Around the World – Week beginning 14 May 2023 - Preview
Music from far and near - but mainly far (depending on where you are, I suppose)
Hello,
Time for the weekly preview of Around the World which is broadcast on several radio stations. If you’re not in their broadcast area, you can listen online - details below.
Music this week from the Mediterranean region including Albania, Bosnia, Catalonia, Italy, France, Spain. Europe: Finland, Estonia, Poland. Africa: Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Senegal, Somalia. Plus India, Brazil, and Dominican Republic.
Music by: Acid Arab & Cem Yıldız, Aditya Prakash Ensemble, Alba Asensi, Alessia Tondo, Amanda Magalhães, Arar, Baaba Maal, Brigan, Damir Imamović, Don Plok Soom T & Dunumba Soundsystem, Dur-Dur Band Int., Funmilayo Afrobeat Orquestra, Kimi Djabaté, Mari Kalkun, Njava, Riki Rivera, Rita Indiana, Saz'iso, Suistamon Sähkö, Trad.Attack!, Ukandanz, Vincent Peirani, Vincent Segal, Ballaké Sissoko, Emile Parisien & Vołosi.
On a personal note - Facebook
After almost 2 years away from Facebook, I’ve returned, although under a different profile. You can contact me there.
Featured Album:
Karkum Project, Giulia Tripoti & Claudio Merico
The featured album this week is by the Karkum Project. Sahira is a tour-de-force of music led by the two Italian co-founders. What really drives Sahira is the extraordinary mix of guest musicians. There is a Spanish flamenco guitarist, an Indian tabla player, Kora player from Burkina Faso, a Libyan singer, and Kurdish and Bulgarian musicians. Yet the music is very accessible – I’ve been listening to it all week in the car as I drive around (nice and loud).
There will be 4 pieces on the show.
SAHIRA - the new album by Karkum Project
Karkum Project was founded by two Italian musicians. Claudio Merico is a violinist whose interest in music extends well beyond his classical training into various kinds of modern and ethnic music including Pop, Rock, Latin, Klezmer, Irish, Italian, and Jazz Manouche.
Giulia Tripoti, is a singer-songwriter from Rome who draws on the popular music of Central and Southern Italy, African music, prog-rock, folk, electronic music, and oriental music.
Karkum is an “open project” working on ideas around world music and culture by developing a real network of artists who collaborate in synergy with each other.
The “Sahira” album represents the musical synthesis of our artistic paths, the inspiring muse that leads us between the different cultures of peoples. This name in Arabic means "Eternal Spring". It can symbolize the Earth, the Moon, the rebirth, even our Sahira embodies all the feminine qualities. She generates and sustains life, like a mother. Mother Earth. We love to imagine her as a woman with a disenchanted expression and fatigued by the weight of the world that she has to support on her head. Then, we have created a character that accompanies and encompasses all our record work, we also wanted to represent it graphically with the beautiful drawings of the artist Marta Cavicchioni. Each song tells the exploits of heroines who have really existed, fairy tales and stories featuring women, between reality and fantasy. From the Mediterranean to Africa, up to India. The Sahira record is our homage to the archetypal female figure, expressed in her heroic and divine form, musically represented by evocative sounds, instruments and musical languages belonging to different cultures, which blend together. Princesses, heroines, amazons, mermaids and pirates guide us on an imaginary journey through sounds that reach different parts of the world from the Mediterranean. A journey that we are pleased to share with you. [1]
The Karkum Project has released two albums so far: ALJAMA - antichi canti del Mediterraneo, which explores the cultural and musical routes of the Sephardic communities across the Mediterranean and the Balkans, and SAHIRA , which tells stories of heroic women.
Mari Kalkun - Tõistmuudu (Otherwise)
This time last year I was in Estonia at Tallin Music Week. To show solidarity with Ukraine following Russia’s invasion the organisers split the event in two parts. Part 1 was held in Tallin itself and Part 2 was moved to Narva on the Russian Border at fairly short notice. It was very exciting to be there, particularly at that time. There’s more in my blog.
On the first night in Tallinn, I went to see a band from the most northerly part of Finland who I have played many times on the show. They are called Suistamon Sähkö
It was a venue where after the performance the audience could go up to the stage and talk with the band. And there I was. I fell into conversation with a woman beside me. We exchanged the usual pleasantries and I asked he why she was there.
