The Spice of Life

Spice of Life 3rd Jan 2010

2011-01-06T07:57:00.003+11:00

Happy New Year

The show on the 3rd of January 2010 included music from the Australian group DVA, Eberhard Weber as well as a live performance of Cartography by the talented Arve Henriksen from the Punktfestival 2009.

Lucie Thorne / Heidi Elva

2009-04-21T22:35:00.001+10:00

Nice ladies with buckets of talents. The interviews have been uploaded if you want to listen.

pirate bay founders jailed

2009-04-18T20:51:00.001+10:00

from SMH
Pirate Bay founders guilty and jailed

April 18, 2009 - 3:17PM

* Pirate Bay server becomes a tourist attraction

A Stockholm court on Friday found four men guilty of promoting copyright infringement by running The Pirate Bay, one of the world's top websites for illegal filesharing, and sentenced them to a year in prison.

The court also ordered the four - Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstroem - to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($4.98 million) to the recording industry, which hailed the ruling as a symbolic victory.

"The Stockholm district court has today convicted the four people charged with promoting other people's infringement of copyright laws," the court said in a statement.

Representatives of the movie, music and video games industry had sought some 117 million kronor ($19.41 million), in damages and interest for losses incurred from tens of millions of illegal downloads facilitated by the site.

Founded in 2003, The Pirate Bay makes it possible to skirt copyright fees and share music, film and computer game files using bit torrent technology, or peer-to-peer links offered on the site.

None of the material can thus be found on The Pirate Bay server itself.

The four, who have denied any wrongdoing, are expected to appeal the verdict and have previously vowed to take the case as high as the Swedish Supreme Court if necessary.

The Pirate Bay claims to have some 22 million users worldwide.

"By providing a website with ... well-developed search functions, easy uploading and storage possibilities, and with a tracker linked to the website, the accused have incited the crimes that the filesharers have committed," the court said in a statement to the media.

The court added that the four "knew that copyrighted material was being fileshared".

The one-year jail sentences were motivated by the "extensive accessibility of others' (copy)rights and the fact that the operation was conducted commercially and in an organised fashion".

IFPI, which represents the recording industry worldwide, hailed the decision.

"The trial of the operators of The Pirate Bay was about defending the rights of creators, confirming the illegality of the service and creating a fair environment for legal music services that respect the rights of the creative community," IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy said in a statement.

"Today's verdict is the right outcome on all three counts," he said, adding: "The court has also handed down a strong deterrent sentence that reflects the seriousness of the crimes committed."

During the trial, the four had pleaded innocent, insisting that filesharing services can be used both legally and illegally.

One of their lawyers, Per Samuelsson, argued that The Pirate Bay's services "can be compared to making cars that can be driven faster than the speed limit".

Another defence lawyer, Jonas Nilsson, had insisted that "the individual Internet users who use Pirate Bay services ... must answer for the material they have in their possession or the files they might share with others".

Swedish police raided the company's offices several times and seized nearly 200 servers in 2006, temporarily shuttering the site. But it resurfaced a few days later with servers spread among different countries.

The site is still in operation.

Lucie Thorne interview

2009-04-17T20:30:00.002+10:00

OK it's been awhile since I posted anything here however I have uploaded the interview I did with Lucie Thorne today. She hails from the beautiful Bega Valley, and is a very talented singer song writer who sings about personal experiences in a way that would melt your heart. She will be performing across the country up until August, so if you get a chance to hear her perform please do so.

Here are the dates for the tour:

BLACK ACROSS THE FIELD Album Launch Tour

NSW

Thursday 16th April, 2009
Interview + live-to-air performance on The Morning Show, with Deb Cameron.
702 ABC Radio. 10.30am.

Saturday 18th April, 2009
The Surry Hills Festival, Prince Alfred Park, Sydney.
Lucie + band performing on the main stage at 12.45pm.

Tuesday 21st April, 2009
Interview + live-to-air performance on The Morning Show, with Chris Coucouvinis.
FBi Radio. 11am.

Tuesday 21st April, 2009
Interview + live-to-air performance on The Spice of Life, with Hans Stoeve.
2SER Radio. 1.30pm.

Wednesday 22nd April, 2009
The Basement, Sydney.
with special guests Leroy Lee and Maxine Kauter.
Tickets $18 + bf presale / $22 at the door.
Doors open 7.30pm / Show starts 8.45pm.

Saturday 25th April, 2009
The Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba.
Tickets $20 show only / $55 dinner + show.
Bookings: 02 4782 1322.
Dinner from 7pm / Show starts 8.30pm.

Friday 1st May, 2009
The Town Hall, Candelo.
Tickets $20/$15 at the door.
Doors open 7.30pm.
BYO / Supper available.

VIC

Thursday 14th May, 2009
The Corner Hotel, Richmond.
VITAMIN RECORDS presents INDIE SIX PACK featuring Lucie Thorne + band, Tin Pan Orange, Fireside Bellows, Sal Kimber, Tobias Hengeveld and Leah Flanagan.
Tickets $16 at the door.
Doors open 7.30pm.

SA

Saturday 16th May, 2009
The Singing Gallery, McClaren Vale.
Tickets $20/$15.
Doors open 7.30pm.
BYO supper.
Bookings: 0413 358 618.

Sunday 17th May, 2009
The Wheatsheaf, Adelaide.
4pm.

NSW

Friday 22nd May, 2009
The Murrah Hall, Murrah.
Tickets $20/$15 at the door.
Doors open 7.30pm.
BYO / Supper available.

ACT

Saturday 23rd May, 2009
The Ainslie Hall, Canberra.
Tickets $20/$15 at the door.
Doors open 7.30pm.
BYO / Supper available.

NSW

Thursday 11th June, 2009
The Vanguard, Sydney.
details tba.

Saturday 13th June, 2009
The Wauchope Hall, Wauchope.
details tba.

Wednesday 17th June, 2009
The Bowling Club, Mullumbimby.
details tba.

QLD

Thursday 18th June, 2009
The Troubadour, Brisbane.
details tba.

Friday 19th June, 2009
The Black Box Theatre, Nambour.
details tba.

Sunday 21st June, 2009
The Court Theatre, Townsville.
details tba.

NSW

Friday 26th June, 2009
The Memorial Hall, Bellingen.
details tba.

Saturday 27th June, 2009
The Musician's Club, Armidale.
details tba.

Sunday 28th June, 2009
Mt Misery Goldmine Cafe, Nundle.
details tba.

more BLACK ACROSS THE FIELD launch tour shows in regional NSW, Western Australia and the Northern Territory announced soon...

John Martyn dies

2009-02-09T15:55:00.003+11:00

Incredibly sad news; an inspiring guitarist and wonderful singer song writer.

From the BBC website

John Martyn, who has died at the age of 60, was widely regarded as one of the most soulful and innovative singer-songwriters of his generation.

His music - a marriage of blues, folk, dub and funk - has been cited as an influence by artists as varied as U2, Portishead and Eric Clapton.

Although he rarely troubled the charts, many of his albums - especially Solid Air - are regarded as classics.

But the singer battled with drugs and alcohol throughout his career.

John Martyn
Born Iain David McGeachy in New Malden, Surrey, Martyn's parents divorced when he was five.

He spent his childhood alternating between his mother's houseboat in England and his father's home in Scotland, where he was exposed to the music of both the Presbyterian Church and the English music hall.

Moving to London in his late teens, he became a fixture at Les Cousins - the Soho club at the centre of the city's folk scene, which also spawned the likes of Ralph McTell, Bert Jansch and Al Stewart.

Soon after, he became the first white act to be signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records, and recorded his debut album, London Conversation, for £158 in 1968.

On the road, he began to experiment with electronic effects - notably a tape device known as the Echoplex, which provided his signature sound.

By 1969, he was married to blues singer Beverley Kutner, with whom he recorded 1970's Stormbringer in Woodstock, where the couple lived near Bob Dylan.

"Jimi Hendrix owned a house literally over the road," Martyn said in 2007. "He used to fly up every Thursday in a purple helicopter. He was very quiet and used to tell me how much he loved the animals."

Martyn won a lifetime achievement prize at 2008's Radio 2 Folk Awards
Martyn cemented his reputation with 1973's Solid Air, described as the "musical equivalent of a reassuring hug" by Q Magazine, which named it the 67th best British album of all time in 2000.

The haunting title track was dedicated to his friend and fellow singer-songwriter Nick Drake - who died of an overdose shortly after it was finished, aged 26.

The following few years saw Martyn descend into alcoholism, with live performances swinging erratically between moments of inspired genius and incoherent inebriation.

The singer later recalled an occasion in Spain where he had been so drunk he fell off the stage. "I still got three encores," he noted.

Inevitably, however, the substance abuse took a toll on his personal life and his marriage broke up towards the end of the 1970s.

Grace and Danger, released in 1980, presented a painfully honest depiction of the divorce - and Martyn later told recording engineer Phil Brown that "he had never written a good song since" leaving his wife.

Nonetheless, his subsequent albums - Glorious Fool and Well Kept Secret (the former produced by Phil Collins) - were the highest-charting records of his career.

In the late 1990s, Martyn began to experiment with electronic dance sounds and scored a top 40 hit as a featured vocalist on Deliver Me - a dance record by Faithless musician Sister Bliss.

But his life continued to be blighted by drug dependency and alcohol abuse.

In 2003, he had to have his right leg amputated below the knee after a cyst the size of a golf ball burst (although Martyn told some reporters he lost the limb after crashing his car into a stray cow).

"It only affected me getting in and out of bed, cars and theatres," he told The Mirror in 2008.

"I wasn't too pleased about it, but whatever happens to your bod, happens. I'd have died if they hadn't cut the leg off. My blood would have been poisoned."

The singer, who took to performing in a wheelchair, told Q Magazine he had no regrets.

"If I could control myself more, I think the music would be much less interesting," he said.

"I'd probably be a great deal richer but I'd have had far less fun and I'd be making really dull music."

Shortly before his death, Martyn was appointed an OBE in the New Year Honours.

Kim Sanders news

2009-02-09T15:53:00.003+11:00

Kim Sanders & Friends will perform for the Jazzgroove Association on February 17. The gig will feature drummer Toby Hall. “I’m looking forward to playing with Toby again. Playing with a jazz drummer is very different to playing with a tabla-player, and we like to take the music in different directions at different gigs,” says Kim. The other players will be Steve Elphick on bass and Sandy Evans on soprano and tenor saxes. “Sandy will be just back from a month studying in India, so she’ll be full of ideas and rarin’ to go. And there may just be some Indian things happening despite the kit instead of tabla!”

Support band (8.30pm) is Flap! from Melbourne
Jessica Guille - ukelele
Eamon McNelis - trumpet
Mark Elton - bass
Ben Hendry - drums

Touring from Melbourne to promote the launch of their debut album, Flap! are a charming band led by Jessica and Eamon. Featuring musicians from Vada, C.W. Stoneking and Shane Warne, the Musical, they sing original songs about falling off cliffs, obese amputees, being poor and the essential universal themes of falling in love and getting wasted.
Kim Sanders & Friends
10 pm
Tuesday 17 February
Excelsior Hotel, Surry Hills
cnr Foveaux & Bellevue Sts
www.excelsiorhotel.com.au

Kim Sanders news

2009-02-09T15:53:00.001+11:00

1st & 6 December 2008

2008-12-06T07:39:00.003+11:00

On the show today, an interview with Adrian Belew who is currently touring with his power trio. Belew has played with many musicians and groups over his illustrious career; Zappa, Talking Heads, Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Laurie Anderson plus many more. He's performed on about 150 albums to date and for the last 27 years has been part of King Crimson. I'm sure you have heard of them. Hear what he had to say or download the interview for future listening.
Also Lulo Reinhardt, relative of the great Django passed through town this week. Hear what he had to say and maybe get along to hear him play at a performance near you somewhere,
Music by David Sylvian & Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Rodrigo Y Gabriela from their new CD recorded live in Japan, Muslimgauze, Speaking of which, over the next few weeks I'll be playing parts of a longish interview I did with Roger Richards, the man machine behind the Extreme label out of Melbourne. He has come out of hibernation with a swag of new releases, many focussing on Australian musicians. Not always easy on the ears, this is none the less essential listening from a label that likes to push and explore what is on the boundaries of new music.

Spice of Life 7 Oct 2008 info

2008-10-07T12:05:00.000+11:00

On the show today, musical treats and delights from the following:

Less world music on today's show and more of an ambient slant.

Terje Rypdal / Miroslav Vitous / Jack de Johnette- CD To Be Continued
Geoff Smith & Nicola Walker Smith- CD 15 Wild Decembers
Julee Cruise- CD Floating Into The Night
Angelo Badalamenti- CD S/T to Twin Peaks
Tetsu Inoue- Ambiant Otaku
David Sylvian- CD Camphor

If you miss the show tune in again on Saturday for a repeat.

Next week, 2SER's annual radiothon begins. Please subscribe, re-subscribe or donate to show your continued support of what the program and station are trying to do year in year out ie be an independent voice on Sydney's radio scene. 2SER turned 29 this year and is still going strong. Many of our former volunteers have gone on to successfully produce and present on ABC or SBS radio, and indeed other areas of media production . Subscribing helps keep independent radio alive. Sponsorship for The Spice of Life is welcomed.

If you would like for me to call you and take your details personally, please email me with your details. Happy to do so.

Some upcoming gigs worth taking note of:

THE KINGS OF SWING - 24TH OCTOBER

A great night of Big Band music featuring some of Sydney's original and best musicians from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Overlooking Lane Cove golf course, this promises to be a fun night for those who love the music of this era.

Billy Burton returns to the big band scene to lead the Kings of Swing for the night. The program will feature some of the punchiest big band arrangements from Billy's own library dating back to his days at Sydney's premier night spots in the 60's and 70's like Chequers, the Chevron's Silver Spade room and Marrickville RSL. Along with his own smooth, classy trumpet playing - Sydney jazz great - Errol Buddle will lead the sax section. Frank McQuade and Helen Fenton provide the vocals for the evening along with special guests Armondo Hurley and Lisa Michel featuring throughout the night.

Dinner and show $55 and Show only $20. Contact Lane Cove Country Club on 9418 6159 to make a booking.

JASLYN HALL PRESENTS.... THE FINAL TOUR

DAVID MURRAY BLACK SAINT QUARTET (USA)
David Murray - Tenor Sax/Bass Clarinet
Lafayette Gilchrist - piano
Malik Washington - drums
Jaribu Shahid – doublebass

The Sacred Ground Tour revives the music of Murray’s original Black Saint Quartet, a legendary musical collaboration going back some twenty years with an innovative new approach that visits some of the classic numbers as well as featuring many new compositions.

"David Murray is far and away the greatest tenor saxophonist
of his generation" – Tom Hull (Village Voice)

TWO SYDNEY SHOWS ONLY
Thursday 30th October & Monday 3rd November -The Basement, 7 Macquarie Place, Circular Quay. SYDNEY
Tickets $60 + b/f Bookings: www.thebasement.com.au
DINNER & SHOW tickets available Tel: The Basement, 02 9251 2797 www.myspace.com/davidmurraymusic

Kim Sanders & Friends:

High-altitude World Music at the Gearin

Good news for mountain-dwellers as Kim Sanders & Friends head to Katoomba for a gig at the Gearin Hotel on Sunday October 19. This will be Kim's last gig in Australia before heading off to Indonesia to perform with didge-player/ singer/ dancer Glen Doyle at the Solo International Ethnic Music Festival in Yogyakarta at the end of the month.

The gig at the Gearin marks the return of percussionist of Peter Kennard. Peter has played with Ashok Roy, Sirocco, the Flying Fruitfly Circus and the Turkish State Theatre, and is a veteran of Kim's legendary world/Gypsy band Brassov. He also collaborated with Kim on his acclaimed CD 'Trance'n'Dancin'. "When it comes to frame drums," says Kim, "Peter is the best".

World Music veteran Sanders has studied with Sufi ney-masters in Turkey, played with Gypsy wedding-bands in Macedonia, in mosquito-infested nightclubs in Gambia, seedy tavernas in Greece, concert-halls in Turkey, recording studios in Indonesia and tea-houses in China - not to mention Rooty Hill RSL. Saxophonist Sandy Evans and bassist Steve Elphick have built on their jazz roots to become two of Australia's leading World Music exponents. Their strong improvising has made their names familiar worldwide.

"We don't do many gigs in the Blue Mountains," says Kim, " so I'm really looking forward to the Gearin. And we're on a roll after the release of 'Bent Grooves'"

Kim Sanders: Ney (Sufi flute), kaval (Bulgarian wooden flute), mey (Turkish double reed), Bulgarian and Turkish gaidas (bagpipes), tenor sax

Sandy Evans: soprano, tenor saxes

Steve Elphick: bass

Peter Kennard: dhaf, darabukka, jingly things

2.30 pm, Sunday October 19

Gearin Hotel
273 Great Western Hwy, Katoomba (near the railway station)

$20/15 conc
Meals are available from 12pm

Info and bookings: (02) 4782 4395

The Barons of Tang (gypsy-jazz-punk) have one widely acclaimed self-titled EP under their belt
and are frantically working on a follow up.

The Barons will be performing in October at :
The Factory Marrickville, Sydney Thurs 2rd
The Lass O’Gowrie, NewCastle Fri 3rd
Evolve Festival, Byron Bay on Saturday 4th
The Globe, Fortitude Valley , Brisbane with KAFKA
**Northcote Social Club (Melb) Sunday 19th
with French Artist Ronan/Ronan Album Launch

For more info check out:
www.myspace.com/thebaronsoftang

Banjo Player and singer of Fils de Teuhpu Ronan Guittier travels direct from the small french village of Montreuil to Australia
to perform his Solo Show Ronan/Ronan and launch his album “Copie/Colle”.

With 26 shows throughout Australia, Ronan/Ronan will be playing an eclectic selection of Festival sand venues, starting with shows in the pristine World Heritage forests of Cape York’s Wallaby Creek Festival to Brisbane Powerhouse to NZ Nelson Arts Festival to the beautiful The Famous Spiegeltent at Sydney Opera House . With many dates in between, Ronan/Ronan tours to a venue near you to perform a very special show.

On the stage Ronan creates his music completely live . In a joyous bric-a-brac of colour, turntable decks, children’s toys and a box full of treasures, Ronan/Ronan creates his poetic, lyrical mayhem, performing light hearted yet haphazard songs that you may just find yourself singing along to!!

Surrounded by an array of different acoustic instruments and a loop pedal, Ronan experiments and creates his own musical universe – amusing, entertaining and poetic all at the same time. His performance is visually amazing and teeters on the edge of comedy and surreal musical madness.

Ronan’s Instruments include Plastic train, banjo, ‘moo’ box, turntable, ukulele, hand-saw and log of wood, the ‘music star’ toy, trumpet, aspirin, cymbals, ‘squawk’ box harmonica, whistle, small bells, door slamming, rustling of plastic bags and so on......

With his warm smile, a cheeky look and a loaded shelf, Ronan/ronan, the true one man orchestra, will wind you up like a clock!

Tour Dates

RONAN/RONAN (FRANCE) AUSTRALIA TOUR : 25th SEPT – 31ST OCT 2008

26th Fri - 29th Mon Sept Wallaby Creek Festival Cape York Qld
31st Tues -- 3rd Fri Oct Coffs Buskers & Comedy Festival
3rd Oct Fri Dorrigo Theatre Show
4th Oct Sat Evolve Festival Byron Bay
7th Oct Tues Press Launch @ The Lounge Café Surry HIlls
8th Oct Wed Milton Theatre Milton Escape Arts Festival
9th Oct Thurs The Heritage Hotel Bulli
10th Oct Fri ‘Who Art Thou ‘Art Gallery Gosford
11th Oct Sat The Convent Orange
12th Oct Sun The Clarendon Blue Mountains
17th Oct Fri Higher Ground Adelaide
18th Oct Sat The Folkus Room, Canberra
19th Oct Sun Northcote Social Club Melbourne
“Copie Colle” CD Launch with The Barons of Tang
21st Oct Tues The National Geelong
22nd Oct Wed The Alley Cat Hobart Tasmania
23rd Oct Thurs Brisbane Powerhouse
24th Fri – 26th Oct Yungaburra Folk Festival North Queensland
27th Mon NZ Nelson Arts Festival 2 Shows
29th Oct Wed The Famous Spiegeltent Sydney Opera House
31st Oct Fri Bangalow A&I Hall Byron Bay Howling Halloween

…….With More shows to Be Announced

Regards

Hans Stoeve
The Spice of Life
listen online @ www.2ser.com
2SER FM Tuesday Afternoon 1330-1500
Repeated Saturdays 6pm till 7.30pm
Jazz-Blues-Folk-World and more.

Blogging at www.globalgroove.blogspot.com

Sponsors, New Material and New Listeners Welcomed.

Level 26- UTS Building 1
Broadway NSW 2001
Sydney Australia

'Some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must live'-Charles Bukowski

2 September 08 featuring Bob Brozman

2008-09-02T20:47:00.003+10:00

On the show today, you either heard or missed the following musical treats (or torture) depending on your tastes and outlook.

Bob Brozman- CD Lumiere
An interview with Bob Brozman soon to tour once more in the land of Oz. Listen to or download the interview here
Bob's coming our way once more for a series of concerts and festivals.
Tracks covered: Mars Over Sorrento / N'Oubliez par Reunion / Tango Metzinarodny

Son House- CD Delta Blues & Spirituals
Tracks: How To Treat A Man

Charley Patton- The Blues Collection Vol 49
Best known as an American Delta Blues player, considered to be by many the grand pappy of Delta Blues, and one of the oldest figures of American popular music; a definitive inspiration for just about every delta blues player ever.
Tracks played: Tom Rushen Blues / A Spoonful Blues / Shake It & Break it / Mississipi Bo Weavil Blues

Alan Lomas- Blues Songbook Vol 2
Dimples In Your Jaw / I Could Hear My Name A Ringing / Blues de la Prison / I Been A Bad Bad Girl / Joe Turner

The Spice of Life 12 August 08

2008-08-11T23:58:00.001+10:00

Alright even though I'm not convinced anyone reads this blog....

In case you are wondering (or not) what's playing tomorrow:

State of Bengal vs Paban Das Baul- Tana Tani various tracks
Krsna Das- CD Piilgrim's Heart various tracks
Midival Punditz remix Niyaz- Allahi Allah

Loungeclash- CD Dread Time Story- various tracks.
Loungeclash is a collaboration between Neil Sparkes from Temple of Sound and sam Dodson (Loop Guru) in a mix of 21st century lounge music, electronica and dub reggae.

Karsh Kale- CD Distance remixes of Distance originally on Realize
Marcel Khalife- Takkasim

1 Giant Leap- audio extract off the DVD What About Me?

The Spice of Life 5 August 08

2008-08-06T12:12:00.000+10:00

You either heard or missed the following:

Toumani Diabate- CD Kaira

Ralph Towner / Wolfgang Muthspiel / Slava Grigoryan- CD From A Dream

Talking with Ralph Towner. Audio is from a previous interview I conducted with Ralph.

Ralph, Slava and Wolfgang will be touring Australia for the next 2 weeks. Dates below.

2008 Australian Tour, with Wolfgang Muthspiel and Slava Grigoryan

August 7 - Hobart, Theatre Royal
August 8 - Melbourne, National Theatre
August 9 - Canberra, Tilleys
August 10 - Canberra, Tilleys
August 12 - Sydney, The Basement
August 13 - Sydney, The Basement
August 14 - Brisbane, Brisbane Powerhouse
August 15 - Byron, Byron Community & Cultural Centre
August 17 - Darwin, Darwin Entertainment Center
August 20 - Adelaide, Dunstan Playhouse or Her Majesty's Theatre
August 21 - Perth, Octagon Theatre

An audio extract from the new 1 Giant Leap project- What About Me.

The Telltales- Under The Waterline. They are also having a record launch at the end of the month.
Sat 30th August Cat & Fiddle Hotel. 456 Darling St Balmain

Also coming up...

