Around the World – Week beginning 17 September 2023 - Preview
Music from performers at Balkan:Most festival
Last week
This week
Featuring music from the performers at the BALKAN:MOST. Read all about it here and see what happened on the Balkan Most Facebook page.
On the show
Music from: Canada, Croatia, England, Estonia, France, Greece, Guinea Bissau, Macedonia, Mali, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Scotland, Serbia, South Africa, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe.
Music by: Adrian Sutherland, Balimaya Project, Bantu, Dantchev:Domain, Deodato Siquir, Dina e Mel, Dubioza Kolektiv, Joryj Kłoc, La Caravane Passe, Laliboi & Spoek Mathambo, Lila Downs, Magalí Sare & Manel Fortia, Malan Mané, Mànran, Mari Kalkun, Marina Satti, Martins, Mokoomba, Naked, Okan, Pjev, Kit Downes & Hayden Chisholm, Talking Spirits, Tinariwen, Xis, Yungchen Lhamo, and Zarina Prvasevda.
This week’s Featured Album: Bebel Gilberto - João
Bebel Gilberto - É Preciso Perdoar (Official Video)
João Gilberto was a Brazilian guitarist, singer, and composer. Known worldwide as “Father of the Bossa Nova” he pioneered the genre in the late 1950s. In his home country he was known as "O Mito" ("The Legend"). João Gilberto died in 2019 aged 88. Even if you don’t think you know his name, you will probably know his music – or at least his best-known song, The Girl from Ipanema which he recorded with Stan Getz in 1962. (The story behind the song)
His young daughter used to join him on stage to sing. Eventually Bebel Gilberto released her first solo work, a self-titled EP in 1986. In 1991 she moved to Manhattan where she still lives but shares her time between the U.S. and Brazil.
The songs she sings on this new album have been with her all her life, she says. "João is a love letter to my father. Since my first album I've never really covered any of my dad's music. Now it's time to present to the public the songs from João Gilberto that have influenced me since I was born- and even before.”
Balkan:Most
This week on Around the World you will be hearing a lot of music from the Balkans. That is because I’m just back from Veszprém in Hungary at the Balkan:Most festival celebrating the breath and the depth and the complexity of the music of the region.
Most in many Slavic languages means Bridge. (And yes, and not all languages spoken in the Balkans are Slavic.) The organisers say that the goal of the festival and conference is to show that the Balkan music stereotype doesn’t do justice to the region’s cultural riches. “Contemporary music from the peninsula is smart, critical and just the right amount of crazy.”
“Balkan Music” is not a genre. It’s like saying Irish Music, or American Music, or African Music are genres. Balkan music touches on everything from simple ancient folk to electronica. But let us not get bogged down in definations of “Balkans”, Balkan Music or anything else. Thay are arguements that will continue.
Over three days of daytime conference and three nights of performances I saw most of the bands and musicians playing. It was surprising, inspiring, at times jaw dropping and consistently excellent. I’ll be playing some of the musicians on the show this week and adding a few videos here.
At the time of publication there are no videos from the event I can embed from their YouTube channel, so to get a flavour of what the event was like, check the Balkan:Most Facebook page.
Dina e Mel – live at Beyond The Roots
Dina e Mel is a duo who researches and performs minority music, creating new songs out of the small fragments that survived the long and turbulent history of the Balkans. Their “Nightingale” project builds around the almost completely forgotten music of the Arbresh people, who migrated from Skadar Lake (Montenegro) next to the Venetian city walls of Zadar, Croatia. The result is an album that erases the current borders of the Eastern Balkans and melts together elements of music in unexpected ways. Notes from Balkan:Most website
La Caravane Passe - Insulaire
A Caravan traversing the Southern and Eastern corners of Europe, with a rocky mélange of global beat. With Toma Feterman at the helm, they speed up, sway gently, but keep it steady, continuously evolving, as all travellers do. The Caravan bring chansons from back home, add music of the South and the East, and dilute it all in an experimental mix. Prone to ‘yugostalgia’, Feterman and his crew create new musical landscapes from diverse ingredients, making the audience feel at home immediately. Notes from Balkan:Most website
DANTCHEV:DOMAIN - The Lions We Are (official video)
DANTCHEV:DOMAIN is a quartet of experimental world fusion, where strong cinematic melodies and tight rhythmical webs meet universal stories. Bulgarian musical heritage and elements of blues and other Afro-American roots music are combined uniquely and originally in Finnish–Bulgarian Anna Dantchev’s compositions. Known also as a ”Bulgarian Voice from Finland”, she brings out the Bulgarian diaspora in Finland to the wider world music scene. Notes from Balkan:Most website
NAKED - Pada mrak (Official Video)
Built from the complicated history of ex-Yugoslavia, Naked plays happy music about sadness – music with unwavering honesty, with a nakedness of both heart and soul. They are recognised worldwide for their powerful, energetic and highly skilled music. A gypsy violin, saxophone and clarinet converse with the melody accompanied by a tight bass and drum section. Together they create a sense of diverse global urbanism, a natural crossover of swing, funk, bebop, psychedelic dub, free jazz and classical music, with specks of the Mediterranean, Africa, and Eastern European traditions. Notes from Balkan:Most website
Dubioza kolektiv "No Escape (from Balkan)" - Live from Lowlands Festival 2022
Some acts don’t just age well but don’t age at all! As Dubioza Kolektiv celebrates their second decade on the world’s stages, it’s evident that they thrive over time. They continue to infuse their signature spunky Bosnian energy into any genre or style of music, as long as it keeps the party alive, making them a standout export of their nation. Like for so many others, despite the standstill forced by the global pandemic, their “afterpandemic” gigs are bound to make an even louder and bigger impact – expect an electrifying one in Veszprém! Notes from Balkan:Most website
MARINA SATTI - TUCUTUM (Official Music Video)
A new star rising from a generation raised on pop, Marina Satti mixes her heritage with a contemporary urban sound. The result is somewhere between slick R’n’B and age-old vocal tradition, where Greek and Sudanese roots naturally mingle with electronica. A layered and authentic form of musical self expression, Satti’s silk voice seems constantly accompanied by an invisible choir – in the deepest sense. Balkan poliphony, Greek choirs and urban youth meet in a single, irresistible voice.
Here’s how to hear Around the World
Sunday:
CHMCL Radio: 2:00 pm local time (3:00 pm CET)
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Ferry FM 10:00 pm local time (11:00 pm CET)
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Monday:
SparkFlame Radio: 00:00 am local time (01:00 CET)
Waterwaves Radio: 8:00 pm UK time (21:00 CET)
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World FM 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am BST, 12:00 noon CET)
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Tuesday:
Lisburn’s 98FM (Radio Garden) 7:00 pm local time BST (8:00 pm CET)
FM105 Down Community Radio (Radio Garden) 7:00 pm local time BST (8:00 pm CET)
Wednesday:
World FM 4:00 am local New Zealand Time (5:00 pm Tuesday BST, 6:00 pm CET)
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Radio Skye (Radio Garden) 10:00 pm local time BST (11:00 pm CET)
Friday:
Akaroa World Radio 2:00 pm local New Zealand Time (3:00 am BST 4:00 am CET)
Saturday:
Essential Radio Midnight to 2:00 am local time BST (01:00 am CET)
World FM 10:00 pm local New Zealand Time (11:00 am BST, 12:00 noon CET)