Larne, and Armagh City Radio on Sunday at 10:00 pm and on Tuesdays at 7:00 on
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