++++ JOSEPH TAWADROS QUARTET Live in Concert ++++

Joseph Tawadros (Oud), Matt McMahon (Piano), Dimitri Vouras (Clarinet)
James Tawadros (Egyptian Percussion)

Tuesday, 26th August, 2008. 8pm.
St. Stephens Church, 189 Church St, Newtown

Adult: $25 Concession: $20

For Bookings please email: joe@josephtawadros.com

www.josephtawadros.com

Spice of Life- 22 July 08

2008-07-22T21:31:00.002+10:00

Hi Folks

This is what was playing today in case you tuned in. Don't forget the show is repeated Saturday at 6pm.

Tina Harrod- CD Work Songs - Such A Long Way Home / Glory Box / River Man
I interviewed Tina on Sunday regarding this release and her upcoming shows to promote the release. The interview will go to air next Tuesday.

Ralph Towner / Slava Grigoryan / Wolfgang Muthspiel- CD From A Dream- Nardis / Tammuriata
Ralph will be touring nationally between August 7-21. More information here

Frank Zappa- CD Shut Up N'Play Yer Guitar- Shut Up N'Play Yer Guitar / Shut Up N'Play Yer Guitar Some More

1 Giant Leap- Audio Extract from the What About Me DVD.

Hanggai- CD Introducing Hanggai- My Banjo & I / Drinking Song / Lullaby

Spice of Life- interviews Adrian McNeil

2008-07-08T22:51:00.002+10:00

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Adrian was based in India for many years, mostly in Calcutta, Mumbai and Dehra Dun. He has undergone intensive training according to the guru-shishya parampara (traditional methods) for more than twenty five years under Pandit Ashok Roy, Professor Sachindranath Roy and Dr. Ashok Ranade. He regularly performs in major concerts in Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore and regional centres where his playing attracts critical acclaim. He often appears in the media in India and has performed for National Television and Radio along with leading cable television station Zee TV, and has been interviewed by major national daily newspapers.

He regularly performs in Australia, has made a number of recordings for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and has toured widely including France and Hong Kong.

Adrian is currently living in Sydney, Australia where he is a lecturer in improvisation studies, musicianship and world music in the Department of Contemporary Music Studies.

I interviewed Adrian last week about his life as a musician, in relation to the sarod and his teacher, Ashok Roy.

The interview is available as a download.

Music on today's program will be from the following recordings

Raga Basant Mukhari- Adrian McNeil (sarod) and Aneesh Pradhan (Tabla)- Underscore Records

Ashok Roy- Master of the Sarod- Larrikin Records

Ashok Roy- Live in Amritsar 1982- Private Recording

Sambali- Geoff Brophy- Cd Sounds Pacifically Asian

Gender Solo- Alit Adi Putra- CD Sounds Pacifically Asian

Powerspot no more

2008-07-01T18:19:00.001+10:00

Powerspot as of last week went into a state of deep sleep. As of this week only The Spice of Life will remain.

Playlist for 11 June 08

2008-06-10T22:40:00.001+10:00

Here is what I will be playing tomorrow night in case you will be listening.

Papua New Guinea Stringbands with Bob Brozman- Songs of The Volcano

Bob Brozman is a guitarist like no other: an established and prolific recording artist, performer, producer, and author, Bob is a non-stop world traveler and tireless researcher in ethnomusicology. His work with musicians from around the world in the past several years has marked him as not only a virtuoso musician and slide guitarist, but also as a pioneer in finding a common thread among global musical cultures.

SONGS OF THE VOLCANO is Bob's latest release. This special CD/DVD package features the music that Bob recorded with 5 Papua New Guinea Stringbands, plus the accompanying documentary by filmmaker Phil Donnison.
World renowned guitarist Bob Brozman travelled to Papua New Guinea – one of the last places on the planet to have guitars arrive from afar – to capture a sound largely untainted by outside influences; a raw, unique sound developed in isolation. The energetic and distinctive blend of voice and instrument performed by the Rabaul community’s local stringbands reflects their unfailing optimism in the face of adversity, be it war or the volcanic eruptions that have destroyed the town twice in one century, making this album truly ‘Songs Of The Volcano’.
In addition to this extraordinary album, this package features a full length, behind the scenes DVD documentary of the making of the album.

Songs of the Volcano - The Music
One of the few accidental, yet beneficial, side-effects of colonialism has been guitars washing up on shores all over the world. Papua New Guinea is no exception. Home to a huge indigenous population speaking more than 800 languages, it lay largely undiscovered until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and hence is one of the last places on the planet to have guitars arrive from afar.
Rabaul, in Papua New Guinea’s far flung province of East New Britain, is a town which has had its share of hard times. In the same century it has been destroyed twice by massive volcanic cataclysms and once by a devastating war imposed on it by outsiders. The Tolai people of Rabaul have suffered greatly from these natural and manmade disasters and yet, somehow, have always managed to bounce back and keep their spirits high. One of the main contributing factors to their capacity for optimism is their music, an energetic and unique blend of voices and instruments performed by the community’s local stringbands.
Bob Brozman is a world expert and leading exponent of the National guitar. An ethnomusicologist fascinated by the global voyage taken by the guitar over the last 500 years, he has collaborated with local musicians all over the world.
To create Songs Of The Volcano, in his capacity as Adjunct Professor of Music at Sydney’s Macquarie University, Bob went with filmmaker Phil Donnison to five villages in East New Britain to perform with five different Tolai stringbands. The purpose of filming and recording the performances was partly to document this fragile music before it disappears, and partly to facilitate the musicians in Papua New Guinea where there is an astonishing lack of musical infrastructure.
Rabaul is the location where guitars first arrived in Papua New Guinea, and the music carries a fragile innocence and beauty reminiscent of what guitar music may have sounded like in Hawaii in 1860, or Mexico in 1830. Most music travelled throughout the Pacific Ocean on boats, with sailors leaving behind instruments and ideas to then percolate in isolation. Hence, the music on this album will seem at once exotic, yet somehow familiar. Even today, there is still very little mass media penetration in Papua New Guinea, though that is changing and makes the preservation of this raw and unique sound more necessary.
This album and accompanying film present the story of this creative collaboration, a joint effort between an indomitable group of island musicians and one of the world’s greatest guitarists. Unlike Bob’s other world music collaborations, where there is a blend of styles between Bob and another established artist, Songs Of The Volcano has Bob in a more supportive role, playing simply as a member of each band in their own style.
The creation of this project not only yielded some great friendships, an unforgettable story and some remarkable results, but will enable the musicians to continue their pursuit of a musical life.
The musicians on Songs Of The Volcano are the first recipients of instruments, strings and musical supplies from Bob’s ongoing Global Music Aid Foundation, which seeks to provide donated instruments and materials to musicians in developing countries.
Through the language of guitar, Bob's ongoing body of work is launching a new aesthetic called "World Blues." His musical influences draw on a host of tones and beats from Delta Blues, Hawaiian, West African, Indian, Okinawan, Caribbean, Gypsy and Django-style Jazz, to the most modern rhythms of hip-hop, sega, funk, ska, calypso, maloya, and world island music.

Harry Manx - Brick & Stone / Reuben's Train-CD Dog My Cat

Harry Manx’s debut CD, Dog My Cat,breaks significant new ground in the blues world. A virtual one-man-band, Manx draws the listener in with his mastery of the lap slide guitar, harmonica, banjo, and vocals. But what makes Harry Manx truly stand out is the fact that he also plays the Mohan veena – a 20-string Indian slide guitar. Manx spent five years in India studying under the creator of this guitar/sitar hybrid, V.M. Bhatt, who won a Grammy award with Ry Cooder in 1994 for their CD Meeting by the River.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt- Dhun In Rag Pilu- CD Saradaman

Sheila Chandra- Is / Not A Word in The Sky-CD This Sentence is True

Gigi-Aynama- CD Gigi

Issa Bagayogo- Diarabi- CD Sya

Issa Bagayogo is one of the great, if tongue-twisting, names in world music. In fact, even in his homeland of Mali, they rarely use his last name; he's usually just called "Techno Issa". Issa topped the charts in 2002 with his groundbreaking Timbuktu, an album that spawned a host of imitators hoping to match his compelling blend of Malian roots music and Western dance technology. But no one's been able to pull it off as convincingly and as elegantly as Issa has. Now he's back to show how it's done. Tassoumakan (meaning "Voice of Fire") is Issa's third full-length album, and represents the maturing of an artist who has found a way to honor his country's great musical traditions while creating a truly global, modern sound.

Since the music of Mali is the source of much of the world's popular music (the blues, R&B, soul, rock, funk, hip-hop), Issa Bagayogo's recordings are like an introduction to a great-grandparent you didn't know was still alive. Working with the French producer/keyboardist Yves Wernert, Bagayogo shows that the musical traditions of Mali are perhaps stronger now than ever before, building on the rhythms and the spirit of Manding emperors and Wassoulou hunters of a millennium ago, and evolving into something contemporary and relevant for listeners whether they're in Timbuktu or Toledo.

Baaba Maal- CD Senegal- Jamma Jeningi

Music was an integral part of Baaba's childhood as he grew up on the banks of the river Senegal. Born to the Hal Pulaar people, (known to the English speaking world as Fulani) his mother used songs she composed herself to educate and instill in him the value of intelligent and thoughtful lyrics. Technically speaking, he was not destined to become the master musician he is today by virtue of the fact that he was not born into the caste of artists and communicators known as Griots. Through time, travel and education, his experiences have resulted in profound self awareness allowing him to deliver the message of empowerment, enlightenment, and peace.
His early edudcation in St. Louis (the original French colonial capital) lead him to win an art scholarship in Senegal's modern capital, Dakar. There he joined Asly Fouta, a group of seventy musicians. Thus began his study of local instruments which he was later expanded through an extensive tour of West Africa with longtime friend, Mansour Seck. Going from village to village, they tapped the oldest person in each location to learn about the history of the village, the country and the music. The final leg of his studies were completed at the Conservatoire des Beaux Arts in Paris. Following his return to Senegal, he formed his band Daande Lenol "Voice Of The People."
Complementing his comprehension of traditional music, he was also influenced by black American singers of the 1960's such as James Brown, Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. He later discovered Jamaican musicians such as Toots Hibbert, Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff when they toured Senegal in the mid 1970's which further broadened his musical expression.

Using his music as a vehicle to express his concerns and empower his people, Baaba Maal sings and speaks for Africa with unprecedented authority.

Salif Keita / More Kante CD- Rail Band - Tiedioucouya

Mory Kante, Salif Keita and Djelimady Tounkara and many other great musicians from Mali started as members of the Rail Band : One the most legendary names of African music.

The Rail Band was founded in 1970, in Mali, with the sponsorship of the railway administration and the Ministry of Information. The National Railway Company secured a permanent venue at the Buffet Bar in the Station Hotel in Bamako. The band was formed with the hope of safeguarding and developing Malian music. The general idea was that weary travelers would tumble into the Buffet Bar where the Rail Band would perform real Manding music. Singing in Bambara, a Manding language spoken not only in Mali, but also in Guinea, in Gambia, and parts of Senegal, the band adopted traditional kora and balafon songs and rhythms mixing in an Islamic-influenced vocal style to what was becoming modern urban pop music. Salif Keita began singing lead for the Rail Band at it's inception, when he was only twenty-one. Instruments and equipment were government-owned and band members were considered government employees. The Rail Band quickly became a sort of rite-of-passage for Malian musical talent. As mentioned, Salif Keita got his start with them, as did guitarist Kante Manfila (who both soon left the Rail Band to start Les Ambassadeurs), and singer Mory Kante (who assumed lead vocal responsibilities after Keita left). The Rail Band's music was Manding-influenced, latin-tinged, with with lightness and swing, and despite the modern instruments you can clearly hear the strains of the original Manding music. The idea of the original Rail Band stills survives to this day, though they now compete with disco's and video clubs and as a result they started playing only once a week.Rail Band is one of African pop music's most important bands, a sort of African answer to The Beatles or Rolling Stones. The parallels are not as unlikely as they may at first appear. Both the Beatles and Stones began by copying American prototypes, while in 1960s and 1970s Africa people copied Cuban music. After liberation, several African governments wished to do something to stimulate their own African culture and several of them - for example the Governments of Mali and Guinea - set about constructing state bands. Without coercing musicians to play only traditional music, they gave them instruments and put them on the state payrolls. Several of these bands came to play an important role in the blossoming of African music in the 1960s and 1970s, among other reasons because many artists for the first time had access to modern instruments such as electric guitar, keyboard and saxophone. Rail Band belongs to this tradition but stands in a unique position because of its closeness to the Malian railway. In 1970 the stationmaster in Bamako asked the Griot Tidiana Kone to put together a band that could play in the foyer of the railway hotel and drive the culture forward. In the beginning Rail Band played for hours, a cultural blend of pop songs and more traditional Malian songs with modern settings. Salif Keita came to the group in the early days as a singer and was with them for ages before breaking out and forming Les Ambassadeurs. Mory Kante started his career with Rail Band when he studied the kora in Bamako. One day Salif Keita arrived too late to play, so overtook Mory Kante as vocalist, and both worked for a while as singers. In the five years that Rail Band existed, they developed a special style and mixed calypso and Latin American music, jazz and big band sounds with their own, local traditions. The album "Rail Band" with Salif Keita & Mory Kante is a good collection of the classic songs from the legendary band. Much of the material is quite special Tand provides an atmosphere of jamming sessions, with songs lasting up to ten minutes. These songs have a unique authenticity, characterised by a newly created optimism that in many ways can be compared with The Beatles in Europe. It is also terribly interesting to hear the predecessors to the recent songs of Salif Keita, for example "Jurukan" that is an early version of the successful track "Mandjou", but here sounds more raw and rickety. The soul and atmosphere are not lacking here, anyway, and it's just like steppinginto the railway hotel in Bamako in 1971.

Ali Akhbar Khan- Water Lady- CD garden of Dreams

Karsh Kale- Realise- Distance- CD Realise

Karsh Kale (pronounced Kursh Kah-lay), born of Indian parents, and brought up in the US, has long played Indian classical music on the tabla. Currently, he leads one of New York's coolest ensembles, and his monthly spins at Paisley and Joe's Pub are some of the hottest tickets on the New York scene.

Schooled in drums and a fiend for electronics, Kale has infused the worlds of East and West so well that separation seems impossible. With his trademark electronic tabla sound, Kale weaves strands of Indian ragas through one of the most distinctive albums of electonica, his first solo album Realize. Approaching the songs in the way an Indian musician would, Kale looks at them as a repertoire that can be reinterpreted. Many of his songs utilize traditional Indian folk material that has been rearranged into a contemporary genre.

Kale has played alongside and worked with some of the world's top artists including Sting, Zakir Hussain, Baaba Maal, Herbie Hancock, Bill Laswell, and Ustad Sultan Khan (who is featured on Realize playing the sarangi and makes a rare vocal appearance on 'Satellite' and 'Light Up the Love').

Black Star Liner- CD Yemen Cutta Connection

Black Star Liner emerge in 1994 in Leeds on Chris Madden's Soundclash label with a remix of The Rootsman's Soundclashcityrockers EP. Black Star Liner put out their first EP on Soundclash in 1994 to media acclaim, grabbing NME single of the week with their debut 'Smoke the Prophets'.
The Rootsman features prominently on Black Star Liner's first Soundclash release, Smoke the Prophets, remixing Soft Sitar to brilliant effect with emphasis on the driving percussion, reluctant bass line and swirling chimes. Black Star Liner have repaid the remix duties with versions of Rougher Than a Lion and Pass the Chalice.
Black Star Liner's second Soundclash outing, High Turkish Influence, includes versions of Yemen Cutta Connection, to be reworked and renamed Killah Connection for appearance on the debut album Yemen Cutta Connection on EXP. The release also includes a coarser version of Ga Ga than appears later on the album and the track Distoten, perhaps Black Star Liner at their very finest in combining traditional eastern instrumentation and dub bass in a revived form. Distoten, unlike other early tracks, does not get reworked or re-released with the move to EXP.
Black Star Liner's move to Feargal Sharkey's EXP label produces a series of releases (Harmon Session Special EP, Jawz EP, Halaal Rock EP, Spanish Omega and Yemen Cutta Connection) and considerable promotion, only for EXP to later dissolve. The EXP recordings and reworkings add refined production to the Black Star Liner sound, sometimes complementing the tracks and at other times smoothing over welcome discordance, notably in the rougher Big Feet Bunker-produced Ga Ga. The first EXP release includes Yeboah's Jawz, a musical monument to ex-Leeds football player Tony Yeboah, and later to appear on the Halaal Rock EP. The track is deceptively simple, hiding detailed percussive treatment which adds to the fury and energy of the song. The Jawz EP also includes remixed versions of Harmon Session Special as Harmon Bomb Drop (one of Black Star Liner's finest moments!) and Anna Drone, in addition to the short loop edit Tuniasitol! The short dub edit style is revisited in Jazaad Rodeo!, a dismembered rumbling of vocal samples, percussion and bass. The debut album on EXP, Yemen Cutta Connection includes a number of reworked tracks, plus material previously unreleased - among these, Ottoman Empire Strikes Back, Hooba Hooba!, Inverse and None Stop to the Border. The album displays each of the darker, beautiful and humorous components of Black Star Liner's music and has found its way in to many journalists' recommendations of best albums of 1996. Black Star Liner's connections with EXP end with the Halaal Rock EP, notable for its beautifully-long and excellent remix by Dave Ball and Ingo Vaux of Duggie Dhol, a track co-written and featuring vocals by Cornershop's Tjinder Singh.
Signing to WEA in 1997, Black Star Liner release the Rock Freak EP, a collection of relatively short tracks signalling a progression in their music. Rock Freak is Hindu-Kraftwerk at its most perfect, with heavy beats, distorted guitar and vocoder. Inder Automatic beautifully crafts together indian percussion, dub bass and effect-laden guitar, with the later version to appear on Bengali Bantam Youth Experience! with added indian vocals. The country'n'eastern Low BMW and the percussive frenzy of Shoona round off a long-awaited return and first release on WEA.
Black Star Liner declare Halaal and Rock Freak dead in 1999 and re-emerge once again to bring us the Bengali Bantam Youth Experience! direct from the Ebonic Beat Bunker...

Dhol Foundation- Seven Heaven- CD Big Drum Small World

1 Giant Leap- Bombardmet info

2008-04-29T22:17:00.005+10:00

From the 1 Giant Leap website here is the blurb about Bombardment, the first chapter of their new DVD What About Me screening on BBC 4.

Very apt for our first topic. 4 years in the making What About Me? has been a total bombardment of the senses. We took on such an ambitious concept with little idea of what would happen. Only a faith that if we stayed with it, it’d work out.

The backing track for this chapter was written one windy night in my van in Cadaques Spain. I had copied the riff from a sample of some Thai instrument. Sounded very different on my guitar, and as I played it to other musicians around the world it took on a whole new sound. Later on, Nigel (my constant support and musical genius) told me he thought I’d ripped it from knight Rider! I probably did without realising. Certainly doesn’t sound like that in the end.

The original lyrical concept for this track was to look at the issues of communication. As we started investigating and composing lyrics the idea of questioning the quality of our communication both with others but more importantly with ourselves, became our primary interest.

Featured countries

Egypt/Cairo Anwar Binale (Oud)
India, Shantinitkan Dev das & sons (Baul musicians)
Brazil, Sao Paulo Barbatuques & Comade Fulozhino
Turkey, Istanbul Whirling Dervis
South Africa, Cape Town Amapondo
USA, New York Bon cycle, Gabrielle Roth workshop

Powerspot Playlist 16 April 08

2008-04-16T23:09:00.001+10:00

On the show tomorrow night musical treats and delights from the following:-

Daniel Lanois- CD Here Is What Is
Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale ao- CD Breathing Underwater
Lunasa- CD Other World
Meehan & Valley- CD Buille
Marcel Khalife- CD Taqasim

I interviewed Marcel Khalife last week at his home in Paris via a translator. As I only had a very brief time frame to speak with him the questions were of a general nature. if you would like to listen to or download the interview, please go here. Marcel will be performing at the Sydney Opera House 24 April 2008. I think it will be a memorable musical moment, so if in Sydney town, please go along to see this wonderful musician.

I'm also now doing a second show called The Spice of Life on Tuesday afternoons 1.30pm till 3pm, which will carry on from Powerspot but will incorporate other musical styles. Material is gratefully accepted.

GIG NEWS

Anouska Shankar Project- June 14 2008 Sydney Opera House

March's Uber System Charged! party at the Abercrombie was the biggest yet!

The next Uber at the Abercrombie event is nearing, this time a themed event!

The SYDNEY GYPSY & BALKAN BASH @ ABERCROMBIE
an Eastern European beats fest... across three rooms
SATURDAY 19th of April 2008 : 8 till late
check out http://www.uberlingua.com/gypsy

Featuring DJs VIT (Czech Republic), DJ Sveta (Russia), FSB (Bulgaria),
Aindrias de Staic (Galway, Ireland), bP (UL Melb), Mashy P, Ollo DJs & Dub
Chaman & LIVE ACTS Gypsy Dub Sound System & The Gyp-Rocks...
plus performers and dancers galore...

DJ Sveta is known for her work with Star F**kers and the Gay party scene,
yet her Russian genetic heritage calls from time to time and she'll be
dropping a set of all Ruski dancefloor tracks... V.I.T. is a Czech DJ who
promotes a monthly Czech and Slovak night in Sydney and Uber made contact
and offered him to join in the fun and the chance to fling out tracks
unheard in Australia from his language group. FSB is a first generation Uber
DJ who moved from the weekly club in Melbourne to live in Perth and work as
a Sound Engineer. His residencies in clubs on the dead sea cost of Bulgaria
are still talked about back home.

Aindrias de Staic is Irish Gaelic speaking Musician, Broadcaster and Theatre
actor from Galway. When he comes to Australia (this is his 3rd visit), Uber
Lingua forces him to DJ his vast selection of trans-gypsy music. Usually he
cant help but get out the fiddle. Representing the locals and pulling out
all the fave Gyp, Balkan, East and Northern European tracks are Mashy P, bP,
Ollo DJs and DubChaman...

Working the LIVE STAGE are renowned Electronic Gypsy minstrels The Gypsy Dub
Sound System. This four piece have been central to the growth of the Uber
Lingua movement in Sydney and feature members from Macedonia (Sam Golding -
Tuba, Trumpet) and Bulgaria (Veren Grigorov - Violin, Dancing) alongside a
skankin reggae guitarist (Dirk Krithoff) and band leader Trevor Brown on
Saxophone, clarinet & laptop programming...

Also playing their debut set are The Gyp-Rocks... featuring Mr Mantek from
seminal electro-balkan band Mama Voltash, working with the illustrious Raven
on dastardly string situations... a collision of hard edge beats and exotic
acoustics... should be fun as!... Also, Uber's rounding up a bunch of
performers & dancers for spontaneous moments so punters should stay alarmed
but not alert. This event will be technically configured differently to the
past 3 Uber-Abercrombie events...

The SYDNEY GYPSY & BALKAN BASH AT THE ABERCROMBIE HOTEL
100 Broadway, Ultimo (corner of Broadway and Abercrombie)
100 Broadway, Ultimo : SATURDAY 19th APRIL 8pm till late : $10 entry
more info: http://www.uberlingua.com/gypsy or see flier below
facebook http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=12409562482&ref=nf

Zimbabwe’s Thomas Mapfumo on tour!
Sat 19 April 8:00pm til late. A rare opportunity to hear in concert Zimbabwe’s Thomas Mapfumo and his full 10 piece band. Mapfumo is a cultural and political icon in Zimbabwe the country from which he is exiled due to his outspokenness against Prime Minister Robert Mugabe and his betrayal of the fight for independence. on at The Gaelic club, 64 Devonshire St, Surry Hills. Supporting act: Chris Gudu & DJ Scrim. Bookings: The Gaelic www.thegaelic.com or call (02) 9211 1687. Also see www.zambezipromo.com.au

Soweto Gospel Choir
Sydney, Castle Hill, Revesby, Sutherland, Newcastle, Wollongong, North Coast, Albury, Canberra shows
MAY & JUNE The Soweto Gospel Choir was formed to celebrate the unique and inspirational power of African Gospel music. The 26-strong choir, under the direction of David Mulovhedzi and Beverly Bryer, draws on the best talent from the many churches in and around Soweto. The choir is dedicated to sharing the joy of faith through music with audiences around the world. Tour details at http://www.sowetogospelchoir.com/PERFORMANCES.html On Sun 4 May Coffs Harbour Ex-Services 02 6652 3888 www.cex.com.au ; On Tues 6 May Toowoomba Empire Theatre 1300 655 299 www.empiretheatre.com.au ; Wed 14 May Albury Performing Arts Centre 02 6051 3051; Mon 19 May Newcastle Civic Theatre 02 4929 1977 www.ticketek.com.au ; 21 – 24 May Sydney Theatre Royal 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au ; Thurs 5 June Revesby Workers Club 02 9772 2100 www.revesbyworkersclub.com.au ; Fri 6 June Wollongong Regent Theatre 136 100 www.ticketmaster.com.au ; Sat 7 June Castle Hill, The Hills Centre 02 9899 3433 or 132 849 www.hillscentre.com.au ; Sun 8 June Sutherland Entertainment Centre 02 9521 8888 www.suthentcent.com.au ; Tues 10 June Canberra Canberra Theatre 02 6275 2700.