“Oh, I’m a musician.” She said.
“What’s your name?” Sez I
“Mari Kalkun.” Sez she.
“I love your music!!!” I blurted out as excited as a 16-year-old – before being a little embarrassed by my loss of “cool”.
We have run into each other a couple of times since (both being international globetrotters don’t y’know).
Her new album is due in June and this single is her first new piece released since we met.
Kimi Djabaté - "Alidonke"
I’ve been playing Kimi Djabaté’s Dindin since I saw him play at a side event to WOMAX last year organised by Cumbancha, his record label. Born in Guinea-Bissau, Kimi lives and works in Lisbon. Dindin is his fourth album.
After touring Europe with the national music and dance ensemble of Guinea-Bissau, Djabaté settled in Lisbon, Portugal. He has lived in Europe since, yet remains devoted to the music he grew up with in Guinea-Bissau. In Europe Djabaté collaborated with various artists, including Mory Kanté and Waldemar Bastos. In 2005, Djabaté released his first solo album, Teriké, which he released independently. Djabaté second solo album, Karam, was released on July 28, 2009 under the label, Cumbancha. This one disc, fifteen song album has themes of social and political realities; the suffering of African people; the fight against poverty; freedom; women's rights; and love. [Wikipedia]
Saz'iso: At Least Wave Your Handkerchief At Me
When I started this show several years ago, one album I picked up on quite early was Saz'iso’s At Least Wave Your Handkerchief at Me. It was produced by the legendary Joe Boyd and Andrea Goertler, who are both working on the new Damir Imamović album which I’ll feature next week. I don’t hear enough Albanian music – and I certainly don’t play enough.
“Why not give yourself a break from the unending cavalcade of modern high-speed insanity, and rest up with this album of deep soul from Southern Albania.”
– Ry Cooder
Like Brazilian Samba, Portuguese Fado, Bosnian Sevdah, Greek Rembetiko, Albania has Saze. Throughout Europe at the turn of the 20th century, a mass migration took poor rural workers from the country to cities. As in many places the migrants in Albania brought their music with them. The fusion of old songs, new instruments and technologies created new sounds.
Of all these great musical forms, the mesmerizing arabesques, joyful dances and heart-breaking laments of Saze are among the least recorded, and they remain largely unknown outside Albania. [Glitterbeat]
In October 2017, Glitterbeat released “At Least Wave Your Handkerchief At Me: The Joys and Sorrows of Southern Albanian Song” by Saz’iso, a group of virtuoso musicians and legendary singers assembled by veteran producer Joe Boyd (Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Cubanismo, Songhai) and his co-producers, Edit Pula and Andrea Goertler, and recorded by Grammy-winning engineer Jerry Boys (Buena Vista Social Club, Ali Farka Touré, Orchestra Baobab).
Alessia Tondo - "GUARITRICI" Documentario - Regia di Claudia Mollese
One of my favourite albums of recent times is Sita by the Italian singer Alessia Tondo. While it’s still an album I dip into from time to time, the reason I’m playing a song from it this week is that there is an update to the Sita album in video form. The film Guaritrici was published 2 or 3 weeks ago.
It’s a special work, “which marks an additional milestone in the research process undertaken by Alessia Tondo with Sita”.
I don’t speak Italian – so a lot of it is lost on me – but the music is there, and the video looks splendid.
Hear the show on the web and radio
Sundays at 7:00 pm to 9:00pm
Bangor FM 107.9 (Radio Garden)
Sundays at 10:00 pm to midnight:
Slice Audio,
Ferry FM,
Radio Larne, and
Armagh City Radio .
Monday at 6:00 to 8:00 (UK time)
U Radio Sri Lanka
Tuesdays at 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Lisburn’s 98FM (Radio Garden)
FM105 Down Community Radio (Radio Garden)
Wednesdays at 10:00 pm to midnight
Radio Skye (Radio Garden).
Saturdays at midnight to 02:00 am
Essential Radio
And there’s more.
Tune in to find out. The running order will be on my website from Sunday along with a Spotify and iTunes playlist. All the music - no interruption from me.
Until next time …