JOE TAWADROS CD LAUNCH

2008-03-26T23:38:00.000+11:00

PLAYLIST 26 MARCH 08

2008-03-26T23:17:00.004+11:00

Dear All

On tonight's show you either heard or missed the following:-

Zakhir Hussain with John McLaughlin- CD Making Music
DJ Bruno LT- CD Promo Uber (Lingua Sound) System Charged- see below for gig information (http://www.zonar.net/uberlingua/syd/)
Karsh Kale- CD Liberation
Shafqat Ali Khan- Sufi Songs (http://shafqatalikhan.calabashmusic.com/)
V/A- Songs of Krishna (http://songsofkrishna.calabashmusic.com/)
Kim Sanders- CD You Can't Get There From Here-see below for gig information (http://kimsanders.customer.netspace.net.au/)
Jon Hassell & Farafina- CD Flash of the Spirit
NILS PETTER MOLVAER- CD REMIXED
BILL LASWELL - CD CITY OF LIGHT
Charles Lloyd- CD Notes from Big Sur

Regards

Hans Stoeve
Powerspot (not just a world music show)
2SER FM
listen online @ www.2ser.com
Wednesday Nights 1900-2030
Sydney Australia

Blogging at www.globalgroove.blogspot.com

'Some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must live'-Charles Bukowski

UBER SYSTEM CHARGED!
Saturday March 29 at the Abercrombie Hotel.

After the jam packed UBER SYSTEM REMIXED! party back in early February, the third installment continues the cross cultural infused party energy that Uber Lingua events are well known for in Sydney and across Australia.

UBER SYSTEM CHARGED! features Cuban reggaeton performer Pochoman, Chinese-Malaysian dancer and vocalist WeiZen, Brasilian batucada percussion troop Timbalada, Local Gypsy-Jazz maestro Trevor Brown, Ghanaian Hip Hop producer MC Gee, Argentinian Cumbia performer MC Hernan and grass roots breaker and MC Morganics... Alongside DJs Bruno LT (Rio de Janeiro), Mashy P, Jack Shit, Luke Snarl (Sub Bass Snarl), Bentley (Drop), Sven Simulacrum, Stu Buchanan (Fat Planet) and from the Melbourne crew sakamoiz and bP. In house developed video material by Melbourne based VJ, SDzeit will also be screened.

Saturday March 29th : 7pm till very late (be early for 'earth hour acoustic set)
Abercrombie Hotel : 100 Broadway, Ultimo
$10 entry
tickets on the door
first 100 people get an UL mixtape
half price entry for V festival ticket holders

Kim Sanders & Friends next gig will be a Turkish-oriented Return to Australia gig on Sunday afternoon March 30.

Joining Kim at The Harp in Tempe will be Llew Kiek (baglama and bouzouki), Steve Elphick (bass) and Bobby Singh (tabla).

1 pm, Sunday March 30

The Harp Hotel

900 Princes Highway, Tempe
Tickets on the door: $20/15 conc

Kids are welcome, and meals are available

Info 9559 6300 or www.theharp.com.au

***

In concert with Davood A.Tabrizi, Kim Sanders, Damian Wright and special guest Ivy Ireland, Thomas Jack of Hearts performs Rumi and the Boy at the Old School in Darlington on March 29.

The programme includes Slam Poetry interpretations of the 13th Century Sufi mystic.

Saturday 29 March

The Old School Hall, University of Sydney

(behind Seymour Centre)

$15 recommended donation
myspace.com/thomasjackofhearts

"Angel" CD Launch - Joseph Tawadros Quartet - Matt McMahon (piano), Dimitri Vouras (clarinet), James Tawadros (bendir, req' )

St Stephens Church, 189 Church St, Newtown

(http://www.josephtawadros.com)

26 September 07

2007-09-25T21:45:00.000+10:00

Dear All

Please come along to these events if in Sydney. These will be wonderful events not too often experienced in this city of ours.

Sangeet Australia presents
extra special guests from India
Dhrupad Vocalists The Gundecha Brothers

September 30th Performance starts 7:30pm
Pre-concert talk from Dr Adrian McNeil 'About Dhrupad Music'

Tom Mann Theatre
136 Chalmers St
Surry Hills
Nr Central Station.
$30/25con
Tickets at the door from 6pm.
Snacks avail. Disabled access available.

KIM SANDERS & FRIENDS LAST GIG OF THE YEAR

Kim Sanders & Friends will perform their last concert in Australia for the year when they play at St Luke’s Hall, Enmore on Sunday afternoon, October 7.

Kim has just returned from Indonesia where he performed as a soloist at the Solo International Ethnic Music Festival. “I had a ball in Solo. I know a lot of musicians over there now, and we usually manage to get some interesting collaborations happening as well as doing our own stuff. This time I had a great jam with Sundanese percussionist Gilang Ramadhan. And the opening parade was fantastic – literally millions in the streets – Solo came to a standstill. I rode in a cart drawn by two oxen. Very stylish. Elton and Mick only get the stretch limo – hah!”

The gig also marks the return of tabla-player Bobby Singh to the band. He has been touring in the US with percussion trio Circle of Rhythm.

“The gig will be a good warm-up for us for the recording of our new CD in October. It’s been delayed for more than two years, for various reasons, so we’re really busting to get into the studio. After that, I’m off to study and perform in Turkey for three months. It’s a great life if you don’t weaken!”

The gig will feature the band’s eclectic mix of Balkan Gypsy thrash tunes, serene Sufi meditations, Afro-flamenco grooves and strange uncategorizable originals.

Kim Sanders: mey, kaval, gaida, ney, tenor sax, aardvark
Sandy Evans: soprano and tenor saxes
Steve Elphick: double bass
Bobby Singh: tabla

2 pm, Sunday October 7
St Luke’s Hall,
11 Stanmore Rd,
Enmore (opposite 7/11 store)
$20/15 concession

OK, on the show tonight, some firm favorites make a return.

Kim Sanders- CD Trance'N' Dancin'

Gundecha Brothers- CD Ancestral Voices

Various Artists- CD: The Rough Guide To Arabesque
Beyrouth Ecœurée - Clotaire K
Dourbiha - Momo

Emmanuel Jal and Abdel Gadir Salim, CD: Ceasefire

Cesaria Evora- CD: Best of
Jah Wobble- CD: Mu
Various Artists- CD Congotronics No 2 Buzz 'N' Rumble From The Urb'N' Jungle
Konono No1 - Live From Couleur Café

State of Bengal Vs Paban das Baul, Tana Tani
(Realworld)
Moner Manush
Tal Rosh

Peter Dickson & Juan Martinez- CD Falsettas
Marcel Khalife- CD Caress (www,calabashmusic.com)
Rokia TraoreBowmboi (Label Bleu)

Regards

Hans Stoeve
Powerspot (not just a world music show)
2SER FM
listen online @ www.2ser.com
Wednesday Nights 1900-2030
Sydney Australia

Blogging at www.globalgroove.blogspot.com

'Some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must live'-Charles Bukowski

Powerspot 12 September 07

2007-09-11T21:46:00.001+10:00

On the show tomorrow night, musical treats from the following.

Bob Brozman- CD Lumiere (Riverboat)
Martyn Bennett- CD Bothy Culture (Rykodisc)
Tony Gorman & Bobby Singh- CD As Wide As The Sky (Birdland)
(the interview with Bobby Singh can be replayed and downloaded from the blog)
Tinariwen- Aman Iman- Water is Life (Filter Music)

Tony Gorman and Bobby Singh will be performing a limited number of performances to promote this release. I would urge those that have the ability to go along and see these musicians perform to do so.

Important dates to keep in mind are as follows.

Thursday September 13th: Sydney 6pm

With special guests The Martenitsa Choir directed by Mara Kiek Stone Gallery on Oxford (Paddington Uniting Church) at the site of the Paddington Markets 395 Oxford St Paddington Wheelchair access. Free car parking: 24-28 Gordon Street Church car park. $15/$12 concession Bookings through Moshtix Enquiries : Birdland phone 02 9267 6881 www.birdland.com.au birdland@birdland.com.au

Sunday 16th September: Newcastle 2pm Royal Exchange, 32 Bolton St Ph (02) 4929 4969 $15 with a $12 concession

Saturday 22nd September: Katoomba 7.30pm With special guests Crowd Around St Hilda’s Anglican Church, 68 Katoomba St (next to the Commonwealth Bank) Ph (02) 4782 4081 (02) 47593937 $12 adults $10 concession

Sunday 23rd September: Manly 7pm Manly Art Gallery & Museum, West Esplanade Reserve Presented as part of the 2007 Manly Arts Festival www.manlyartsfestival.com.au Ph (02) 9976 1421 $10 General $7 Concessions

Leigh Cline & Nikolas Michailidis- Al Asha Bi Daha- Traditional Songs of the Eastern Black Sea 9Scimitar Records)
Pin Rada- The Melbourne / Istanbul Sessions (Telluric Music)-not yet released.

The Gundecha Bros 30-09-07 Sydney

2007-08-24T13:54:00.000+10:00

This is to give a few of you who may be interested some advance notice of the next very special concert put on by Sangeet Australia,so you can put it in your diaries.

Sangeet Australia presents
extra special guests from India
Dhrupad Vocalists The Gundecha Brothers

September 30th Performance starts 7:30pm
Pre-concert talk from Dr Adrian McNeil 'About Dhrupad Music'

Tom Mann Theatre
136 Chalmers St
Surry Hills
Nr Central Station.
$30/25con
Tickets at the door from 6pm.
Snacks avail. Disabled access available.

Powerspot Bob Marley special

2007-08-24T13:31:00.000+10:00

He’s been described as the most important musical figure of the 20th century. His influence just keeps growing ever since his passing. He is a hero to many native peoples around the world, Maoris, Hopi Indians, the Aboriginal people, a figure who transcended music, and became a symbol of freedom.

The BBC has voted One Love as the song of the century, whilst Time Magazine voted Exodus as the album of the century. Through his music, Marley taught you not to judge people by the colour of their skin more by what they do. The music sang about the reality of life, of the plight of suffering; one of the strengths of marley’s music is that as long as suffering exists his music will continue and give strength to those listening. Marley’s music is as such one of the more enduring music of our time in my opinion.

The aim tonight is not to cover the entire history and spectrum of Bob Marley’s life. That would take more than a 90 minute show. I will assume people listening tonight will be across Bob’s work in some shape way or form, however I’ll loosely cover off the period up to his getting together with Island Records. For a more comprehensive look at Bob Marley's life, I recommend you go to www.bobmarley.com

Marley would have been 62 years old this year. Even though Marley’s work only really covers a period of 20 years, his music has very much become a part of our everyday lives. It has been used in countless commercials, still gets regular airplay on commercial and alternative radio, and due to the fact his work was so insightful and spiritually aware, made it difficult for other reggae stars to be equally noticed. Marley was in a league of his own.

Considered to be the first true superstar of the so called third world, Marley’s music was shaped by the street culture of Jamaica of the 1950’s and 1960’s . Slavery had only been abolished 100 years earlier, and, the people were coming to terms with recent independence and emerging national identity.

A sense of African heritage and cultural awareness were further raised by people such as Marcus Garvey who advocated a new black African state. Freed from the domination of white rulers, Garvey as part of the dream to reunite the black population started the Black Star Line, a shipping company which in theory was going to ship all the black population from America and the Caribbean back to Africa.

In 1930 Ras Tafari Makonnen became the new Emperor of Ethiopia, He took on a new name- Haile Selassie. The followers of Marcus Garvey took Selassie to be the man who would deliver the Negro people, as had been prophesised by Marcus Garvey earlier. This was to be the start of the Rastafarian religion. Rastafarians speak out against; poverty, oppression and inequality.....not just religious ideas but global problems. The prime basic belief of the Rastafarians is that Haile Sellassie is the living God for the black race. The Lion of Judah represents Haile Sellassie, the Conqueror. It represents the King of Kings as a lion is the king of all beasts. The dreadlocks on a Rasta's head are symbolic of the Lion of Judah.

Into this period of time and social consciousness came Robert Nestor Marley born in 1945, fifteen years after Haile Selassie took power. In the 50’s and 60’s Kingston Jamaica, despite all it’s poverty and hardship, was the place to be for many people. People would squat in shanty towns such as Trench town which was built over a ditch running the sewage out of the town. Trench town would of course be made famous through the music and songs of Bob Marley. He moved there with his mother in the late 50’s growing up listening to amongst other things American radio, hearing artists such as Ray Charles, Curtis Mayfield, Brook Benton as well as The Drifters. From a young age, Marley grew increasingly interested in music, forming a friendship with Bunny Livingstone aka Bunny Wailer, as well as the famous singer Joe Higgs who would be a mentor and teacher to his band. It was around this time that he befriended another musical icon- Peter Macintosh aka Peter Tosh. This was to be version 1 of the Wailing Wailers.

An introduction to Clement Dodd of Studio 1 fame in 1963 led to a record deal. Bob’s firsts single was Simmer Down, it’s reference to violence being a diatribe against competing producers of dances in dance halls and social events due to the competitive nature of the industry. With marley, you often needed to read the music between the lines. Reggae was very much what was called the poor man’s newspaper, in that if something was happening the word or the message would be spread through the music. If people couldn’t read, they could always listen to the music which would keep them informed of what was happening.

Marley went on to record music identifying other topical themes appealing to the Rude Boys, the street rebels of Kingston Jamaica, Over the next few years Marley cut some thirty singles for Clement Dodd before breaking up the band citing financial hardships. Earlier releases for Marley were more aimed at the dance halls and the tempo in general was more upbeat.

By the mid 60’s Bob Marley was identifying closer and closer to the ideals and beliefs of the Rastafarians, his songs starting to reflect a new spiritual outlook and social awareness, something that would remain in his music for the rest of his life. In Marley’s case, he would be strongly influenced by the Rasta beliefs such as:

*the use of ganja or ‘erbs to be closer to God…thus the references to I and I. Herbs made Marley think, made him more sensitive to what was around him. It was done for as Marley would say headucation.

*Africa being paradise,
*Selassie being the living god.

At a time when Jamaica was still relatively new to independence, this was a real slap in the face for the government of the day. He was seen as a threat. He in turn mistrusted the politicians. He called them Crime Ministers who sit in the house of thieves

Marley would reform The Wailers and teamed up with Lee Perry, producing some of the biggest hits such as Soul Rebel, 400 Years and Small Axe, songs which were to define the future of reggae.

Marley’s big break really came when he partnered up with Chris Blackwell from Island Records in the early 70’s. Blackwell had been promoting reggae music since the 50’s, as well as promoting rock bands such as Traffic and King Crimson. By aligning himself with Blackwell he was very much guaranteeing himself success, as Blackwell had the means to promote Marley to a greater audience.

Powerspot Playlist 15 August 2007

2007-08-17T23:50:00.000+10:00

On the show tonight night, musical treats and delights from the following:

Deepak Ram- CD Flute for Thought- Between Thoughts (mp3 from www.calabashmusic.com)

Marcel Khalife- CD Caress-Caress (mp3 from www.calabashmusic.com)

Azam Ali- CD Elysium For The Brave- Endless Reverie / I Am A Stranger in this Life (mp3 from www.calabashmusic.com)

Azam is internationally recognized for her work with Vas, the critically acclaimed, best selling, world music duo she co-founded in 1996 with percussionist Greg Ellis. From 1997- 2004 Vas released four albums on the Narada label. Their music, which they described as "alternative world," focused mainly on the ancient
relationship between the drum and voice. Their distinct cinematic sound blended influences of Indian, Persian, Western and other musical styles into a unique configuration that transcended categorization and cultural specificity. Though in their early days Vas drew many comparisons to Dead Can Dance, they patiently surpassed that comparison with each album they released, earning them their place in the musical hierarchy of bands whose innovation set a standard for others to aspire to.

In 2002 Azam released her first self produced highly successful solo album, Portals of Grace, which featured her singing renditions of ancient Western European medieval songs.

Azam's distinctive voice can also be heard on myriad film and television scores among which include “Matrix Revolutions,” “Godsend,” “Papparazi,” the upcoming major motion picture 300, Children of Dune, Earthsea, Dawn of the Dead, Alias, and The Agency.

Elysium for the Brave, Azam's second solo album, signals a new turn in her musical evolution. The album, her most ambitious work to date, brings together musicians from varied musical backgrounds performing in diverse permutations. Singing predominantly in English for the first time, the songs are based on lyrics written by Azam herself and reveal a poetic lyricism heard only in glimpses of her previous works.

Duoud- CD Sakat - Youm Aland / Mal Aytani-(mp3's from www.calabashmusic.com)

For their second record, the electro-traditional combo Duoud explores Yemen ancestral musical traditions i
Smadj and Mehdi Haddab, children of the Parisian musical turmoil of the 90’s, have chosen the oud, just like one chooses one’s favorite pastry: with an accepted greed, without fear nor complex. For a long time, the oriental-electronic producer and the Ekova magician-member have satisfied their need to play in their favorite bars or in the intimacy of a party among friends. With this very simplicity they decided to record the fruit of their night drifting under the project name DuOud. Respectfully insolent with the instrument tradition, alternating “classical” Arab tunes and personal compositions, warmth of the acoustic instrument and electronic saturation, the two companions even invited some colleagues to share their joy (particularly the Bum Cello’s “fireworks makers”).

Jan Garbarek- Anouar Brahem- Ustad Shaukat Hussain- CD Madar- Sull Lull
Simon Shaheen & Vishwa Mohan Bhatt- CD Saltanah- Rag Vasant Mukhari
Dino Saluzzi- CD Cafe De La Musique- Introduccion y Milonga del Ausente (ECM 1616)

Bob Dylan at The Entertainment Centre-a review

2007-08-17T09:34:00.000+10:00

I once asked Daniel Lanois what he thought about when people praised him for resurrecting the careers of musicians such as Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris. He very humbly replied that great musicians will always be great musicians, no matter what they are going through. If you have greatness inside you, it will come out sooner or later. After the interview I started listening to Bob Dylan's music again, and my interest was further re-fueled when I saw the documentary put out by Martin Scorcese some years back.

I was never a 'die-hard' Bob Dylan fan, and to this day still believe that the best Dylan tunes are the ones covered by others, possibly because these singers made me aware of who Bob Dylan is. John Martyn springs to mind, singing Don't Think Twice, on the brilliant London Conversation album, one of many fine albums put out by Martyn over many years.

So I find myself at The Entertainment Centre last night with my friend Chris Vitek taking in the Bob Dylan experience. I went out of respect for Dylan's music, knowing here was one of the great creative musical visionaries of my time. The show didn't 'rock my world', however I'm glad I experienced it. The Dylan I heard was very much performing a kind of southern Texan, rockabilly style country music. Most of the show saw Dylan behind his keyboards, only playing guitar on three tracks. He also didn't play too much harmonica, which I would have liked to have heard more of. The band was comprised of a double bass player by the name of Tony Garnier, as well as a pedal steel player by the name of Donnie Herron, who also played lap steel guitar and violin.Dylan seemed to cover off most of the tracks off his most recent release Modern Times, as well as favorites such as Highway 61 Revisited (an almost rockabilly version), When The Deal Goes Down, as well as Thunder On The Mountain, and to finish the show a great version of All Along The Watchtower.

After the show I drove home listening to Masterpieces, playing Dylan singing All Along The Watchtower over and over again. I'm glad I heard him sing live just once, and even though I sat about 100 feet away from the stage, you could sense that greatness that is Bob Dylan

Just because it's digital doesn't mean it's good

2007-08-10T11:55:00.000+10:00

MP3 music - it's better than it sounds

Joel Selvin, Chronicle Senior Pop Music Critic
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Whether you know it or not, that compact disc you just copied to your
MP3 player is only partially there.

With the CD on its way out and computer files taking over as the
primary means of hearing recorded music, the artificial audio of MP3s
is quickly becoming the primary way people listen to music. Apple
already has sold 100 million iPods, and more than a billion MP3 files
are traded every month through the Internet.

[ MP3: Just because it's digital, doesn't mean it sounds good.]

But the music contained in these computer files represents less than
10 percent of the original music on the CDs. In its journey from CD
to MP3 player, the music has been compressed by eliminating data that
computer analysis deems redundant, squeezed down until it fits
through the Internet pipeline.

When even the full files on the CDs contain less than half the
information stored to studio hard drives during recording, these
compressed MP3s represent a minuscule fraction of the actual
recording. For purists, it's the dark ages of recorded sound.

"You can get used to awful," says record producer Phil Ramone. "You
can appreciate nothing. We've done it with fast food."

Ramone, who has recorded everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Rolling
Stones, was a musical prodigy who graduated from Juilliard at 16. He
won the first of his nine Grammys in 1965 for the classic album "Getz/
Gilberto." He is not alone in the upper ranks of his profession in
decrying the state of audio, even though millions of dollars have
been spent building high-tech digital recording studios.

"We're pretty happy with what we send out," says engineer Al Schmitt,
winner of 15 Grammys for records by artists from Henry Mancini to
Diana Krall. "What happens after that, we have no control over that
anymore."

These studio professionals bring their experience and expensive,
modern technology to bear on their work; they're scrupulous and
fastidious. Then they hear their work played back on an iPod through
a pair of plastic earbuds. Ask Ramone how it feels to hear his work
on MP3s, and he doesn't mince words.

"It's painful," he says.

MP3s have won the war of the formats because of technology, not
because of their audio quality. "It's like hearing through a screen
door," says neuroscientist Daniel Levitin of McGill University,
author of "This Is Your Brain on Music." "There are lines between me
and what I want to see."

But what is the price of inferior audio quality? Can poor audio touch
the heart as deeply as better sound? John Meyer, who designs and
builds some of the world's best speakers at his Meyer Sound Labs in
Berkeley, doesn't think so.

"It turns you into an observer," Meyer says. "It forces the brain to
work harder to solve it all the time. Any compression system is based
on the idea you can throw data away, and that's proved tricky because
we don't know how the brain works."

It could be that MP3s actually reach the receptors in our brains in
entirely different ways than analog phonograph records. The
difference could be as fundamental as which brain hemisphere the
music engages.

"Poorer-fidelity music stimulates the brain in different ways," says
Dr. Robert Sweetow, head of UCSF audiology department. "With
different neurons, perhaps lesser neurons, stimulated, there are
fewer cortical neurons connected back to the limbic system, where the
emotions are stored."

But Sweetow also notes that music with lyrics may act entirely
differently on a cerebral level than instrumental music. "The words
trigger the emotion," he says. "But those words aren't necessarily
affected by fidelity."

Certainly '50s and '60s teens got the message of the old rock 'n'
roll records through cheap plastic transistor radios. Levitin
remembers hearing Sly and the Family Stone's "Hot Fun in the
Summertime" on just such a portable radio, an ancient ancestor of the
iPod.

"It was crap, but it sounded great," he says. "All the essential
stuff comes through that inch-and-a-half speaker."

Levitin also says that Enrico Caruso and Billie Holiday can probably
move him more than Michael Bolton or Mariah Carey under any fidelity.

"If the power of the narrative of the movie isn't there," he says
metaphorically, "there's only so far cinematography can take you."

Most of today's pop records are already compressed before they leave
the studio in the first place, so the process may matter less to
artists like Maroon 5 or Justin Timberlake. Other kinds of music, in
which subtlety, detail and shaded tonalities are important, may
suffer more harm at the hands of the algorithms.

"When you listen to a world-class symphony or a good jazz record,"
says Schmitt, "and you hear all the nuance in the voices, the fingers
touching the string on the bass, the key striking the string on the
piano, that's just a wonderful sensation."

How much the audio quality is affected by the MP3 process depends on
the compression strategy, the encoder used, the playback equipment,
computer speed and many other steps along the way. Experts agree,
however, that the audio quality of most MP3s is somewhere around FM
radio. The best digital audio, even with increased sampling rates and
higher bit rates, still falls short of the natural quality of now-
obsolete analog tape recording.

EMI Records announced earlier this year the introduction of higher-
priced downloads at a slightly higher bit rate, although the
difference will be difficult to detect. "It's probably
indistinguishable to even a great set of ears," says Levitin.

How good MP3s sound obviously also depends greatly on the playback
system. But most MP3s are heard through cheap computer speakers,
plastic iPod docking stations or, worse yet, those audio abominations
called earbuds.

The ease of distribution means that MP3s are turning up everywhere,
even places where they probably shouldn't. Schmitt, who has won the
award more times than anyone else, is incredulous that the National
Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences posts MP3s of nominees for the
best engineering Grammy. "As if you could tell anything from that,"
he sneers.

For digital audio to substantially improve, several major
technological hurdles will have to be cleared. The files will have to
be stored at higher sampling rates and higher bit rates. Computing
power will have to grow. New playback machines will have to be
introduced ( Ramone thinks high-definition television is the model
for something that could be "HD audio"). If the Internet is going to
be the main delivery system for music in the future, as appears to be
the case, Internet bandwidth will also be a factor.

"The Internet is in charge now," says Ramone, "and it has all kinds
of wobbles. You have wires hanging out of windows and things like
that. That's just the way things have to be because the Internet is
in transition."

Meanwhile, most music listeners don't know what they're missing. They
listen to MP3s on shiny chrome machines and plastic earpieces, and
what they hear is what they get. But what's being lost is not
replaced by the convenience.

In effect, sound reproduction is caught in a technological wrinkle
that may take years to straighten out. "This is a transition phase,"
says McGill's Levitin. "It's having an effect on the culture, no
question, but it's temporary. ... (But) it may be around for a while."

A glossary of digital audio terms:

A glossary of terms that describe different types of digital audio :

MP3: What has become a generic name for compressed audio files was
originally taken from a set of video and audio compression standards
known as MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group). . There are many
codecs, or compression programs (Apple converts CDs to an AAC file on
iPods), but most reduce the file to about 6 percent of its original
size.

WAV: The standard computer audio file stores data at 44,100 samples
per second, 16 bits per sample (although recording studios are
commonly equipped with 24-bit technology). WAV files are uncompressed
and written to compact discs in Red Book audio, which adapts the file
for compact disc players.

AIFF: Most professional audio is saved in these large files that use
about 10 megabytes for every minute of stereo audio.

FLAC: This codec, favored by Grateful Dead tape traders, stands for
Free Lossless Audio Code. It reduces storage space by 30 to 50
percent, but without compression. A full audio CD can be burned from
the file, unlike from MP3s.

- Joel Selvin

E-mail Joel Selvin at jselvin@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/08/DDEJR7KN11.DTL

This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Powerspot Playlist 8 August 07

2007-08-09T08:50:00.000+10:00

Last night's program as follows.

Kim Sanders- CD Trance'n'Dancing'
Kim Sanders- You Can't Get There from Here

1 Giant Leap- Audio / Music from the DVD 1 Giant Leap
Dhafer Youssef- Music from the DVD Live @ The Spitz

Adrian McNeil & Aneesh Pradhan- Raga Bhasant Bhukari (www.underscorerecords.com)

Kim Sanders upcoming show 19 August 07

2007-08-06T12:50:00.000+10:00

Musical gypsy Kim Sanders has just returned from Indonesia to present a programme of Turkish music at St Luke's Hall, Enmore on Sunday August 19.
The concert will feature Turkish-born baglama-player Ozkan Bayar, now living in Australia. I'm really looking forward to playing with Ozkan he's really hot! said Kim yesterday. He's played with some heavy dudes in Turkey. He's a monster on baglama, and also plays bouzouki and a vary rare and exotic hybrid instrument called the cumlama. I like hybrids I play one myself!? Kim's hybrid is the Bulgarian/Turkish/Australian bass bagpipe he calls The Aardvark.

Kim has studied, performed and recorded extensively in Turkey since 1984. He has worked with Zulfu Livanelli, Anadolu Fener, Birol Topaloglu and the Istanbul State Modern Folk Music Ensemble.

The ensemble will be completed by Kim?s long-time collaborator percussionist Peter Kennard, who was featured on Kim?s latest CD Trance'n'Dancin.

The programme will include Turkish Classical and Sufi music and folk music from various regions of Turkey.

In Indonesia, they're very interested in Turkish music, because of the historical connection with the Middle East, says Kim. Especially so in Aceh. I went there to do a series of World Music workshops with a group of musicians co-ordinated by Ben Pasaribu from the Ethnomusicology Department at Medan University. The aim was to encourage local Achenese musos to play music again, now that the houses and infrastructure are mostly rebuilt after the tsunami. We heard some terrible stories, but the workshops went really well, and the jam session on the final night was a knockout! Hopefully we contributed in some small way to the healing of hearts and minds.

Kim also performed at the Malacca Straits Jazz Festival and at the inauguration of the new chief of Koto Gadang in Sumatra. My vegetarian daughter Phoebe was grossed out by the freshly-severed buffalo-head in prime position next to the Chief but they sure loved the gaida! Kim will return to Indonesia in September for the Solo International Ethnic Music Festival and to Turkey in November for further study and performances.

Kim Sanders: ney, kaval, mey, gaida, aardvark

Ozkan Bayar: baglama, cura, cumlama, bouzouki

Peter Kennard : dhaf, daire, darabukka, davul, percussion

2 pm, Sunday Aug 19

St Luke?s Hall,

11 Stanmore Rd,

Enmore (opposite 7/11 store)

$20/15 concession

St Luke's Hall is a semi-accoustic venue, so you won't be deafened by a moronically loud sound-system!

Light refreshments available, and parking onsite.

Be early seating is limited!

For interviews, photographs, more info, to order CDs: kimzgaida@hotmail.com

See www.netspace.com.au/~kimsanders

This concert is supported by Kinetic Energy Theatre Company.

BELLINGEN GLOBAL CARNIVAL 2007 line up

2007-08-06T12:47:00.000+10:00

BELLINGEN GLOBAL CARNIVAL 2007
September 28th-30th - Bellingen Showground

The full line-up for this year's Bellingen Global Carnival has been announced and it includes:

International -
* Kora (New Zealand)
* Sharon Shannon Band (Ireland)
* Shasha Marley (Ghana)
* The Gyuto Monks (Tibet)

National -
* Afrodizziact featuring Jali Buba Kuyateh
* Alan Posselt & Jay Dabgar
* Chukale
* Diafrix
* Echoes of Polynesia
* Hey Amigos
* Jalsa Creole featuring Aniele
* Johnnie Aseron
* Joseph Tawadros' The Oud, The Bad & The Ugly
* Klezmer Connexion
* Labjacd
* Lolo Lavino
* Mihirangi
* San Lazaro
* Skorba
* The Cafe of the Gate of Salvation
* The View From Madeleine's Couch
* Tjupurru
* Tommee

Local/Regional -
* Alter-Native
* Baja
* Bellinger River District Pipe Band
* Christie & The Rhythm Family
* Old Spice Boys
* Rafiki Connection
* Salsa Crazy

DJs -
* Balkan Beats (Systa BB & DJ Delay)
* DJ Gemma
* Uberlingua crew (bP, Mashy P, Aysu Fevziye Cogur, Presyse Rifraf, sakamoiz, Potato Master, Stuart Buchanan, VJ Sdzeit,
Pataphysics, Mr. Fish, MC Wire)
* Jembe crew (James Locksmith, Mark Walton, DJ Elroy, DJ Frenzie, DJ Katch, Garrido)

Plus Circus acts, Kid's Festival and much more.

Full details and ticket information available at:
http://www.globalcarnival.com

Playlist 1 August 07

2007-07-31T22:19:00.000+10:00

A pinch and a punch. Where has the year gone? August already. The weather is warming up during the days, giving almost a false sense of spring. Night time it's still bitterly cold, heater on full bore. probably not doing much to improve the environment with all those carbon emissions but...

On the show tomorrow night, musical contributions from the following. I am also hoping to have an advance copy of the collaboration between sarod master Adrian McNeill and tabla master Aneesh Pradhan, who will be performing 4 August 07 at the very small and intimate Dickson Street Space in newtown. A Must See Event. Please do come along. It's an early morning performance starting at 1130 and going for approximately two hours. This will truly be a wonderful musical collaboration and moment.

Kiran Ahluwalia-(www.calabashmusic.com)

The ghazal, Kiran's specialty, is a song form that comes from the Indian subcontinent. It exists somewhere between the classical and popular tradition. Ghazals begin life as poems and with the addition of music, become songs. They have an unbroken 700 year tradition and that tradition is alive and well in the South Asian literary diaspora across North America. These new original poems written in Urdu and Punjabi by a variety of Indian poets, combined with Kiran's music, make an original contribution to the ghazal tradition, perhaps the first recorded ghazals to be entirely created in North America.

Kiran Ahluwalia is a performer of vocal music. More precisely she is a performer of two distinct styles of vocal music from the Indian subcontinent, now India and Pakistan. Kiran sings ghazals and Punjabi folk songs. The word ghazal is an Arabic word that means "to talk to women". Given that men have traditionally spoken to women a great deal about love; the name attached itself to a form of poetic sung verse that originated in Persia about 1000 years ago and reached India around 400 years later.

Smadj-CD Take It and Drive

Smadj is the moniker adopted by musician and composer Jean-Pierre Smadja.
Smadj was born in Tunisia, but raised in Paris from an early age. His work is the product of a musical upbringing that has embraced influences from all over the world.

Smadj took up the guitar as a teenager, and he soon began to develop his own style of playing. By his early twenties he was featuring regularly at jazz clubs in and around the city, whilst gaining a reputation as a sound engineer through the mobile studio he had set up.
As the sound of electronic music spread throughout Paris during the early 90's Smadj began to feel constrained by his chosen genre. His first reaction was to start to fuse jazz with the North African sound of his birthplace. The name he gave to the project was Tatoom, which combined a number of musicians. Their world-groove sound caught the attention of label Moby Dick, which released Tatoom presents Tatoom in 1996. The group split up shortly, due to the departure of the singer.

During the mid-nineties Smadj had also collaborated as a session guitarist with a number of high-profile musicians, such as Tony Allen (Fela's drummer). At the same time Smadj met Sofi Hellborg, a Swedish saxophonist, who had experience of playing with African artists such as the Afro-Jazz musician Manu Dibango. Together they began to improvise live over DJ sets, fusing jazz and breakbeats. Smadj started to sample and program beats himself, as an accompaniment for his guitar, and the pair released their first EP, Bon Voyage, in 1997 with label Freerange UK.
One of the many people who Smadj had been impressing with his music was Robert Trunz, owner of MELT2000. In 1998 Robert signed him to do a full album, Equilibriste. The title means 'tight-rope walker', which is a reference to the boundary he treads on the album between nu-beats and jazz. He spent much of '99 gigging around France and England to promote it.

As Smadj's musical horizons broadened he had also been developing his mastery of a new instrument, the oud - an Arabic incarnation of the Lute comprising six pairs of strings. His second album for MELT2000, New Deal, was the first work to feature him on the instrument, and it marked a departure into more experimental and diverse territory. The album represented the sound many African, Arabic and Indian cultures, set against the environmental noise of Paris and New York.
Soon after the release of New Deal, Smadj was introduced to Mehdi Haddab, the famous oud player. Smadj found in Mehdi a tutor and partner. The two began jamming together, soon performing in front of close friends. It was not long, though, before Smadj was drawn by his fascination with technology towards combining the sound of the oud with his beloved Apple Mac. The idea of processing the oud with effects more closely associated with dance music was truly unique and the high level of musicianship shared by the two artists was bound to yield similarly original results. Soon the pair formed DuOud. The act was quickly picked up by Label Bleu, responsible for releasing their album Wild Serenade to critical acclaim. DuOud have toured the world, performing at prestigious locations such as London's ICA. In 2003 they were nominated for Best Newcomer at the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music.

Smadj's latest work, Take It And Drive is a collection of new music, featuring a number of artists with whom he has recently collaborated. Amongst those featured on the album are vocalist Rokia Traore, Mercury Award winner Talvin Singh and Mehdi Haddab himself.

Pat Metheny - Offramp

This 1982 recording by the Pat Metheny Group represented a crossroads for the guitarist, a creative expansion from his original concept in terms of acoustic and electric instrumentation, folksy roots material and modern jazz influences, American and third world sources. Having thus marked out the territory for a decade's worth of experimentation and growth, the Metheny Group cemented its standing on the cutting edge of contemporary jazz with Offramp. Lyle Mays' harmonica-like synth theme, Metheny's soaring, vocalized synth-guitar lead, some rich orchestral touches, and an easygoing blend of backbeat and chord changes made "Are You Going with Me?" one of Metheny's most enduring arrangements. Still, for every gentle, alluring set piece, such as the tangolike "Au Lait" or the rural vistas of "James," there was a visceral, emotive free-for-all like the title track, where Metheny unleashed wild, wailing synth guitar elisions over a loose, abstract pulse--anticipating the energy of the guitarist's collaboration with free jazz guru Ornette Coleman some four years hence on Song X.

Mariza-Transparente

Mariza began singing Fado as a child, before she could read. Her father sketched out little cartoon stories to help her remember the lyrics. At the age of five, she would join in the spontaneous singing in her parentsâ?? restaurant in Mouraria, one of Lisbon's most traditional neighborhoods.

Mariza was born in Mozambique, but her family moved to Portugal when she was a baby, giving her plenty of time to get immersed directly in the Fado Housesâ where singing is part of everyday life.

Mariza walks the fine line necessary to both genuinely carry the tradition and bring it freshness for today. Her performance style captures the raw emotion that characterizes the genre, but with her own personal twist.

Egberto Gismonti

The Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Egberto Gismonti drew his inspiration for this music from time he spent with the Xingu Indians in the Amazon, and it's intended to invoke both their spirit and the experience of the jungle. Gismonti assembled some remarkable musicians for this 1977 recording--guitarist Ralph Towner, percussionists Nana Vasconcelos and Collin Walcott, and saxophonist Jan Garbarek--but he uses them sparingly. The opening "Palacio de Pinturas" is a gorgeous duet between Gismonti's 8-string and Towner's 12-string guitars, a music so tonally rich that it suggests multiple geographic sources. "Raga," with Walcott on tabla, is more specific, with Gismonti's rapid-fire runs suggesting a sitar, but his use of percussive harmonics is a new element. The long final track is a remarkably varied suite. It begins with a light trio that has Garbarek's only appearance--a keening, soprano-saxophone solo--and includes "Sapain" for an ensemble of blown bottles with voices and wooden flute. Gismonti's fascination with shifting instrumental colors creates consistently interesting music, combining traditions and sources into a novel musical

Jan Garbarek (born March 4, 1947) is a Norwegian tenor and soprano saxophonist active in the jazz, classical, and world music genres. His daughter Anja Garbarek is also a musician.

Garbarek's sound is one of the hallmarks of the ECM record label, which has released virtually all of his recordings. His style incorporates a sharp-edged tone, long, keening, sustained notes strongly reminiscent of Islamic prayer calls, and generous use of silence. He began his recording career in the late 1960s, notably featuring on recordings by the American jazz composer George Russell (such as Othello Ballet Suite and Electronic Sonata for Souls Loved by Nature). If he had initially appeared as a devotee of Albert Ayler and Peter Brötzmann, by 1973 he had turned his back on the harsh dissonances of avant-garde jazz, retaining only his tone from his previous approach.

As a composer, Garbarek tends to draw heavily from Scandinavian folk melodies, a legacy of his Ayler influence. He is also a pioneer of ambient jazz composition, most notably on his 1976 album Dis. This textural approach, which rejects traditional notions of thematic improvisation (best exemplified by Sonny Rollins) in favor of a style described by critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton as "sculptural in its impact," has been critically divisive. Garbarek's more meandering recordings are often labeled as New Age music, a style generally scorned by more orthodox jazz musicians and listeners, or spiritual ancestors thereof.

After recording a string of unheralded avant-garde albums, Garbarek rose to international prominence in the mid-1970s playing post-bop jazz, both as a leader and as a member of Keith Jarrett's successful "European Quartet." He achieved considerable commercial success in Europe with Dis, a meditative collaboration with guitarist Ralph Towner that featured the distinctive sound of a wind harp on several tracks. (Selections from Dis have been used as incidental music in several feature films and documentaries.) In the 1980s, Garbarek's music began to incorporate synthesizers and elements of world music. In 1993, during the Gregorian chant craze, his album Officium, a collaboration with early music vocal performers the Hilliard Ensemble, became one of ECM's biggest-selling albums of all time, reaching the pop charts in several European countries. (Its sequel, Mnemosyne, followed in 1999.) In 2005, his album In Praise of Dreams was nominated for a Grammy.

In addition to the selections from Dis, Garbarek has also composed music for several other European films, including French and Norwegian films. Also his song 'Rites' was used in the American film The Insider.
[edit]

Pepe Habichuela-A Mandeli

The first solo work by the brilliant guitarist in which he is accompanied by Carles Benavent on bass, and Rubem Dantas and Antonio Carmona on percussion. He was the first flamenco artist to be accompanied by Benavent and Dantas, and he was also the first to record with the Nuevos Medios record label, which also gambled on the new generation of the Habichuelas: Ketama.

He is the son of the Gypsy T'io josé Habichuela El Viejo (Granada 1910-1986), who founded this legacy of guitarists of whom Pepe (born 1944) is one of three brothers, all gifted guitarists. Pepe's son Juan continues the family tradition as founding member of Ketama, the foremost flamenco cross-over rock band. The rumba from Habichuela's first solo recording is an extraordinarily complex work, aknowledged here by Faucher who explains he has made choices as 'the original was impossible to extract as it is on the disc'. The introduction also explains that the works on recordings are like 'snapshots...which reproduce the pieces as they are played on that particular day and only at that particular time'. It appears the transcriber has worked closely with the composer and introduced three modifications which are clearly noted. It is in the introductory pages where this publication disappoints: the eulogy to Pepe Habichuela is in a tortuous Spanish style with sentences five lines long, i.e. an entire paragraph without drawing breath! The English is patently the result of inadequat translation. Surely the author would not actually want to say this: 'The artist well understands that he will only be safe by calling and putting the dance and the marvellous character's mischievousness a compás, and only in stripping them of grace and duende, making them slide their hands to pass it on to us'. From the Spanish I can deduce that he wishes to suggest the artist steals the grace and duende from past figures and allows it to flow through his own hands that we might witness it. To suggest that Pepe Habichuela strips anything of grace and duende is bordering on the libellous! These introductory words by Francisco Almazán are in Spanish and English only. The explanatory notes on 'sound and technique' are by Alain Faucher, the English is more felicitous than the translations of Almazán's Spanish and gives great insight into Pepe's unique technique. There are those who declare flamenco cannot be written down. This is patently untrue. However, like all music, noy every nuance can be accurately written in black and white. To my mind, the greatest fault of tab notation is the failure to notate the rythm. The extraordinarily improvised nature of Habichuela's rythm makes this some of the most difficult music to accurately notate. Without the recordings to hand I feel it would be extremely hard to get the correct nuances and subtle interplay of accompanying role/melodic exposition/rythmic interlude.
Everything is written here, and the result is a collection of some of the most beautiful, original and profoundly jondo solo flamenco guitar pieces ever recorded. Emma Martinez (Classical Guitar)

Amadou and Mariam

- from the liner notes "Tje Ni Moussou"
African music's recent history has been written on recycled paper, with a pen dipped in the ink of savvy resourcefulness. The biographical vicissitudes of The Bembaya Jazz, The Ambassadeurs, and the Rail Band of Bamako contain enough burlesque episodes for a sitcom, featuring indelicate managers, venal witchdoctors an piracy experts. In this hazardous context, the itinerary of Amadou and Mariam seems full of no-fuss heroics. Take the first hurdle in their long obstacle course: after meeting at the Institute for the Young Blind of Mali, they have to obtain approval for a marriage deemed unreasonable by their parents; the youngsters were the only ones to see the chances of a blind couple being successful.

In those days of military dictatorship, a musical vocation caused those with the most obvious gifts to converge on the hotels, where the house-bands, in exchange for civil-service salary, played to a clientele composed of government brass and foreign citizens, distilling the latest pop tunes and other fashionable music from Cuba in residential ballrooms. At the end of the Sixties, Amadou Bagayoko cut his teeth as a guitarist in the Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako, a versatile group later joined by Salif Keita. He refined his guitar technique, causing his fluid playing to sparkle, and thanks to a bridge or two that spanned the musical continents, cultivated a sense of versatility - the opposite of a scattering - that was to become the emergence of the radiant Bambara blues that has brought their recent productions to full bloom.

Mariam Doumbia sang, often accompanied by Amadou, and when the couple finally decided on a common career, their chances of success in Mali were so high that... they chose to emigrate to the Ivory Coast. Their success there took them by surprise.

Separated from their three children, they recorded a series of cassettes produced the Nigerian Aliyu Maikano Adamu; clothed by a single electric guitar, these recordings contain the initial versions of "Dounia", "A Chacun Son Probleme", and "Mon Amour, Ma Cherie". These songs returned some seven years later to grace the album "Sou Ni Tile", which broadened their horizon and caused the universality of African music to coincide with the resources of modern technology. "Tje Ni Mousso" ("Man And Woman") in bambara, added nuances of sound and rhythmical inflections to the already rich spectrum of their previous work, and caused other essences and perfumes to flow in from the four corners of the globe - the Portuguese cavaquihno, the violin of Bengal, jazz piano - towards the epicenter that is Africa, the land of a thousand dances.

Amadou and Miriam seem to hear their own music through the filter that made them marvel when they were adolescents: the pop of the Seventies, electric blues, reggae, Cuba... Without ever conceiving of it as a project, without even really thinking about it, man and woman caused their distant offspring, those who cradle was the Dark Continent, to come home. And this opening onto the world, this sense of hospitality, recharged the music of West Africa with a vital energy, and secured it in the maternal role that founded its identity.

This record gives "world music" a sense, a function, and a center of gravity that previous misuse of the term had hidden, damaging its reputation. The phrase invites us to a double understanding which can be found again in the use of words distilling counsel and recommendations, as happens in village meetings where the old exchange words with the young: and this manner of keeping a watchful eye, of preaching respect, patience and tolerance, finally causes little local virtues to unfold in a universal wisdom. With simple words, Amadou and Mariam relate the superiority of harmony over discord.

The amusing paradox carried by the songs of this blind couple from Mali is that they also have the power to return sight to those who think they can already see.

Playlist 25 July 07

2007-07-25T16:59:00.000+10:00

On the show tonight, music by Aneesh Pradhan, tabla master currently out here touring with Shuba Mugdal, see previous post. Aneesh is a phenomenal tabla player and needs to be seen to be believed. If you get a chance to see him perform with Adrian McNeill please go, it will be amazing.

Other music by the following artists.
Monsieur Camembert- CD famous Blue Cheeses
Natacha Atlas- CD Best of
Gigi- CD Gold & Wax
Richard Horowitz & Sussan Deyhim- CD Majoun
Souad Massi- CD Deb (Heartbroken)
Susheela Rahman- CD Music for Crocodiles
Daude Neguinha- Cd Te Amo
Yungchen Lhamo- CD Ama
Sheila Chandra- CD This Sentence Is True

Happy listening and feel to give me some feedback.

Aneesh Pradhan / Shubha Mugdal touring

2007-07-18T12:19:00.000+10:00

Event information from Sangeet Australia: Supporting Hindustani Music
Two amazng events!

Dearest Patrons,
This month Australia welcomes the great and revered vocalist Shubha Mudgal. This renowned woman is an absolute must-see who needs little introduction. She is traveling with her ensemble the scintillating tabliya Aneesh Pradhan and on harmonium the very talented Sudhir Nayak. This is Hindustani music at its best from some of its finest and most honourable ambassadors.

Two Sydney dates to remember -
21st July A vocal concert of Shubha Mudgal this weekend to launch her DVD that was made at Sydney's Fox Studios in Sydney on her last tour
4th August Adrian McNeil and Aneesh Pradhan in an instrumental soiree to launch their new CD Raga Basant Mukhari.
Both released on www.underscorerecords.com
Full details below - Hope to see you there.

DON'T MISS THIS WEEKEND!
ashish kalmath presents
SHUBHA MUDGAL
LIVE IN CONCERT
ANEESH PRADHAN TABLA
SUDHIR NAYAK HARMONIUM
World Premier launch and release of her inaugural classical music DVD film
In Sydney 7pm Saturday 21 July
Sir John Clancy Auditorium
UNSW High Street Randwick Gate no.9
In Melbourne 7pm 29 July
BMW Edge Auditorium Federation Square
Flinders St Melbourne
Bookings Ticketmaster 136100
more info www.asheeshkalmath.com

AND ON 4th AUGUST -
Sangeet Australia:
Supporting Hindustani Music
proudly presents ‘The Mehfil Series’
Extra super special guest from Mumbai the remarkable tabliya Aneesh Pradhan
To release their recent recording
an acoustic morning raga program with
Adrian McNeil sarod and Aneesh Pradhan tabla

Acoustic. Intimate. Breathtaking.

Raga Basant Mukhari: morning ragas released on Underscore Records www.underscorerecords.com
Saturday 4th August 11:30am
The Dickson Space 35-39 Dickson St. Newtown
Enter off King St. Close to Newtown Station or by 422 bus.
Snacks available. Performance approx. two hours with interval.
Disabled access available. Come early to avoid disappointment.
Tickets at the door $20/$15con
more info: 0416 352 900 or join our mailing list.
www.sangeetaustralia.org

About Aneesh Pradhan: Aneesh studied tabla under Pandit Nikhil Ghosh, one of the great tabla players of the 20th century. The rigorous training that he received from this maestro over many years profoundly guided Aneesh into the outstanding soloist and sensitive accompanist whom he is respected and admired as today. Based in Mumbai he is a highly sought after artist, both in India and abroad, where he tours extensively. He who has performed alongside practically all of the greatest figures in Hindustani music over the last few years.

Concert tours have taken him round the world to Europe, the USA, Japan, South Africa and South-East Asia. He has played at the Melbourne Festival and at the World of Music Festival in Brisbane, has taught at the University of New England in Australia. He was awarded a doctorate in history at the University of Mumbai with a treatise on Hindustani music in Bombay in the late 19th century. In 1999 he received the coveted Aditya Birla Kalakiran Award. Aneesh is also a noted composer of film soundtracks, as well as contemporary and fusion music and has collaborated with famous Ensemble Moderne in Cologne and the Asian Fantasy Orchestra in Japan. To top this off he is also the co-founder, along with Shubha Mudgal, of underscore records.

About Adrian McNeil: Adrian is a remarkable Australian musician who has studied Hindustani music and specifically the Sarod under the strict precepts of the Guru-Shishya Parampara (teacher student tradition) training method under the late Pandit Ashok Roy of the Maihar Gharana for some 25 years. Most recently he has undertaken study under Dr. Ashok Ranade and Prof. Sachindranath Roy. His studies have frequently led him to India where he has lived and also written an exemplary text 'The Sarod: A Cultural History'. Currently Adrian is a Lecturer at Macquarie University where he is an ethnomusicologist in the Department of Contemporary Music Studies. He continues to be one of the most accomplished artists in Hindustani Music in Australia and is committed to further performance and research in this field. He is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Sangeet Australia and a powerful performer with regular concerts and recordings made in India.

About Underscore Records: A wonderful Delhi based record company with an extensive range of fine Indian music on the website www.underscorerecords.com from all the best artists. This artist-owned label is the undertaking of husband and wife team Aneesh Pradhan and Shubha Mudgal. One of their primary concerns is the ethical treatment of artists and their rights. They continue to grow and gain favour with the community of Indian musicians for whom they are champions. We recommend you make your purchases from this reliable and knowledgeable site wherever possible.

About Sangeet Australia: Formed in 2004 we are an artist-run, grass-roots organisation focused on fostering greater understanding and appreciation of this classical tradition of music from India . We produce a monthly series of high-quality acoustic soirees and various other activities, including larger concerts and workshops, supporting both local and international musicians. To contact us regarding sponsorship, to volunteer, offers of in-kind support, media enquiries, to join our mailing list, bookings, media enquiries or for more information call m. 0416 352 900 or
email: pavane_oliveiro@yahoo.com.au
Forthcoming Sangeet Australia event: The Gundecha Brothers - Dhrupad vocalists www.dhrupad.org Last weekend September. Details to be announced. Those interested in workshops/classes or sponsorship contact me now!
Join our mailing list for more details or send this email to your friends.
Our events appeal to the discerning music lover and those who seek a fulfilling engagement with the arts.
Thank you to those who have recently written with ideas and offers of help. Forgive my delay in replying but I will get around to all of you and thank each one of you for your thoughts and efforts. I will be in touch shortly.
Kindest regards,
Pavane Oliveiro
Director
and
Dr. Adrian McNeil
Artistic Director

Sangeet Australia:
Supporting Hindustani Music
m. 0416 352 900

Peter Freeman on the show

2007-07-04T21:30:00.000+10:00

I ran an interview with Peter Freeman tonight. Who? Well I don't blame you for probably saying that as he likes to stay behind the scenes and not be noticed. He's worked with people such as John Cale, L Shankar, Sussan Deyhim & Richard Horowitz and for the last 17 years has been the bass player and sound manipulator behind Jon Hassell. The interview is downloadable over in the interview section. If you want to know more about Peter or get in touch with him he has a presence on myspace.com

Happy listening...Hans

Powerspot Playlist 27 June 07

2007-06-26T23:47:00.000+10:00

On the show tonight, it's very much a Polynesian flavor. Since it's been raining for far too long here in Sydney, and my spirit has gotten slightly damp, the best I can do to keep sane is escape into the sunny, joyously harmonious sounds of our pacific neighbors. Hope some of you can join me either via the radio or streaming via the net.

Next week, an interview with Peter Freeman, sound designer, producer and long time bass player for Jon Hassell. I caught up with him on a recent trip to Sydney.

Musical contributions from

Te Vaka- CD Tutuki & Nukutehe

Black Paradise- CD West Papua- Spirit of Mambesak (pictured)

Telek- CD Serious Tam

V/A- Papua New Guinea Stringbands with Bob Brozman- CD Songs of the Volcano

David Fanshaw- Pacific Chants: Traditional Music of Eastern Polynesia (www.calabashmusic.com)
David Fanshawe presents important highlights from his monumental Pacific Collections, recorded over fourteen years (1978-1992). The selections focus on the rich variety of authentic himene (hymns) indigenous to Tahiti, the Cook Islands, the Society Islands, the Australian Islands, Manihiki, Pukapuka, Maupiti, Tahaa, Bora Bora, and Raivavae.

20 June 2007

2007-06-21T19:18:00.000+10:00

Hi Folks

Last night's playlist is as follows.

Afro Celt Sound System- Anatomic- CD Anatomic
Smadj- Vogue- CD Take It & Drive
Bouba Sacko- Tiramakan (calabashmusic.com)
Ali Farka Toure / Ry Cooder - Gomni - CD Talking Timbuktu
Boubacar Traore- CD Je Chanterai Pour Toi
Djelimady Tounkara- Amary Ndaou- CD Sigui
Jah Wobble- Buddha of Compassion- CD Mu
Nitin Sawhney- Falling- CD Human
Nitin Sawhney ID
Transglobal Underground – Kese Kese remix
Bally Sagoo- Kese Kese remix
(Both from DH Cheb I Sabbah’s Maha Maya-Shri Durga Remixed)
Afro Celt Sound System- Mojave- CD Anatomic
Ardavan Kamkar- CD Over The Wind
Ballake Sissoko- CD Tomora (mp3 download from www.calabashmusic.com)
Rokia Traore- CD Wanita

Ralph Towner article link

2007-05-24T21:19:00.000+10:00

Just a quick posting.

If you like the music of Ralph Towner, you might enjoy this article and interview by Anil Prasad

Your favourite records

2007-05-23T19:48:00.000+10:00

What are your favorite records, and why do you go back and listen to them time and time again?

Mine are strangely enough the old ambient excursions that Brian Eno & Harold Budd released in the early 80's- Plateaux of Mirror and The Pearl. Those shimmering, quiet spaces which Eno created around Budd's minimalist piano works soothe my soul at the best of times. When I think back on the sad and happier moments of my life, the birth of my children, passing of loved ones, it is these two recordings which have always been present. If I had to keep five recordings only, these two would be in the collection.

What are yours?

Shruti Sadolikar - Live in Concert. 2 June 07

2007-05-23T19:28:00.000+10:00

Sangeet Australia:Supporting Hindustani Music

in partnership with

The Marathi Association Sydney Inc.

proudly presents ‘The Concert Series’
One of India’s finest female vocalists
Live in Concert - Internationally renowned
Shruti Sadolikar Katkar
with
Anand Kunte - Sarangi and Mangesh Mulye - Tabla
Evening Ragas: Khayal Music of
the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana

Saturday 2nd June 7pm

Shruti Sadolikar produced the most memorable recital of all an
created some kind of history for her gharana…she was able to put more body
and soul into the raga than legendary exponents…The Telegraph, Kolkata.

Tom Mann Theatre 136 Chalmers St. Surry Hills

Near Central Station. Snacks available from 6:00pm.

Disabled access available.
Tickets at the door $25/$20con
Discounts available: Families and Marathi Association members.
more info: 0416 352 900 or join our mailing list.
www.sangeetaustralia.org

Shruti Sadolikar in Concert - A female vocalist of the highest calibre.
A rare treat for lovers of fine classical Indian music.

About Shruti Sadolikar: A leading exponent of the Jaipur- Atrauli Gharana, Shrutiji studied from an early age under the tutelage of her father Pandit Vamanrao Sadolikar and later from Pt Gullubhai Jasdanwalla. She is currently learning from Ustad Azizuddin Khan, grandson of the great Ustad Alladiya Khan, the founder of the Jaipur Gharana. Shrutiji sings all forms of classical and semi-classical including khayal, thumri, tappa, natya sangeet and bhajan. Her deeper interest lies in haveli sangeet, a form that was the subject of her thesis and special performances overseas.

Shrutiji holds a masters degree from SNDT, Mumbai and has performed in India and internationally to great acclaim. She has several recordings including educational CDs. In a richly diverse and active award-winning career she has been a Guru at the renowned Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata and also formed a foundation in memory of her father to propagate music, arts and education. In 1999 she worked on a three hour play to which she also set the music. Sangeet Tulsidas, won five awards and was performed in Marathi all over Holland as part of the Theatre Festival.

About Sangeet Australia: Formed in 2004 we are an artist-run, grass-roots organisation focused on fostering greater understanding and appreciation of this classical tradition of music from India. We produce a monthly series of high-quality acoustic soirees and various other activities, including larger concerts and workshops, supporting both local and international musicians. To contact us regarding sponsorship, to volunteer, offers of in-kind support, media enquiries, to join our mailing list, bookings or for more information call m. 0416 352 900 or
email: pavane_oliveiro@yahoo.com.au

About forthcoming events: The Marathi Association Sydney Inc.
presents Shruti Sadolikar - Live in Concert.
St. George Bank Auditorium, Kogarah.
Semi Classical Program Saturday 9th June 5- 8pm.
$20 or $40 premium
Classical Program Monday 11th June 9am -12pm.
$25 or $50 premium
www.marathi.org.au
Bookings: Dhananjay 0413 594 104 Sharad 0412 478 171 Vijay 0408 251 882

Dearest Patrons,
Thank you to many of you who attended Debi Prasadji’s recent mehfil. It was a beautiful and intimate afternoon and, as always, your presence and support is much appreciated.
We hope you can all make it to the next event in our Concert Series. We are honoured to have such an esteemed guest and I am personally very pleased to be presenting a female artist at this program.
Anand Kunte on Sarangi and Mangesh Mulye on Tabla will complete this superb event. We are also pleased to have the opportunity to hear vocal music accompanied by Sarangi in this instance. This line up is sure to make for a spell-binding and exquisite evening.
We thank the Marathi Association for making Shrutiji’s visit possible and are very happy to have their support for this event. We urge you to attend Shrutiji’s other two programs at the St George Auditorium – the concert on Monday 11th June will be a chance to hear some morning ragas on the long weekend.
For those who may be interested in requesting a master class with Shrutiji or her accompanists I urge you to contact Dhananjay Gurjar of The Marathi Association (details above) with your expression of interest.
Media enquiries may also be directed either to myself or The Marathi Association.
Exciting news about forthcoming events with renowned vocalist Shubha Mudgal will be announced shortly.

Join our mailing list for more details or send this email to your friends.
Our events appeal to the discerning music lover and those who seek a fulfilling engagement with the arts.

Hoping to see you soon.
Your sincerely,
Pavane Oliveiro
Director
and
Dr. Adrian McNeil
Artistic Director

Playlist 23 May 07

2007-05-23T10:10:00.000+10:00

On the show this week, excerpts from Tokyo Earth Day. Music from Rag Fair & M-Flow, two of Japan's current in-vogue pop music acts. Earth Day has been going on now for 37 years. It is all about raising people's consciousness in order to change the way they do things to protect the planet and its resources. I think it was someone like the historical Buddha who may have said "before you change the world change yourself". Maybe the quote came from an old episode of Monkey. Maybe not but you get the drift I'm sure.

New music from Sephardic singer Yasmin Levy from her excellent album La Juderia, fourth world trumpeter Jon Hasell Live in Berlin 2006, as well as material from sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan.

Yasmine Levy- Cd La Juderia - La Alegria // La Nina De Las Flores // Locura // La Serena (http://www.mraentertainment.com)
Born in Jerusalem 27 years ago, Yasmin Levy was introduced to Ladino singing and culture from a very young age. Her father was the leading figure in the world of research into and preservation of the Judeo-Spanish culture, dating back to the 15th century in Spain. Today, it remains one of the most moving and romantic musical traditions of all times.
In her deep, spiritual and moving style of singing, Yasmin preserves and revives the most beautiful and romantic songs from the Ladino/ Judeo-Spanish heritage, mixing it with Andalusian Flamenco.
Her debut album “Romance & Yasmin” (Ladino) is now out in Europe.
Her new album “La Juderia” (Ladino meets Flamenco – in Spanish) will be released in April 2005.
The above information from: http://www.yasminlevy.net/

Excerpts from Tokyo Earth Day 2007 featuring Rag Fair, Mink, M-Flow and more. I have a three CD audio of this performance to give away to a listener who is into Japanese pop music. Please email me if you would like me to send it to you.

Jon Hassell- Live Berlin 2006 (private)- excerpts from the performance featuring Jon Hassell on trumpet, Peter Freeman on bass, Steve Shehan percussion. Originally broadcast on German radio.

Amjad Ali Khan- CD Moksha- Moksha // Atma (Real World Records)
Rahul Sharma- Music of the Himalayas- Melody of Kashmir (Real World Records)

Powerspot Playlist 16 May 07

2007-05-16T22:37:00.000+10:00

On the show tonight, you either heard or you missed the following.

Nuyorican Soul- I Am The Black Gold of the Sun- CD In The Mind of Nitin Sawhney

V/A- Pindi Sandhu- Vlaatho Dho Kuriya - CD American Bhangra
V/A- Sultan Akhtar-. Suhn Kuriye - CD American Bhangra
V/A- Jesh Raju- Tere Ishq Soniye- CD American Bhangra (www.americanbhangra.com)

The Tinku Band- Superman

Marisa Monte- Infinito Particular- CD Infinito Particular

16 minute interview with Marisa Monte downloadable via the link on the right hand side.

Marisa Monte- Universo ao Meu Redor / O Bonde Do Dom/ Meu Canário / Três Letrinhas- CD Universo ao Meu Redor

Marisa Monte- Pra ser sincero- CD Infinito Particular
Bob Marley & The Wailers- Get Up Stand Up / No More Troubles / War- CD Live At The Roxy 1976
Ojos de Brujo- Memorias Perdias- CD In The Mind of Nitin Sawhney
Paco de Lucia- Almoraima- CD In The Mind of Nitin Sawhney
Nitin Sawhney- Songbird [Zero Id Remix]- CD In The Mind of Nitin Sawhney

Larry Marshall- I've Got To Make It- CD Studio One KINGS
Horace Andy- Every Tongue Shall Tell- CD Studio One KINGS

Powerspot Playlist 9 May 07

2007-05-09T17:07:00.000+10:00

On the show, treats and delights from the following artists.

Yasmin Levy- CD La Juderia
Mercan Dede-Secret Tribe CD Nar
(www.mercandede.com)
Music of Laos- The Buddhist Tradition (Celestial Harmonies)
Philip Glass- CD Kundun- Escape to India
Philip Glass's score for Kundun is the realization of a long-cherished dream. For years, I had hoped to work with Glass, and in Kundun we found the ideal subject for a special collaboration. His Buddhist faith and deep understanding of Tibetan culture combine with the subtlety of his composition to play an essential role in our movie on the life of the Dalai Lama. Philip Glass is an artist of tremendous sensitivity whose music works from the inside of the film, from its heart, to produce a powerful emotional intensity which remains for days in the listener's head. The beauty, magic, grandeur, and spirituality of the score allow us to feel the pulse of the story as it unfolds. For me, the images in the film no longer stand on their own without Philip Glass's music. I consider myself fortunate, indeed blessed, to have worked with him on Kundun...
- Martin Scorsese.
Satsuki Odamura- Koto Dreaming- Dancing on Rainbows
Satsuki Odamura's new CD, Koto Dreaming is a collection of innovative and uniquely Australian multicultural compositions for koto. Koto Dreaming breaks away from the traditional sounds and compositions for koto, and includes Satsuki's own collaborative compositions with Australian artists. It is a synthesis of her inspirations gained by her working closely with Australian artists and a culmination of her fifteen years accumulative experience as a koto virtuoso based in Australia.
Koto Dreaming begins with a work commissioned by celebrated Australian composer Ross Edwards and includes pieces by composers Caroline Szeto, Anthony Briggs, Linsey Pollak, as well as Satsuki herself, in collaboration with Sandy Evans and Tony Lewis – who together comprise the trio Waratah.

Nitin Sawhney- CD Philtre (Instrumentals)- Mausam / The Sanctuary
(Promotional)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/world/reviews/
nitinsawhney_philtre.shtml#review)

Pharoah Sanders-CD With A Heartbeat- Across Time
Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra- CD Beggars and Saints- Gopala
John Martyn- CD Couldn't Love You More- One World

Thanks for listening.

Powerspot 2 May 2007

2007-05-04T22:29:00.000+10:00

Ok you either heard or you missed the following on Wednesday night's show. Thank you to those people who emailed me and reminded me to put this on the blog. I was having one of my 'senior' moments and forgot.

Rokia Traore- CD Wanita- Kanan Neni (Label Bleu)
K Sridhar & Abdel Salameh- CD The Arab Path to India- Oud Solo / Sarod Solo ( Real World Records WSCD101, 1996)
Iarla O'Lionaird- Cd I Could Read The Sky- I'm Stretched On Your Grave (Real World)
Pat Metheny & Anna Maria Jopek- CD Upojenie
Ghazal- CD Moon Rise Over The Silk Road- Fire In My Heart
Arabesk- CD Front Ear
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan- CD Shahen Shah- Shamas-Ud-Doha, Badar-Ud-Doja (Real World)
Ronu Majumdar- CD Hollow bamboo- Charmer OF Braj
Natacha Atlas-CD Gedida- Bastet

2007-04-25T16:34:00.000+10:00

On the show tonight, you either heard or missed the following
Aditya Verna- Sarod- Traditional Music from India
Raga Fhinjhoti (fast teentaal)

Aditya Verma is a charismatic sarod player based in Canada and India. A disciple of legendary sitar player Pandit Ravi Shankar and renowned sarod master Ustad Aashish Khan, Verma has also trained under Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, India's leading exponent of the instrument. Verma grew up in Montreal and started playing the tabla at an early age under the guidance of his father, Dr. Narendra Verma, and Ustad Zakir Hussain. From 1987, he has lived in India studying Hindustani classical music and specializing in the sarod. In recent years, Verma has won the admiration of audiences across North America, Europe and India with electrifying performances that reveal his emotional aesthetics and virtuosity. Besides playing concerts on stage, television and radio, Verma also gives lecture demonstrations, teaches and composes music of different styles for recordings and film. He is the recipient of numerous awards.

Yasmin Levy- Live

Marcel Khalife- CD Caress

Marcel Khalifé was born in 1950 in Amchit, Mount-Lebanon. He studied the oud (the Arabic lute) at the Beirut National conservatory, and, ever since, has been injecting a new life into the oud.

From 1970 to 1975, Marcel Khalifé taught at the conservatory and other local institutions. During that same period, he toured the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States giving solo performances on the oud.

Oud playing was traditionally constrained by the strict techniques that governed its playing. Highly talented and skillful musicians such as Marcel Khalifé were, however, able to free the instrument from those constraints and thus greatly expanding its possibilities.

In 1972, Marcel Khalifé created a musical group in his native village with the goal of reviving its musical heritage and the Arabic chorale. The first performances took place in Lebanon. 1976 saw the birth of Al Mayadeen Ensemble. Enriched by the previous ensemble’s musical experiences, Al Mayadeen’s notoriety went well beyond Lebanon. Accompanied by his musical ensemble, Marcel Khalifé began a lifelong far-reaching musical journey, performing in Arab countries, Europe, the United States, Canada, South America, Australia, and Japan.

Marcel Khalifé has been invited several times to festivals of international fame such as: Baalbeck, Beit Eddine (Lebanon), Carthage, El Hammamat (Tunisia), Timgad (Algeria), Jarash (Jordan), Arles (France), Krems, Linz (Austria), Bremen (Germany), ReOrient (Sweden), Pavia (Italy), World Music Festival in San Francisco, New York, Cleveland (the USA).

He has performed in such prestigious halls as the "Palace of Arts" in Montreal, "Symphony Space" and "Merkin Concert" in New York, "Berklee Theatre" and "New England Conservatory" in Boston, "Royal Festival Hall", and "Queen Elizabeth Hall" in London,"UNESCO Palace" of Beirut, Cairo Opera House (Egypt), "Reciprocity","House of the Cultures of the World" and "UNESCO Hall" in Paris, "Central Dionysia" in Rome, "Yerba Buena" in San Francisco,"Sõdra Teatern" in Stokholm.

Since 1974, Marcel Khalifé has been composing music for dance which gave rise to a new genre of dance, the popular Eastern ballet (Caracalla, Sarab Ensemble, Rimah, Popular Art Ensemble)

Marcel Khalifé has also been composing soundracks for film, documentary and fiction, produced by Maroun Baghdadi and Oussama Mouhamad among others.

Marcel Khalifé has also composed several purely instrumental works like The Symphony of Return, Chants of the East, Concerto Al Andalus "Suite for Oud and Orchestra" "Mouda'aba" (Caress), Diwan Al Oud, "Jadal" Oud duo, Oud Quartet, "Al Samaa" in the traditional Arabic forms andTaqasim, duo for oud and double bass.

Marcel Khalifé’s compositions has been performed by several orchestras, notably the Kiev Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of Boulogne Billancourt Orchestra, The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the city of Tunis, and the "Absolute Ensemble".

Since 1982, Marcel Khalifé has been writing books on musicthat reflect his avant garde compositions and the maturity of his experience.

His challenges, however, are not only musical in character. Interpreter of music and oud performer, he is also a composer who is deeply attached to the text on which he relies. In his association with great contemporary Arab poets, particularly Palestinian poet par excellence, Mahmoud Darwish, he seeks to renew the character of the Arabic song, to break its stereotypes, and to advance the culture of the society that surrounds it.

His lyrical recordings adds up to about 20 albums, the likes Promises of the storm, Ahmad Al Arabi, Weddings, Peace Be With you, Ode To A Homeland, Arabic Coffeepot, The Children and Body(Al Jassad,) to name a few.

On his journey, Marcel Khalifé invents and creates original music, a novel world of sounds, freed of all pre-established rules. This language elevates him to the level of an ambassador of his own culture and to the vanguard of Near Eastern music in search of innovators.

I do not use the West to get to the West,” said Marcel Khalife about his album Caress/Mouda’aba

“If the new world order gives me the culture of MacDonalds and Pepsi Cola, I question that. Those things disappear after a short while. What we are doing is a project that will take years and years.”

Khalife’s mission began before Israel seized his cassettes upon invading his country, Lebanon, in 1982. “Since I was born,” he says, “I’ve felt I had a rebel’s soul within me. I rejected things that might be inherited, but that were wrong.” Born into a Christian family, Khalife—who plays the oud, an Arabic lute, has always been a voice of reconciliation, peace, and hope. During Lebanon’s civil war, he risked his life performing in bombed out concert halls, bringing his music and the great poetry of the Arab world to his war-ravished country.

At the same time, Khalife has been stretching the boundaries of his instrument and Arabic music. Oud playing was traditionally constrained by the strict techniques that governed its playing. Skillful musicians like Khalife have freed the instrument from those constraints greatly expanding its possiblities. About his latest CD and tour, Khalife says, “This work attempts to elevate Arabic music to a level that allows it to express profound human emotions, not by mere performance, but by empowering the music to mature and develop into a universal language of expression.

Khalife’s musical career has consistently been marked by two traits. The first is a multi-faceted, category-defying approach to music itself. “My grandfather was a fisherman and he used to sing songs of the sea,” Khalife recalls. “Then I used to go to church and listen to Christian music, and also to Islamic recitations of the Koran. In Lebanon we have a marriage of Islamic and Christian culture. That really helped to form my musical awareness.” Khalife always drew from diverse musical sources and composed in a variety of settings from oud duos to full orchestras.

His composition is noted for being deeply attached to lyrical text. Through his association with great contemporary Arab poets, most notably Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, he seeks to renew the character of Arab song, breaking its stereotypes and advancing the culture of the society that surrounds it. Millions in the Arab World recognize Khalife as a cultural icon.

“I do not fit in a cultural box, nor do I want to,” says Khalife, who now lives in Paris. “I have strived all my life to break free of old traditional constraints, to let music speak for itself unshackled by predetermined traditional rules. I have defied identities and categorizations, which only serve to blind us to the vastness and complexity of humanity. There are no set lenses with which I should be looked at. My music, it all comes together for the sake of humanity.”

The second trait has been a consistent message of peace and justice. And this continues today, setting the tone for this Fall’s tour. “More than ever, we all have to work much harder for peace,” says Khalife. “Peace cannot be imposed upon a people by a certain political power or agenda. Peace is achieved through respect, understanding of others and their culture; it is achieved by giving up fear of others; it is achieved through dialogue.”

Marcel Khalife will be performing with Al Mayadine Ensemble, a group that he founded in 1976. Al Mayadine has the double-meaning of “village-square” and “battlefield.” Khalife is joined on the tour by his long time premiere vocalist Oumaima Khalil, who has been performing with Khalife since she was 12 years old. Al Mayadine Ensemble also features Yolla Keryakos as second vocalist, Rami Khalife on piano, Peter Herbert on double bass and Bachar Khalife on percussion (riq, tabla, mazhar, vibraphone, congas, bongos).

Adapted courtesy RockPaperScissors - http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/185.cfmMarisa Monte

Fuji Dub- Fuji Orisa (Triple Earth remix)

Fuji -- Ferocious Urban Jungle Intensity -- a music named (so the story goes) by it's first master, Alhaji Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, when he saw a postcard of Mount Fuji in an airport transit lounge and felt it graphically represented the essaential peace lying at the heart of the music. 'Were' -- a music expressing Islamic faith that helps act as a wake-up call to morning prayer for Yoruba Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. The roots of 'Fuji'.

'Fuji Dub' -- Five tracks from a Fuji master recorded in Brooklyn, U.S. remixed in Brixton, U.K.

The idea behind this was that I was fed up with all the various dance albums which used African or Arabic samples as a bit of exotic fluff on the top of a purely conventional (and boring) four-on-the-floor dance beat. Why not do it the other way round? Use an African music as the meat beat and studio dub techniques as the exotic bit. Nice idea in theory - not so easy in practice. Not least of which is that Fuji music (heavy duty Nigerian urban percussion) races along, whereas reggae gently lopes. Oh well, fun to do and has achieved cult status in certain quarters.

And who is the artist who wishes to remain anonymous? Simple - he even gets a name check within the first 30 seconds of the first song. He was fine for the remixing to be done, he was just concerned that it might confuse his audience as it's remixes of existing releases so him remaining anonymous was part of the deal. -- Iain Scott

Rhythm & Sound- No Partial

Marisa Monte- CD Infinito Particular- Track Infinito Particular

Dahlia Dior in concert May 6 2007

2007-04-25T16:14:00.000+10:00

Touring soon..PANDIT DEBI PRASAD CHATTERJEE

2007-04-25T16:12:00.000+10:00

SANGEET AUSTRALIA PRESENTS
THE MEHFIL SERIES

ACOUSTIC AND INSPIRATIONAL
CLASSICAL NORTH INDIAN MUSIC
IN A TRADITIONAL SETTING

VISITING SITAR VIRTUOSO
PANDIT DEBI PRASAD CHATTERJEE
WITH MAHARSHI RAVAL ON TABLA

A CHANCE TO ENGAGE CLOSELY WITH THE SCINTILLATING SOUNDS OF HINDUSTANI MUSIC WITH A REVERED AND EXPERIENCED ARTIST OF THIS TRADITION. SEE DEBI PRASADJI'S BIO BELOW.

2:30PM
SUNDAY MAY 13TH
$22/18 CON. TICKETS AT THE DOOR
COME EARLY TO AVOID DISSAPOINTMENT

THE DICKSON SPACE
35-39 DICKSON ST
NEWTOWN

ON-STREET PARKING
BY BUS 422 OR NEWTOWN TRAIN STATION (5-10MIN)
ENTER DICKSON ST FROM KING ST.
DISABLED ACCESS AVAIL. FAMILY DSCOUNTS AVAIL.
ALL WELCOME.

SNACKS AVAILABLE
PERFORMANCE APPROX 2 HOURS WITH INTERVAL.

I BELIEVE IT MAY BE POSSIBLE THAT THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO ARRANGE MASTER CLASSES WITH DEBI PRASADJI DURING HIS SHORT VISIT TO SYDNEY ON HIS EAST COAST TOUR.
CONTACT FOR MORE INFO 0416 352 900.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

PANDIT DEBI PRASAD CHATTERJEE
(TO AVOID CONFUSION - NO RELATION TO OUR APRIL GUEST PURBAYAN CHATTERJEE BUT RELATED TO THE GREAT TABLA PLAYER ANINDO CHATTERJEE!)

PANDIT DEBI PRASAD CHATTERJEE, A SENIOR ARTIST, IS A DISTINGUISHED NAME AMONGST INDIAN MUSICIANS AS AN OUTSTANDING SITARIST AND A HIGHLY REGARDED TEACHER OF INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC. HE IS WIDELY RESPECTED FOR HIS DEVOTION TO HIS MUSIC. HIS CONTROL OVER THE RAGAS WITH SYSTEMATIC EXPLORATION HAS PLACED HIM AMONGST THE TOP INSTRUMENTALISTS OF HIS ERA.

BORN IN KOLKATA INTO A FAMILY OF RICH CULTURAL AND MUSICAL HERITAGE THAT HAS PRODUCED MUSICIANS LIKE PT. ANINDO CHATTERJEE (TABLA), HE DEVELOPED A DISTINCT AND UNIQUE STYLE OF HIS OWN BY RECEIVING EXTENSIVE TRAINING FROM VARIOUS MAESTROS. HE TOOK HIS FIRST LESSONS FROM ELDER BROTHER PT. BISWANATH CHATTERJEE AND FROM PT. APARESH CHATTERJEE, ANOTHER NOTED SITAR EXPONENT.

STARTING IN 1965 HE RECEIVED TRAINING FROM THE GREAT NIKHIL BANNERJEE OVER THE NEXT 20 YEARS ALSO TRAINING EXTENSIVELY UNDER SMT. ANNAPURNA DEVI. IN 1986 HE BECAME A DISCIPLE OF WORLD FAMOUS MAESTRO USTAD ALI AKBAR KHAN.

PT CHATTERJEE BELONGS TO THE SENIA MAIHAR GHARANA AND DRAWS INSPIRATION FROM THE PLAYING STYLE OF NIKHIL BANNERJEE.
FOR MANY YEARS HE HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY PERFORMING IN MAJOR CONCERTS ALL OVER INDIA AND ABROAD INCLUDING THE DOVER LANE MUSIC CONFERENCE, RADIO SANGEET SAMMELAN, SADARANG MUSIC CONFERENCE, TANSEN MUSIC CONFERENCE, BISHYA BANGA SAMMELAN, NORTH AMERICA BENGALI CONFERENCE, NATIONAL PROGRAMME OF MUSIC AT ALL INDIA RADIO AND DOORDASHAN ETC..

PANDITJI HAS PLAYED IN NUMEROUS CONCERTS ACROSS USA, CANADA, UK, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, HOLLAND, ITALY, FRANCE, AUSTRIA, ICELAND, IRELAND, LUXEMBOURG ETC.. HE HAS ALSO PERFORMED IN NUMEROUS INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS.

HE HAS RECEIVED MANY AWARDS AND ACCOLADES FOR HIS CONTRIBUTION TO MUSIC AND BETWEEN 1977-2001 WAS A PROFESSOR AT THE RABINDRA BHARATI UNIVERSITY, KOLKATA AND FROM 1994-2001 WAS THE HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC AND PERCUSSION. HE HAS ALSO CONDUCTED NUMEROUS WORKSHOPS AND DEMONSTRATIONS ON HINDUSTANI MUSIC AND ITS TECHNIQUES AT UNIVERSITIES AND INSTITUTIONS BOTH IN INDIA AND INTERNATIONALLY.

WE ARE VERY PLEASED TO HAVE THE BENEFIT OF HIS KNOWLEDGE AND VAST EXPERIENCE IN SYDNEY.

MAHARSHI RAVAL
WE ARE ALSO VERY PLEASED TO WELCOME MAHARSHI RAVAL, AN EXPERIENCED TABLIYA RELATIVELY NEW TO SYDNEY WHO PROMISES TO BECOME A FORMIDABLE PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIAN MUSIC. HE HAS TOURED EUROPE, ACCOMPANIED MANY ARTISTS IN THE SAPTAK (OCTAVE) FESTIVALS, PERFORMED WITH THE FAMOUS VOCALIST AJAY POHANKAR AND SO ON. COME AND SEE THIS EXCITING NEW TALENT.

COMING IN JUNE:
THE GREAT VOCALIST
SHRUTI SADOLIKAR!
MORE INFO TO FOLLOW

Dear Patrons,

Thank you for joining the Sangeet Australia Mailing list. If you have recently joined this is our monthly mail-out to inform you of our forth-coming events. Please forward to friends who may be interested.

Firstly, thank you to all of those who attended the concert and discussion sesssions with visiting Purbayan Chatterjee and Bobby Singh. We also thank the ABC Radio National for recording the concert and I will be informing you all by email of the broadcast dates as soon as I have them. If you couldn't make it you will have a chance to listen.

Our thanks also to Assad Abdi at The SideTrack Theatre who has been so helpful and supportive and we hope The SideTrack Performance Group had every success with their recent production of 'Seven Pirates' at The Parramatta Riverside Theatre.

Once again, it is through the hard work, generous support and thoughtfulness of our volunteers that our event was possible. Special thanks to Venkat and Melinda Narayanan who have regularly helped and after the May mehfil will, unfortunately, be moving away. Your help and presence over the years has been much appreciated.

If you would like to assist us, either with skills and resources that you may have, or, with a gift of your time we would love to speak with you. Please contact me via this email address.

As some of you may know we are currently in a process of intense development as we are re-structuring our organisation for better sustainability and more fruitful out-comes for all involved. We welcome feed-back, suggestions, requests and offers of advice or mentoring during the arduous task of formalising our infrastructure.

Warmest regards,
Pavane Oliveiro
Director
Sangeet Australia:
Supporting Hindustani Music
www.sangeetaustralia.org

Powerspot 18 April 2007

2007-04-17T23:00:00.000+10:00

On tonight's show you either heard or you missed the following:

Ja Joosh (My Country) w/Rich Medina & Afrostreet- National Geographic GeoReMixes (www.calabashmusic.com)
John Brown's Body- Head & Heart / Full Control - CD Pressure Points (www.calabashmusic.com)
Nitin Sawhney- Beyond Skin- CD Beyond Skin (www.nitinsawhney.com)
Ojos De Brujo- Feedback remixed by Nitin Sawhney- National Geographic GeoReMixes (www.calabashmusic.com)
Bombay Dub Orchestra- Feel (Thievery Corporation Remix) CD Eden Global Chillout (www.calabashmusic.com)
Niyaz- In The Shadow of Life- CD Eden Global Chillout (www.calabashmusic.com)

Kim Sanders- Tanzara / Gidemem Raza Ben- CD Trance'n' Dancin (http://www.netspace.com.au/~kimsanders)

Jon Hassell- Open Secret- CD Maarifa Street (Happy 70th birthday Jon Hassell)
Amjad Ali Khan- Live - Ballarat Victoria
Ghazal- Eternity- CD The Rain

Kim Sanders gig news May 5 2007

2007-04-17T18:34:00.000+10:00

KIM SANDERS & FRIENDS first Sydney appearance with drummer Toby Hall
Following the band’s rapturously received performance at Peats Ridge Festival in December, Kim Sanders & Friends will perform for the first time in Sydney with drummer Toby Hall at Paddington Uniting Church on May 5.

The gig will include ethereal Sufi meditations, Bulgarian Gypsy grooves, bent Congolese pulsations, strange hypnotic originals and tunes of Middle-Eastern appearance.
“It was great playing with Toby at Peats”, says Kim. “ I love rhythms and drumming, and we have three drummers who rotate in the group now. Bobby Singh brings the subtlety and complexity of Indian Classical music, Peter Kennard is a superb colourist and a master of the frame drum, and now Toby takes the music to different places again with drum kit. He is a great improviser”
World Music veteran Kim Sanders has studied with Sufi ney-masters in Turkey, played with Gypsy wedding-bands in Macedonia, in mosquito-infested nightclubs in Gambia, seedy tavernas in Greece, concert-halls and recording studios in Turkey, China and Indonesia, not to mention Rooty Hill RSL. Saxophonist Sandy Evans, bassist Steve Elphick and drummer Toby Hall have built on their jazz roots to become three of Australia’s leading World Music exponents. Their strong improvisations have made their names familiar worldwide.

Kim Sanders: Ney (Sufi flute), kaval (Bulgarian wooden flute), Bulgarian and Turkish gaidas (bagpipes), aardvark, tenor sax
Sandy Evans: soprano, tenor sax
Steve Elphick: bass

Toby Hall: drums
8 pm, Saturday 5 May
Paddington Uniting Church
395 Oxford St, Paddington (Paddington Markets site)
Tickets on the door: $18/15 conc

For photos, interviews and other info: kimzgaida@hotmail.com

http://www.netspace.com.au/~kimsanders

Andy Palacio & Fat Boy Slim

2007-04-12T08:59:00.000+10:00

Fatboy Slim meets Andy Palacio & Garifuna Collective
Electronic beats combine with Afro-Caribbean soul as the British dance music star
visits Belize to record with local Garifuna musicians

April 11, 2007 –British dance music superstar Fatboy Slim visited Belize in early April to participate in a unique recording session that brought together European club grooves with the soulful rhythms and melodies of the local Afro-Caribbean Garifuna community.

Fatboy Slim, whose real name is Norman Cook, is a world-famous DJ whose records have sold millions of copies and whose award-winning music videos have set new standards for the medium. Andy Palacio is a Belizean musician who was born and raised in a small coastal village and whose critically acclaimed new album Wátina was recorded in a rustic thatch shack on the beach.
The unlikely pairing took place on the picturesque resort island of San Pedro, Belize during the last week of March. The musical experiments were inspired by Fatboy Slim’s fascination with Garifuna music. The Garifuna are a unique Central American culture that brings together elements of West African traditions with Indigenous Caribbean heritage. Their language reflects influences from West African and Caribbean Arawak languages. Garifuna music has a deeply African flavor and is played with traditional turtle shell percussion, gourd rattles and wooden drums, as well as contemporary instruments.

“We arrived here with no real songs, no real ideas. I came here with a CD with beats and bass sounds from England and about half an idea of what to do and over the last four days we've hung out with the local musicians, listened to what they do, tried to match the two and see what happens,” Fatboy Slim said of the sessions.

Working in the Mata Grande Recording Studio just north of San Pedro village, Fatboy Slim recorded members of the Garifuna Collective jamming on traditional Garifuna drums. Backup singers Cella Torres and Deseree Arana also provided vocals in the unique local style. Meanwhile, Andy Palacio wrote and sang a song for the sessions, and local spoken-word poet and dancehall singer the Grandmaster also made a guest appearance. Belizean music producer Ivan Duran of Stonetree Records was on hand to help with the interaction between technology and tradition.

The sessions resulted in three tracks that will be released by Fatboy Slim on his next album, possibly under another pseudonym, The Mighty Dub Katz. Fatboy Slim has also offered to remix some tracks from Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective album Wátina, which was released recently by Cumbancha and has been receiving critical accolades around the world.

For more information on Andy Palacio & the Garifuna Collective, please visit http://www.cumbancha.com/.

Happy Birthday Jon Hassell

2007-04-12T08:42:00.000+10:00

Echoes celebrates the 70th birthday of the great fourth world fusion trumpeter by dedicating a program to his music. Listen to it here. And happy birthday Jon. We love what you do.

We've just posted the audio of our 70th Birthday tribute to Jon Hassell on our myspace site @ www.myspace.com/echoesspaceJON HASSELL: A 70th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONAn unsung hero of techno-tribal music enters his 8th decade still blowingTrumpeter Jon Hassell's music roots go back to Karlheinz Stockhausen, Lamonte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music and playing on the first recording of Terry Riley's In C. He created the sound of Techno-Tribal music that was brought to popularity in collaborations with Brian Eno, and his distinctive trumpet sound has been adopted by musicians like Mark Isham. We look back on a musician who is still pushing the sonic envelope as he celebrated his 70th birthday on March 22 featuring interviews with Hassell, Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Robert Rich and Jeff Rona.Hear it on www.myspace.com/echoesspace

Happy birthday to the The Necks

2007-04-11T22:27:00.001+10:00

From Lloyd Swanton..

On Thursday 9th April, 1987 we gave our first public performance as The
Necks, to about 120 people at the Old Darlington School, Sydney University,
Australia. At that point, we had no idea that we'd end up touring the world,
and releasing albums world-wide to such acclaim.

Thank you to everyone everywhere who has come to our concerts, bought our
records, told us what our music means to them, presented us, worked with us,
played us on radio, interviewed us, reviewed us, written about us, put us up
in their homes, in fact supported us in any way over the last 20 years. It's
been an immense pleasure and we plan to be around for a lot longer yet.

All the best,

Chris Abrahams, Tony Buck, Lloyd Swanton - The Necks

www.thenecks.com

Playlist 11 April 2007

2007-04-11T21:54:00.000+10:00

Hi All

You either heard or missed the following on tonight's show.

Quite a few tracks from the World Circuit double disc World Circuit Presents, a disc which came out last year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the label. Mostly African and Cuban content,this is none the less a fantastic collection of tracks from a label which has recorded some of the most influential world music artists in the last two decades eg Afro Cuban All Stars, Ali Farka Toure, Buena Vista Social Club, Toumani Diabate and so much more.

One of the best releases in the last few months has been the third release by the group Tinariwen from Mali. This group of desert dwellers has a sound that is raw and honest, bluesy and in its own way very original. There are a lot of Algerian and Moroccan rhythms influences here but at its' heart is music which sings about the love of the desert and its people. I had been aware of them but had never really listened until this disc turned up. I'll definitely be following up on the other two releases. 10/10

From the Tinariwen press release...

The Tinariwen story is already well marinated in startling myths; fierce nomadic desert tribesmen toting guns and guitars, Ghadaffi's poet-soldiers spreading their gospel of freedom throughout the world, turbaned rock'n'roll troubadours, Stratocaster on one shoulder, Kalashnikov on the other, 17 bullet wounds and rawest desert blues on earth. All this fabulous imagery is the modern equivalent of the legends that have always stuck to Tinariwen's people, the nomadic Touareg of the southern Sahara; the noble desert warrior, the blue man, the lord of the desert, mysterious, secretive, covered from head to toe with eyes only bared to the world.

Like all myths, like all legends, there's plenty of truth mixed in there with the wild fantasy and wishful thinking. But the real story is deeper, richer, more engrossing, and more universal. In the desert oasis of Tamanrasset, southern Algeria, three aimless teenage friends in exile – Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Hassan Ag Touhami aka 'The Lion of the Desert' and Inteyeden - fall in love with the guitar, and with all the dreams of modernity and freedom that it embodies. They write songs about their own lives and about those of their friends, the modern Touareg youth, no longer lording over the desert on their camels, but living the clandestino life far from home, surviving by any means necessary, longing for friends and family, dreaming of retribution, of freedom, of self-determination. They are Kel Tinariwen, the 'desert boys'.

In the 1980s, all three become soldier-musicians, lured into military camps in Libya by Colonel Ghadaffi. Their songs become the soundtrack of a time and of a movement; the ishumar, the Sahara desert's Generation X. They fight a brief, painful rebellion against the government of Mali. They accept peace. They become full-time musicians and meet LoJo, a group of musical adventurers from Angers in France. They stage the first Festival in the Desert, visit Europe for the first time, release two albums including the award winning 'Amassakoul' and tour the world. This whole epic story takes 28 years to unfold.

And now the third album, 'Aman Iman: Water Is Life'. No difficulties here, apart from the 1,200-mile journey from their desert home in Kidal, north-eastern Mali, to the recording studio in the capital Bamako. Tinariwen simply delved into their seemingly inexhaustible trove of songs and dusted down 12 classics, which they worked up with the help of live sound engineer Jaja, producer Justin Adams (Robert Plant's guitarist and producer of the first Tinariwen CD 'Radio Tisdas Sessions') and recording engineer Ben Findlay. It only took ten days at Bogolan studios to nail them down and freeze frame the raw power and tenderness of modern desert blues at its best.

The whole Tinariwen story breathes through those twelve songs, beginning with the first Touareg rebellion of 1963, which lies at the root of so much pain and trauma in the Malian Touareg mindset and which is vividly recalled by Ibrahim in his brooding song 'Soixante Trois'. There are songs like the raw driving 'Cler Achel' or the banshee wailing 'Assouf', about exile and homesickness, longing and loss. There are calls for unity amongst the fractious Touareg clans, like the uplifting anthemic 'Matadjem Yinmixan' or the dubbed up 'Toumast'. There are 'Ahimana' and 'Awa Didjen', the loping ghostly trance-songs of Japonais, a poet of genius who hasn't worked with Tinariwen since 2002. And there are simple songs of love, both romantic love, as in 'Ikyadarh Dim', and that abiding love of their desert home which underpins everything about Tinariwen and finds haunting expression in 'Izarharh Tenere'.

So forget the myths, forget the 'guns-and-guitars' fantasies and tales of blue-men on their camels. The humanity, the wonder and the epic sweep of the real Tinariwen story doesn't need any photoshopping or romantic embellishments. It is the raw tale of an everyman, who was cut off from history and embraced the modern world, who lost his home and found solace in the guitar, who through pain and exile invented a new style of music that could express who he is and where he's going. Nothing mythical or exotic about that. You can find the same story the world over.

Tinariwen would like to dedicate 'Aman Iman' to "Peace, tolerance and development in the Sahara and in the world of the oppressed."

Backspin is a compilation of popular tracks remixed by some of the artists on Six Degrees Records. it's all about paying respect to the past by reinterpreting it, with an eye towards the future sound of the label. Lovely stuff. I don't like all of it but there's enough there to make me think it's a good addition to the label inventory.

From Six Degrees media release...

Six Degrees Records has spent the last ten years crossing musical borders. And to celebrate that milestone, the label looks ahead to the future by looking back, with a collection of surprising and distinctive covers: Backspin, a Six Degrees 10 Year Anniversary Project. Backspin features a dozen artists from the label's eclectic global roster, each presenting a new spin on an old favorite. Songs by Led Zeppelin, The Police, The Cure, and Pink Floyd, among others, are re-imagined by Six Degrees stalwarts including Karsh Kale, MIDIval PunditZ, Banco de Gaia, Ojos de Brujo, and more.

CHEIK LO- BOUL DI TAGAL- CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
A PALACIO- WATINA- CD WATINA
TINARIWEN- CLER ACHEL- CD AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE)
TINARIWEN- IMIDIWAN WINAKALIN- CD AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE)
TINARIWEN- IKYADARH DIM- CD AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE)
BELLEMOU MESSAOUD- RIRE ZARGA QUANA- *CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
OMARA PORTUONDO- FLOR DE AMOR- *CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
ORLANDO CACHAITO LOPEZ- TUMBANGA- *CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
SIERRA MAESTRO= JUANA PENA - *CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
TOUMANI DIABATE & SYMMETRIC ORCHESTRA- TAPHA NIANG- *CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS

A PALACIO- BABA- CD WATINA
AFRO CUBAN ALL STARS- AMOR VERDADORE- CD WORLD CIRCUIT PRESENTS
TINARIWEN- IZARHARH TENERE- CD AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE)
TINARIWEN- MATADJEM YINMIXAN- CD AMAN IMAN (WATER IS LIFE)
RACHID TAHA LIVE - ROCK THE CASBAH / YA RAYAH
BOMBAY DUB ORCHESTRA- GET CARTER REMIX- CD BACKSPIN (SIX DEGREES RECORDS)
OJOS DE BRUJO- GET UP STAND UP REMIX- CD BACKSPIN (SIX DEGREES RECORDS

Purbayan Chatterjee performance 13-14 April 07

2007-04-05T08:47:00.000+10:00

Sangeet Australia
Supporting Hindustani Music
presents

Internationally Renowned Sitar Virtuoso

Purbayan Chatterjee

Experience one of India’s most brilliant new musical stars
in the style of the great Pandit Nikhil Bannerjee.

with Bobby Singh on Tabla

…The notes flowed from Chatterjee’s sitar like a cascading waterfall…
Hindustani Times, Kolkata.

Fri. 13th April 8pm - Concert.
Sat. 14th April 2pm - Afternoon Raga and discussion.
A rare opportunity to meet the artist.

Sidetrack Theatre. Addison Road Centre. 142 Addison Rd Marrickville.
Free On-Site Carpark! Bus route 428 stops at entrance to the Centre.
Snacks available from 7:30pm. Assisted disabled access available.

Tickets at the door $25/$20con. Come early to avoid disappointment.
Special Sitar Pass for both 13th and 14th April $40/30con.
Family discounts available. Contact: 0416 352 900 www.sangeetaustralia.org

One of the year’s biggest Hindustani Music highlights!
Purbayan Chatterjee in concert.

A regular at major music festivals in India, USA and Europe, Purbayan has quickly established himself as one of India’s leading sitar players. In the company of the young Purbayan, many discover the magic of Pandit Nikhil Bannerjee. Breath taking virtuosity and emotional intensity are the hallmarks of his not to be missed performances. His performance in January this year with Zakir Hussain at the Kala Mandir in Kolkata in memory of the two greatest sitar players Nikhil Bannerjee and Vilayat Khan met with rave reviews. Purbayan began his musical training at the age of 4 from his father Shri Parthapratim Chatterjee a disciple of Pt. Nikhil Bannerjee and Ustad. Ali Akbar Khan. A versatile musician he is also involved in many highly successful collaborations with diverse musical forms. Purbayan has released many highly acclaimed recordings.

One of Australia’s finest tabla players, Bobby Singh is, again, accompanying Purbayan during his current tour of Australia, appearing at WOMAD, Adelaide. Bobby’s diverse musical experience and collaborations have made him a festival favourite and has brought him recognition around the country. He started learning tabla from an early age and later studied under the tutelage of internationally renowned tabla maestro Aneesh Pradhan.

About Sangeet Australia: Formed in 2004 we are an artist-run grass-roots organisation focused on fostering greater understanding and appreciation of this classical tradition of music from India. We produce a monthly series of high-quality acoustic soirees and various other activities, including larger concerts and workshops, supporting both local and international musicians.

To contact us regarding financial sponsorship, volunteering, offers of in-kind support, media enquiries, to join our mailing list, bookings or for more information call m. 0416352900 or email: pavane_oliveiro@yahoo.com.au

www.sangeetaustralia.org

Die Grosse Stille- a review of the film

2007-04-05T07:01:00.000+10:00

Die Grosse Stille, a film by German director Philip Groning, looks at life in a monastery, the Grande Chartreuse which is the mother house of the legendary Carthusian Order, based in the French Alps. It’s been shot over a period of 4 months and again over a period of seasons. The monks within the abbey have all taken a vow of silence as a means of serving their god. As such we never really get to know any of the converts in an intimate way as Groning himself takes the view of a silent observer.

During the course of this rather long film, clocking in at about 2 hours 46 minutes, we see the monks engaged in a cycle of silence, repetition and rhythm. Silence leads to a new heightened level of hearing in new ways, repetition creates insight, the monks create their own sense of rhythm on a daily basis through these repetitive actions. What is the concept of time like for someone who will never see the outside world again once they enter the walls of the abbey?

What we do get to see and experience though is a very stark and austere monastic lifestyle, one that most people will never really see or experience in their own lives.

The monk's lives are filled with long hours of prayers and contemplation, mostly in solitude in their cells where the sacred chant is repeated 7 times throughout the course of the day or working in various functions in order to maintain the day-to-day running of the abbey. After all, Food has to be cooked, clothes and shoes need to be mended or made, garden need to be tended.

Everything is dictated by the sound of a bell. The monks do not sleep a full night either. Instead they are allowed to sleep for a period of three hours, then spend two hours chanting or in turn reading the holy scriptures in the great hall of the abbey, and then are allowed to sleep again for three hours.

When you view the monks at work or at prayer you realize that everything is done with great care and dedication. Here nothing is wasted. When the monks die, clothes are recycled, pulled apart and reconstructed over and over for the new converts.

Groning approached the abbey 16 years ago with an idea about a film, but was only granted permission to go ahead with the 4 years ago. One wonders why? Is it possibly that the numbers are falling and this might be seen as a way to maybe boost the numbers? Who knows as we never really find out. Considering the order has been in existence for over a thousand years I doubt it. With this film, the only conditions imposed on Groning by the Grand Priory were that no artificial light, no music and no commentaries were to be offered.

The order recoginises that a life of solitude and silence can take its toll on the convert's state of mental wellbeing, so once a week on Sundays allows all a period of time to get together and speak only amongst themselves. What emerged for me was that these monks had a good sense of humor and a deep dedication to their cause.

This film is not going to be for everyone. It is slow and clocks in at 2 hours 46 minutes. This is not Baraka or Koyanisqatsi, there is no soundtrack by Phillip Glass. Patience and an open mind and heart are required with this project. Personally I found it very engaging though not life changing. This is a unique look at the lives of men who have in ways rejected modern society and gone back to a simpler monastic lifestyle in order to find themselves. Groning in a recent interview in the NY Times said that he “didn’t want to shoot a film that informs people about a monastery, but a film that transforms into a monastery. The film should become a monastery.” We may never again see into this unique way of life such.

POWERSPOT PLAYLIST 4 APRIL 07

2007-04-05T06:55:00.000+10:00

Tinariwen- CD Aman Iman (Water is Life)Filter Music 22
-Cler Achel / Mano Dayak / Ikyardah Dim

Racheal Cogan & Tony Lewis- CD Transience - Orpheus Music OM602 www.orpheusmusic.com.au
-Sufi Ilahi / Two Averi

Satsuki Odamura- CD Koto Dreaming- Orpheus Music OM701
www.orpheusmusic.com.au
- Makura

Kim Sanders with Peter Kennard- CD Trance'n'Dancin http://kimsanders.customer.netspace.net.au/
-Saba Taksim
-Saba Sez Semaisi

Kim Sanders & Friends- CD You Can't get There From Here
http://kimsanders.customer.netspace.net.au/
- Segah Saz Semai

Nadya's 101 Candles Orkestra- CD Crazy Moon
www.nadya.com.au
- Dis-Moi
- Mieux Que Parfait

Vulgargrad- CD Popular Street Songs of the Russian Underclass
- Why Did The Aborigines Eat Captain Cook?
- Vaninsky Port

Anthony Garcia- CD Malili Dreaming
www,anthonygarcia.com.au
- Malili Dreaming

Zulya & The Children of The Underground- CD 3 Nights
www.zulya.com.au
- How Lovers Fail & Fall
- The Wolf & The Moon

Eleni Karaindrou- CD Music for Films ECM 1429
- Farewell Theme
- Elegy for Rosa
- Fairytale

Playlist 21 February 2007

2007-02-28T08:39:00.000+11:00

On the show tonight, you either heard or you missed the following.

Nortec Collective- Bar Inferno- CD Tijuana Sessions Vol 3 (mp3 from www.calabashmusic.com)
Calexico- Guero Canelo- CD Ahora Yo A Ti una collecione de remixes pour Panoptica (Noarte Label)
Leigh Cline & Nikolas Michailidis- Tsambasin- CD Al Asha Bi Daha (www.scimitarmusic.com)
Rachel Cogan & Tony Lewis- Panjaneh / Houdetsanes Kontilies- CD Transience Contemporary Modal Music (www.orpheusmusic.com.au)
Ashok Roy- Rag Bilashkani- CD Master of the Sarod (Larrikin LRF 333)

Speaking with Kevin Crawford from Lunasa - 18 minute interview. Incidental music from Lunasa's CD Redwood. This interview can be downloaded for 30 days at this link.
www.savefile.com/files/507848

Nadya Golski- Papillon Noir- CD Nadyas 101 Candles Orkestra - private compilation (www.nadya.com.au)
Mariza- Primavera- CD Concerto em Lisboa (www.mariza.com)
Salif Keita- Moriba- Cd M'Bemba

Next week an interview with Sylvain Leroux from the NY based group Source, as well as Mexican diva Lila Downs.

Powerspot Playlist 14 February 2007

2007-02-14T17:37:00.000+11:00

On the show tomorrow night, sonic treats from the following. Hope that some of you may be able to tune in. We stream live via www.2ser.com from 1900 EST. I welcome and thank you in advance for any promotional material you might send in to be played on the show.

Judy Campbell's Mosaic with Bandika Ngao- CD Colours of Kenya
-Bandika's Song
-Meeting Point (www.maju.com for tour dates East Coast of Australia)

Various Artists- CD Midnight in Mali
-Artistes (www.calabashmusic.com mp3 download)

V/A Rough Guide To The Music of South Africa 2nd Edition
- MAHLATHINI and the MAHOTELLA QUEENS - Umuntu Ngumuntu
-CHICCO - Umagubane

Source- Tonight's African Jazz Band
-Magali
-Eva

Rachid Taha- CD Diwan 2
-Maydoum
-Ghanni Li Shwaya

Gotan Project- CD Lunatico
-Notas
-Mi Confesion

Astor Piazzolla- CD La Camorra
- Soledad

Anouar Brahem- CD Barrakh (ECM Records)
-Barrakh

Dino Saluzzi- Cite De La Musique (ECM Records)
-Winter

Local Live Music Information

Sangeet Australia presents
Direct from Calcutta in One Performance Only
DON'T MISS OUR VERY SPECIAL GUEST FROM INDIA

Mehfil Series: Recital Number One
CLASSICAL KHYAL VOCALIST
SUGATA MARJIT
with
BOBBY SINGH (Tabla)
SUKHI SINGH (Harmonium)

Friday 16th February 2007 7:30pm
(performance approx. 2 hours w. interval)

Reiby Hall Yoga Studio
37 Station St (off Enmore Rd)
Newtown

Mehfil Series: Recital Number Two
ADRIAN MCNEIL (Sarod)
PANDIT RAMCHANDRA SUMAN (Tabla)

Sunday 25th February 2007 3:30pm
(performance approx. 2 hours w. interval)
The Dickson Space
35-39 Dickson Street (off King St)
Newtown

Tickets at the door of each venue $20/$15con. (student/pensioner/unemployed)
Family discounts available. Refreshments available. Disabled access available at both venues.

SPECIAL TICKET OFFER!
SHOW YOUR TICKET FROM THE 16TH FEB TO RECEIVE $5 OFF YOUR TICKET ON 25TH FEB!!
With these mehfils (soirees) only 9 days apart we are offering this discount to encourage you to celebrate the beginning of our mehfil season for 2007 by indulging in both concerts for a taste of Vocal and Instrumental music.

For more info 0416 352 900 or www.sangeetaustralia.org

Powerspot Playlist 24 Jan 07

2007-01-24T08:47:00.000+11:00

Here's what's spinning on the CD player in Studio 1 tonight. Hope some of you can tune in and have a listen..

BOB MARLEY- CHEER UP- CD SOUL ALMIGHTY (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com)
BOB MARLEY- ALL IN ONE- CD SOUL ALMIGHTY (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com)
BOB MARLEY- CAUTION- CD SOUL ALMIGHTY (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com)
BOB MARLEY- LIVELY UP YOURSELF- CD SOUL ALMIGHTY (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com)
BOB MARLEY- NATURAL MYSTIC- CD SOUL ALMIGHTY (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com)

The Wailers- Dub Marley
Think of this as a little bit of reggae history. During breaks in the sessions for Rastaman Vibration, the Wailers (without Bob Marley) recorded ten of Marley's songs. The instrumental cuts and their dub versions saw very limited release in Jamaica in 1976. Why they were recorded is a mystery, but here they're reprised together.

**THE WAILERS- GET UP STAND UP DUB- CD DUB MARLEY (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com)
BOB MARLEY- GET UP STAND UP
THE WAILERS- I SHOT THE SHERIFF INSTRUMENTAL- CD DUB MARLEY (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com)
BOB MARLEY- I SHOT THE SHERIFF

**KEN LAZARUS- I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE- CD SKA DOWN JAMAICA (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com))
KEN LAZARUS- BEATLES GOT TO GO- CD SKA DOWN JAMAICA (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com)
MONTY MORRIS- INTO THIS BEAUTIFUL GARDEN-CD SKA DOWN JAMAICA (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com)

**BOB MARLEY- EXODUS
** THE WAILERS- SOUL REBEL DUB - CD DUB MARLEY (MP3 from www.calabashmusic.com)

Telek- Boystown
**Telek- Bunaik- CD Serious TAM (Real World)

"...A visionary reggae artist with a deeply spiritual side....his thin, reedy voice and potent lyrics cry out against injustice, while pointing the way to a better life." Dirty Linen (8-9/01, p.80) - "...Telek draws from his ancient culture...but combines it with a modern pop sensibility....an ingratiating sound and one that allows him to embrace global pop in a way that has never been done quite this way until now..."

Legend has it that, as a child, George Mamua Telek chewed a sacred betel nut, opening his dreams to his ancestors - and inspiring his amazing songs. Whatever its true source, this powerful and stirring music bespeaks the spirit and proud heritage of his tribal people, the Tolai of Papua New Guinea, yet dramatically transcends cultural borders with a lush, accessible sound that won a coveted Australian ARIA Award for Best World Music Album.

With the spacious production of David Bridie (of the Australian band Not Drowning Waving) and the collaboration of Australian Aboriginal artists Archie Roach and Kev Carmody, Telek forges a brilliant hybrid of world and pop music. Weaving ancestral drums (the hourglass-shaped kundu and the massive slit-log garamut) with lulling, tropical guitar and his island's unique "snaking" vocal harmonies - sung in the Tolai's Kuanuan language and a Creole called Tok Pigin - Telek's evocative songs combine such ancient elements of Tolai culture as midal (magic charms) and malira (love magic) with a pop sensibility influenced by the Beatles.

In England to record at Real World Studios, Telek's first stop after landing at Heathrow was to have his picture taken crossing Abbey Road. But despite his western influences and his national success throughout PNG and Australia, Telek remains deeply rooted in his native volcanic village of Raluana, on the Papua New Guinean island of New Britain.

Te Vaka- Nukutehe / Se Ma La Losa- CD Nukutehe
Te Vaka- Nukutehe

The Tokelau Islands of Polynesia are one of the tiniest nations on the planet. With just 1700 sprawled across ten square kilometres and no harbour or airport to speak of, the Island’s indigenous drum-driven rhythms and musical Tokelau language might have remained one of world music’s best kept secrets if it weren’t for the talent and savvy of ten-member group Te Vaka (the canoe). Founded by singer-songwriter Opetaia Foa’i in 1995 and based, along with 5,000 other Tokelauans, in Auckland, New Zealand, Te Vaka have won plaudits for their unique fusion of socially aware lyrics, modern instrumentation - guitars,
keyboards, flutes, even body percussion - and traditional Maori, Samoan and Tokelauan sounds. Their hi-energy live show - all grass skirts and giant log drums - has thrilled audiences everywhere from WOMAD Singapore to Ronnie Nukekehe the latest Album for Polynesian World Music group Te VakaScotts in London.

Nukukehe (Different land), their third album, is both a plea for environmental and social awareness and a celebration of Polynesian culture, featuring a series of rollicking, mellifluously voiced tracks, backed by soaring harmonies and featuring male and female chants. Standouts include ‘Alamagoto’ a joyous, timbale-fuelled paean to the Pacific; Sei ma le Losa’, a tribute to the late Greenpeace founder David McTaggert; and the sweetly swaying dance number Te Hiva’. Te Vaka say they aim do for Polynesian song and dance what Riverdance did for Irish music, which may or may not be a good thing. Either way, Nukukehe will certainly make people sit up and take notice.

**Rachid Taha- Agatha / Josephine- CD Diwan 2
**Bob Holroyd- Games without Frontiers / Re Awakening The Spirit- Cd Without Within (Six Degrees)

Bob Holroyd is a second-generation fourth-world musician. As if sitting in master control of the global village, he slides virtual tendrils across the world from his studio in England, transporting sounds into his computers and keyboards and deploying them across an electronic panorama that eschews big beats in favor of the polyrhythmic groove. On his fourth CD, Holroyd mixes and matches ethnic samples, including Koi San tribesman from the Kalahari desert on the exuberant "Looking Back" and a Chinese erhu in "The Spaces in Between." The album flows unpredictably as Holroyd enters deep space on "Dreams of Olduvai" and inserts highlife horn charts on "Rafiki." He is also a commercially savvy artist. He orchestrates a global groove cover of Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers," built around the criminally overlooked singer-songwriter Happy Rhodes, that could gain airplay--at least on a global radio of the imagination. --John Diliberto
Bob Holroyd's music explores the terrain where technological and primeval music intersect. Although realized in a London recording studio, Holroyd's fourth full-length collection, Without Within, features elements of Asian and African cultures flourishing within the rhythms and melodies. One of the tracks, titled "Dreams of Olduvai," evokes the African region holding the earliest evidence of human life. That reference could allude to the appeal of any given Bob Holroyd track, where the digital magic of his recording studio enables the musically articulate Englishman to summon visions of lost worlds. Remarkably, his primordial songs and soundscapes play equally well in dance clubs or in a place like the edge of the Olduvai Gorge echoing both man's earliest musical aspirations and his most recent inventions.

Without Within achieves a status all too rare among contemporary electronic-abetted music, in that it avoids categorization. While quick to praise the efforts of other forward-looking artists whose work encompasses both primordial and digital cultures, Holroyd has long ago left his influences behind and carved his own musical path. His musical signature - sinuous melodies unfolding atop polyrhythms that function as Morse Code for the Id - is best described by a track title from Without Within: "The Space Between."

1 Giant Leap- Money- Audio extract from the DVD 1 Giant Leap (www.1giantleap.tv)

Powerspot Playlist 17 Jan 07

2007-01-17T09:10:00.000+11:00

Jon Hassell- Map of Dusk / Myths 3 La Nouvelle Serenite Sub Rosa 005

a striking experimental piece entitled ‘Map of Dusk’, made up of what sounds like quickly struck marimba, organ and flute, all blended into a dense foggy soup of atmospheric sound. The piece was recorded in 1985 and was performed with J.A Deane, offering a good glimpse into the work of an intriguing artist who has worked with David Sylvian, Terry Riley, Bjork, David Toop and many others.

Hariprasad Chaurasia with Shib Sankar Ray- Shivranjani Dhun- CD Four Dhuns - Nimbus NI 5527

Dhuns originate in the songs and melodies of rural India. They are often performed as relaxation pieces at the end of a classical Indian music concert. Although located in a raga framework, the rules for melodic movement are not as strict as in the pure classical approach. They are sometimes described as 'light' or 'semi-classical', yet these imported western terms seem unable to do justice to the profound expression and sensuousness which a great musician such as Chaurasia, drawing on a seemingly inexhaustible well of musical experience, can bring to these tunes.

Shakti- Shringar-Remember Shakti- Saturday Night in Bombay- Verve Catalog #4400141642

Guitarist John McLaughlin is one of the true legends of modern jazz. On Saturday Night in Bombay, two distinct musical genres, traditional jazz and Indian classical music are fused together to form a powerfully energetic record. Saturday Night in Bombay features the current touring version of McLaughlin's Indian/Western improvisational quartet, which includes Zakir Hussain, U. Shrinivas, and V. Selvaganesh-Remember Shakti.

A simple look at the map shows that the capital of Maharashtra is where north meets south, a rendezvous that John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain couldn't fail to keep. So it was there, in front of a crowd of initiates or newly-converted, that the friends of more than thirty years closed this new chapter of their awesome reunion after a tour of the music planet that had seen them drift deliriously from continent to continent making this a truly monumental recording.

Leigh Cline & Nikolas Michailidis- Tsambasim / Enan Astren Ekseven - AL ASHA BI DAHA TRADITIONAL SONGS OF THE EASTERN BLACK SEAS (www.scimitarmusic.com)

The title is a traditional Black Sea call for flagging dancers to rejoin the circle: one more
time! Canadian multi-instrumentalist Leigh Cline is rightly respected for his work in
Greek and Turkish traditions, and here he teams up with Greek vocalist Nikolas
Michailidis for a set of 16 pieces from the Turkey/Georgia border.

Available via the Scimitar website at www.scimitarmusic.com or also from www.leighcline.com

Ojos de Brujo- Nana- Techari
various tracks

Based around the rousing flamenco guitar work of Ramon Gimenez and the thoughtful vocals of Marina "la Canillas" Abad, Ojos De Brujo are one of the leading exponents of the new, globally influenced Spanish pop movement.
Special guests include Faada Freddy from Senegalese hip hop collective Daara J, Asian Dub Foundation's Prithpal Rajput, and Nitin Sawhney, South Indian fusion artist and British TV star (who returned the favor after ODB collaborated on two tracks for his album Philtre).
Cuban pianist Roberto Carcassés also makes an appearance alongside respected flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela, and Cuban tres/flamenco guitar player Raúl Rodríguez from Son de la Frontera.

Ryuichi Sakamoto / Richard Horowitz ao
Soundtrack to Sheltering Sky
Loneliness / The Sheltering Sky Theme / Marnia's Tent / Croulov Limma / Sheltering Sky Soundtrack- Virgin Records 2-91597

Powerspot Playlist 10 Jan 07

2007-01-10T08:07:00.000+11:00

Dear All,

On the show tonight musical selections from the following CD's. The show broadcasts from 6.30pm till 8.30pm Sydney time. Hope some of you can tune in and have a listen.

Artists / CD / Track / Label

Rachel Cogan & Tony Lewis- Transience-For Fardin / Panjaneh- Orpheus Music OM 602 (www.orpheusmusic.com.au)

Pepe Habichuela- A Mandeli-Tracks Guadiana / Boabdil / Resuene- Hannibal Records HNCD 1315

Gerardo Nunez- Calima -Tracks Sancti Petri / Tabaco Y Oro- Alula ALU 1007

Ali Farka Toure- Savane-Tracks Yer Bounda Fara / Savane- World Circuit CD 075 (www.worldcircuit.co.uk)

Various Artists- Electric Gypsyland 2

Balkan Beat Box- remix of Mahala Rai Banda's Red Bula
DJ Click- remix of Mahala Rai Banda's Romano
DanceSmadj- remix of Kocani Orkestar Mi Bori San Korani Crammed Disc CRAW 37-P (www.crammed.be)

Duoud with Abdulatif Yagoub- SAKAT
Mal Agfani / Wa Raeiah Label Bleu LBLC 2598 (www.labelbleu.com)

DJ Cheb I Sabbah- Krishna Lila
Marajanima / Govinda- Six Degrees Records (www.sixdegreesrecords.com)

Ravikiran & Jayanthi- The Lotus Garden- South Indian Classical Music
Kanjadalayatakshi / Parihachakama- Latisphere LAT1015

Ghazal- As Night Falls On The Silk RoadMy Eyes My Heart- Shanachie Label 66011

Necks News

2007-01-10T08:01:00.000+11:00

Just a reminder that The Necks commence their 2007 tour with dates in Melbourne and Sydney next week. Seats are selling fast, so don't delay

JANUARY Monday 8th to Wednesday 10th:

MELBOURNE

Corner Hotel Tix $25 (+$2 booking fee), door price: $28 (if available), doors open 8.30 Corner Box Office (57 Swan St Richmond 12-8 Mon-Sat), phone bookings 9427 9198, online bookings www.cornerhotel.com

Saturday 13th to Tuesday 16th:

SYDNEY,

Sydney Festival, The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North Tix $35 (+ $3.20 booking fee), doors open 7:00 bookings 1300 888 412 www.sydneyfestival.org.au or Moshtix www.moshtix.com.au tel 02 9209 4614

You can buy all The Necks' albums online at www.thenecks.com

POWERSPOT PLAYLIST 3 JAN 07

2007-01-03T16:32:00.000+11:00

1-4 intros

5 Azam Ali- Spring Arrives- CD Elysium for the Brave **

In a career which spans over a decade and includes eight collaborative and solo albums, Azam Ali has confirmed her place as one of the most prolific, versatile, and gifted singers on the world music stage today.

Her dedication to defying cultural specificity in music, and her unwillingness to settle into one form of musical expression have earned her the respect of both her peers and critics worldwide. When one looks at her entire body of work, it is hard to deny Azam her rightful place among the best singers and composers in music
today.

Helping to seamlessly bring all of these diverse sounds together are a talented cast of musicians which includes King Crimson’s rhythm section of Trey Gunn and Pat Mastellotto, Persian classical violinist Kiavash Nourai, and noted film composers Tyler Bates and Jeff Rona, the latter of whom is known for his collaborations with Dead Can Dance. Loga Ramin Torkian and Carmen Rizzo, Azam’s collaborators in her latest musical venture, Niyaz, have also lent their talents to this project. Released on Six Degrees Records, Niyaz’ debut blends ancient Persian and Urdu Sufi poetry, rich acoustic instrumentation, and modern electronics.

Their CD has been hailed by critics worldwide as one of the most groundbreaking of its time. The album charted on Billboard's world music chart for four consecutive weeks, peaking at #12. Niyaz also entered WMCE, the World Music Charts of Europe, at #76 and was the only Iranian group whose CD made it into the top 150 of the best albums of 2005 .

Azam is internationally recognized for her work with Vas, the critically acclaimed, best selling, world music duo she co-founded in 1996 with percussionist Greg Ellis. From 1997- 2004 Vas released four albums on the Narada label. Their music, which they described as "alternative world," focused mainly on the ancient
relationship between the drum and voice. Their distinct cinematic sound blended influences of Indian, Persian, Western and other musical styles into a unique configuration that transcended categorization and cultural specificity. Though in their early days Vas drew many comparisons to Dead Can Dance, they patiently surpassed that comparison with each album they released, earning them their place in the musical hierarchy of bands whose innovation set a standard for others to aspire to.

In 2002 Azam released her first self produced highly successful solo album, Portals of Grace, which featured her singing renditions of ancient Western European medieval songs. Billboard described this album by saying, “It's unlikely that this year will bring a more spellbinding vocal album than Portals of Grace.” Azam’s exceptional voice and emotive performances on this album earned her much critical acclaim and once and for all solidified her place as a highly respected singer in the World music scene.

Azam Ali, who currently resides in Los Angeles, was born in Tehran, Iran and grew up in India from the age of four in the small town of Panchgani, a beautiful hill station in the state of Maharashtra. There she attended an international co-educational boarding school for eleven years, all the while absorbing India's rich music and culture throughout her formative years. The course Azam would eventually choose in her life would be very much influenced by her fortuitous upbringing in a school which emphasized the importance of the arts and spirituality, and aimed through moral and academic excellence, to produce promoters of social transformation imbued with the spirit of service to mankind. It is this objective that would take shape in Azam's music in the coming years. The Iranian revolution of 1979 changed the course of Azam's life as it did for many other Iranians. Unwilling to bring her daughter back to a country filled with uncertainty, her mother decided to give up her home, and together they moved to America in 1985 when Azam was just a teenager.

Shortly after moving to the United States, Azam fell in love with the Persian santour (hammered dulcimer) and it became clear to Azam that she wanted to pursue a career in music. Though she had an innate gift for singing since she was a child and sang often at home and school functions, Azam had no particular interest in becoming a vocalist. She had her heart set on becoming an instrumentalist and so began studying the santour under the guidance of Persian master Manoocher Sadeghi, During the eight years of her extensive studies with Ustad Sadeghi in which she became an accomplished hammered dulcimer player, Azam began to realize that she was unable to express the full range of emotions she experienced through her instrument. It was during one of these lessons that her teacher heard her sing for the first time.

Completely taken, he told her that her voice had a rare emotional quality about it which should be cultivated and nurtured. It was through his encouragement that Azam began to explore her voice as the vehicle through which she would
finally be able to fully express herself, a voice which Billboard magazine would later describe as, "a glorious unforgettable instrument."

While pursuing formal training in various vocal traditions like Western classical, Indian, Persian, and Eastern European, Azam's true passion has been to explore the immense potential of the human voice, specifically its capability to transcend language, cultural, and spiritual barriers when expressing pure emotion. When asked about her approach to singing Azam explains, "What intrigues me most about the human voice, is its ability to make all things transparent through its power of transformation. The voice is not just a conduit for words. For me it is like an abstract dream in which everything makes perfect sense."

"I am pertinacious in my need to expand. By nature, I am not one who can physically remain in one place for too long. I imagine that is the case because I have been transplanted enough times in my life that I am well aware of the influence the external environment has on the inner one, and how that can affect perception. So naturally, my music is going to reflect this inability to remain static, and this inability to identify myself with just one specific culture. I think of all the different music that I have done and will continue to do almost as photographs of my evolution, and just like photographs, in some I may look great and in some I may not.

What matters to me is that I risk, I, trust, I strive, and let things unfold as they may." Azam's immense talent and ability to adapt her voice to any musical style have drawn the attention of many diverse artists and film composers. Azam has collaborated in the studio and on stage with numerous artists like Serj Tankian of System of a Down, The Crystal Method, Pat Mastellato and Trey Gunn of King Crimson, Dredg, Chris Vrenna formerly of Nine Inch Nails, Ben Watkins of Juno Reactor, Buckethead, Steve Stevens, film composer Tyler Bates, Mercan Dede, the world renowned Japanese group Kodo, Zakir Hussain, Omar Faruk
Tekbilek, and Mickey Hart with whom she also toured for two years as a lead singer in his group Bembe Orisha.

Azam's distinctive voice can also be heard on myriad film and television scores among which include “Matrix Revolutions,” “Godsend,” “Papparazi,” the upcoming major motion picture 300, Children of Dune, Earthsea, Dawn of the Dead, Alias, and The Agency.

Elysium for the Brave, Azam's second solo album, signals a new turn in her musical evolution. The album, her most ambitious work to date, brings together musicians from varied musical backgrounds performing in diverse permutations. Singing predominantly in English for the first time, the songs are based on lyrics written by Azam herself and reveal a poetic lyricism heard only in glimpses of her previous works.

From the new CD’s opening track, “Endless Reverie,” it becomes immediately apparent that Ali has moved into new and exciting sonic territory. The frame drum pulse is familiar but the percolating synthesizer textures and haunting vocals sung in English take the song into a darkly beautiful place that exists between the worlds of electronic rock and global fusion. This fascinating terrain is also occupied by the tracks, “In Other Worlds,” and ”Forty One Ways.” While impeccable electronics and programming abound on Elysium for the Brave, they are balanced throughout the CD with traditional instrumentation. The gorgeous oud and hand drums which propel “Spring Arrives” and the insistent ney flute which lends a haunting quality to “In this Divide” are brilliant examples of how organic and electronic instrumentation can beautifully co-exist. In fact, despite the mix of ancient and modern instrumentation, Elysium for the Brave is a highly coherent body of work that weaves together all of Azam's cultural and musical influences into a tapestry of atmospheric rock, electronic, and global sounds.

6 Azam Ali- I Am A Stranger In This World
7 Azam Ali- Abpde **

Eden is a new compilation from Six Degrees Records that focuses on the "deeper" end of music from around the world. Featuring Cheb i Sabbah, Niyaz, the MIDIval PunditZ (featuring Anoushka Shankar), Karsh Kale, Bombay Dub Orchestra and others.

8 In The Shadow of Life w/ Niyaz
9 Rebirth w/ Midival Punditz
10 Beautiful w/ Karsh Kale
11 Desert Drive w/ Euphoria **

National Geographic GeoReMixes
Close Window

National Geographic GeoReMixes Recently, National Geographic World Music approached some of our favorite world music artists and asked if they had any new music or unheard remixes they wanted to share with our audience.

The response was overwhelming, and included contributions from some of the most cutting-edge artists working in world music today. From New York's Antibalas and Barcelona's Ojos de Brujo to Tijuana's Nortec Collective and London's Bombay Dub Orchestra, this project pulls together the most progressive and forward thinking artists of the new century.

The result was a baker's dozen of 13 exclusive new tracks from 12 amazing artists that just may change the way you think about world music.

Recently, NGWM approached some of our favorite world music artists and asked if they had any new music or unheard remixes they wanted to share with our audience.

The response was overwhelming, and included contributions from some of the most cutting-edge artists working in world music today. From New York's Antibalas and Barcelona's Ojos de Brujo to Tijuana's Nortec Collective and London's Bombay Dub Orchestra, this project pulls together the most progressive and forward thinking artists of the new century.

The result was a baker's dozen of 13 exclusive new tracks from 12 amazing artists that just may change the way you think about world music.

Ska Cubano: "No Me Desperes (The Sea Remix)"

Remixed by: The Sea The original Colombian cumbia bands went out of business because they had too many musicians and were hugely expensive. Anglo-Cuban outfit Ska Cubano (pictured) reimagines these big bands with a ska twist on the huge, melodramatic "No Me Desperes," where a massive rhythm section meets squawking, honking, screaming brass, and wild clarinets.

Antibalas: "Ja Joosh/ My Country" (AfroStreet Remix)

Remixed by: AfroStreet New York artists Antibalas and Rich Medina team up to create a cool but defiant commentary on the current political situation. This is a departure from classic Nigerian Afrobeat. Here Antibalas draws inspiration from the golden age of Ethiopian pop of the late '60s and early '70s popularized by musicians such as Mahmoud Ahmed, Mulatu Astatqe, Alemayehu Eshete, and others. The track revisits the times when socially conscious music was on the airwaves, stages and tongues of party people around the world.

Karsh Kale: "Manifest" (Kaushik Ambient Remix)

Remixed by: Kaushik On has latest album Broken English, London-born and New York-raised Karsh Kale balances his Indian heritage with rock 'n' roll, hip hop and atmospheric pop for his most diverse release to date. The original opening track on Broken English, "Manifest," immediately claims the album's musical territories, MC Napoleon raps while Vishal Vaid sings, and their bilingual interplay is echoed by the programmed sounds of Western drums and the dhol drum. Kaushik's Ambient remix echoes a more spaced out ethereal vibe, while maintaining all of the original sensibilities.

Nortec Collective: "Tengo La Voz" (Karsh Kale Remix)

Remixed by: Karsh Kale South Asian DJ Karsh Kale remixes Tijuana electronica leaders Nortec Collective on this unique interpretion of "Tengo La Voz" ("I Have the Voice"). Nortec made a splash in 2000 with a critically-acclaimed debut that turned traditional notions of Mexican music upside down.

Los Amigos Invisibles: "Yo No Se" (DJ Afro's Edit)

Remixed by: DJ Afro Originally a techno merengue by Diviana, "Yo No Se" has now been transformed into a super smooth house track with Los Amigos Invisibles and DJ Afro's remix. The album version of this song appears on Los Amigos Invisibles' latest album, SuperPop Venezuela, and is an homage to the Venezuelan artists and songs that have most influenced the double Latin Grammy nominees. Produced by famed DJ Dimitri From Paris, the fifth Los Amigos Invisibles album sees the band bring their distinctive sound to reverential and decidedly fun interpretations of Venezuelan songs that "provided the soundtrack to our adolescence and early adult life," explains guitarist José Luis Pardo.

Yerba Buena: "Fever" (Blaze Remix)

Remixed by: Blaze Helmed by producer/bandleader Andres Levin, Yerba Buena's Grammy-nominated debut album was widely hailed with both serious critical acclaim and breathless praise from the dance floor. Now, Levin and the members of the Yerba Buena caravan are set to delve even further into the evolving multicultural musical fusion of bilingual New York.

Ex-Centric Sound System: "Mara" (Remater 0.1)

Remixed by: Yossi Fine Living in Israel at the time, Yossi Fine's experimentation with dubbing Ethiopian music into a hip hop beat in the mid '90s made a big mark on his musical direction, but never made it out on a record. Until now. "Mara", which is a greeting chant similar to a village welcome, is combined with a masengo (one-stringed violin) solo in this hip new remix from Ex-Centric Sound System's founding member.

Bombay Dub Orchestra: "Compassion" (Earth Mix)

Remixed by: Adam Lamprell The Bombay Dub Orchestra is the brainchild of two English musicians, Andrew T. Mackay and Garry Hughes, who wanted to combine electronic sessions recorded in the UK with orchestral sessions recorded in Bombay India. On their self-titled debut, the duo recorded with the cream of Bombay's Indian classical music scene. Here, their lush brand of South Asian orchestral electronica gets the remix treatment from Adam Lamprell. Mid-tempo trip-hop propels a rich tapestry of orchestral strings in "Compassion," with occasional wisps of Indian and Western instruments and subtle hints of '60s cinema.

Charanga Cakewalk: "El Ballad de Jose Campos" (2 Vatos Remix)

Remixed by: Michael Ramos Recorded at The Cumbia Lounge in West Austin, this previously all-instrumental piece is a look back at a 1976 incident in Houston where a Mexican youth was picked up by the police, beaten, handcuffed, and thrown off of a bridge into a bayou, where he drowned. The officers were charged, fined one dollar and put on probation. This track is a reflection on what might have become of Jose Campos Torres had he not been killed so recklessly.

Smadj: "Rouge-Violet" (Smadj Remix)

Remixed live by: Smadj "Rouge-Violet" was a part of Smadj's third album, Take It and Drive. Performing with different teams of musicians including Laurent de Wilde, Cheick Tidjane Seck, Malik Mezzadri, Dierdre Dubois, Peirre Fruchard, Artkonik, Dom Farkas, and Rokia Traoré, Smadj would play the same repertoire but in a different way each time depending on the team he worked with. Improvisation with electronica was the goal of these meetings, playing the computer like an instrument, pushing them in one direction or another to create a new universe around them.

Eccodek: "Juju in This Dub"

Remixed by: Eccodeck "Juju in This Dub" features the vocals of Nigerian Bamidele Bajowa and the gorgeous kora playing of Malian griot Mansa Sissoko. The whole performance is sewn together by the multi-instrumentalist and producer Andrew McPherson. His textured keyboard parts and thick, reggae-influenced bass grooves set up a foundation on which both Mansa and Bamidele confidently work their magic. Together the three join hands to create a dub-inflected cross cultural postcard.

Nortec Collective: "Olvidela Compa"

Remixed by: Rosco The already chilled-out Nortec Collective track "Olvidela Compa" ("Forget About It, Brother") takes an even more laid-back turn on this bass-heavy remix by Mexico City electronic act Rosco.

Ojos de Brujo: "Feedback" (Nitin Sawhney Remix)

Remixed by: Nitin Sawhney Among the 14 tracks on Barcelona-based band Ojos de Brujo's latest release, Techarí, is "Feedback," a composition built around one of the most exciting rhythms particular to Flamenco music: the bulería. The remix track is a unique collaboration with the innovative London-based Asian artist Nitin Sawhney, and features various musical influences and instruments from India, the Middle East, and Spain. All are woven around Marina Abad's flamboyant style of flamenco singing.

12 Smudge- Rouge Violet
13 Bombay Dub Orchestra - Adam Lamprell's Earth Mix of Compassion
14 Ojos de Brujo- Feedback remixed by Nitin Sawhney

15 daniel lanois id
16 Ska Cubano- No Me Desesperes (The Sea Remix)
17 Los Amigos Invisibles- Yo No Se (DJ Afro's Edit)
18 Yerba Buena- Fever Remix
19 Nitin Sawhney id
20 Antibalas - Ja Joosh (My Country) w/Rich Medina & Afrostreet
21 Charanga Cakewalk- El Ballad De Jose Campos Torres 2 Vatos Remix
22 ecodek- Juju In Those Strings (Shivaboom Mix)
23 Karsh Kale- Manifest (Kaushik Ambient Remix)
24 Ex Centric Sound System- Marra (Yossi Fine Primal Remix
25 Niyaz- Dilruba- Traveller 06 compilation

Powerspot 20 December 06

2006-12-20T16:21:00.000+11:00

Tomorrow night's show features some of those discs which I thought were my highlights for the year (or ones which gave me great pleasure to listen to at any time) , and not necessarily released in 2006. At time of writing this is what I am bringing into the studio and not necessarily playing in the same order.

Kim Sanders & Peter Kennard- Trance'n'Dancin
Emmanuel Jal & Abdel Gadir Salim- Ceasefire
Rachid Taha- Diwan 2
Spirit of Mambesak- Black Paradise
V/A- Traveler 06 (Six Degrees Records)
Duoud- Sakat
Richard Khuzami- Fused
Ali Farka Toure- Savane
Papua New Guinea Stringbands with Bob Brozman- Songs of the Volcano
Karsh Kale- Broken English
Te Vaka - Tutuki
Source- Tonight's African Jazz Band
V/A- One World Many Cultures
Ba Cissoko- Electric Griot Land
Idan Raichel Project

If we have time some live work from Trilok Gurtu and Nils Petter Molvaer
Jazzbaltica Salzau, 2. Juli 2005. Details below.

Radio Broadcast 14. Oktober 2005 DLF Deutschlandradio
Trilok Gurtu Group
Trilok Gurtu - Perkussion
Nicolas Fiszman - Gitarre, E-Bass
Lars Danielsson - Violoncello, Kontrabass
Nils Petter Molvaer - Trompete
Mike Lindup - Piano, el. Tasteninstrumente

Lastly let me wish each and every one of you a wonderful Christmas and a happy, prosperous and musical 2007.

Powerspot 12 December 2006

2006-12-13T16:55:00.000+11:00

Tonight's show has musical contributions from the following (and in no particular order at time of writing)

U Srinvas & Michael Brook- CD Dream (Real World)
V/A- Arabian Travels 2 (Six Degrees Records)
Bill Laswell- Hear No Evil Remixes
Shakti- CD Remember Shakti
Ba Cissoko- Electric Griot Land
Dhafer Yussef- CD Digital Prophecy (Enja)
Idan Raichel Project- CD Idan Raichel Project
Aneesh Pradhan- CD Tabla the solo tradition
Source- CD Tonight's African Jazz Band

Nadya's 101 Candle Orkestra- CD Crazy Moon
V/A- CD Turkish Groove (Putumayo)
V/A- CD Goddess Divine Energy (Celestial Harmonies)

The Necks Tour Dates

2006-12-13T16:54:00.000+11:00

OZ TOUR DATES ANNOUNCED:
The Necks have announced the following Australian tour dates for January -
February 2007:
JANUARY
Monday 8th to Wednesday 10th:
MELBOURNE, Corner Hotel
Tix $25 (+$2 booking fee), door price: $28 (if available), doors open 8.30
Corner Box Office (57 Swan St Richmond 12-8 Mon-Sat), phone bookings 9427
9198, online bookings www.cornerhotel.com
Saturday 13th to Tuesday 16th:
SYDNEY, Sydney Festival, The Famous Spiegeltent, Hyde Park North
Tix $35 (+ $3.20 booking fee), doors open 7:00 bookings 1300 888 412
www.sydneyfestival.org.au or Moshtix www.moshtix.com.au tel 02 9209 4614
FEBRUARY
Friday 16th:
CAIRNS, Tanks Art Centre
bookings www.ticketlink.com.au 07 4031 9555 doors open 7:00
Saturday 17th:
BRISBANE, Judith Wright Centre Of Contemporary Art
bookings (07) 3872 9000 www.jwcoca.qld.gov.au
Sunday 18th:
BYRON BAY, Cultural and Community Centre
02 6685 5659 www.heartofbyron.org.au

Powerspot 29 November 2006

2006-11-29T11:50:00.000+11:00

Tabla master Talvin Singh will be DJ'ing on Saturday night at The Factory, a new music venue over in Enmore. I hope he pulls his tablas out at some stage and plays along but somehow I doubt it. Anyhow, tonight's show is top heavy with tabla masters of one sort or another. Selected tracks from the following, and in no particular order of play at time of writing

Bobby Singh- CD Random Factors
Trilok Gurtu- CD Remembrance
Karsh Kale- Cd Realize
Tabla Beat Science- Karsh Kale / Talvin Singh / Zakhir Hussain- Tala Matrix
Talvin Singh- CD Ha
Talvin Singh- CD OK
Colin Walcott- / John Abercrombie / Dave Holland / Jack de Johnette- CD Cloud Dance

Also music by Nadya's 101 Candles Orchestra. They have a gig coming up this week- details below.

Saturday 2nd DecemberPaddington RSL226 Oxford Street Paddington 2021 NSW
Show starts 7.30pmTickets $25, concessions $15.
For bookings phone Rafal, on 0415 490 102.Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door.

Just returned back from touring Hungary Poland and France, NADYA’S 101 CANDLES ORKESTRA will perform at the Paddington RSL for one night only! Don’t miss this romantic evening of Eastern European romance and French Chanson lead by world music diva Nadya Golski. Join her and her fabulous band on the 2nd of December at the Paddington RSL. They will be supported by the fantastic UNDER FIRE GUITARS, Django Reinhardt meets Carlos Jobim in a passionate ensemble of Latin American and Balkan guitars. Part/proceeds go to Father Isaac’s homeless people’s charity.

Sunday 31st December Ignite 2007 with a wild and romantic nite as the the Candles serenade and thrill your senses.@ master blacksmith Francesco Petrolo’s enchanted ForgeNew Years EveUnder the Stars and IndoorsCandles @ Francesco’s ForgeNadya’s 101 Candles Orkestra live @ blacksmith’s forge! From 8pm till all night long.Kids welcomeGypsy DJPerformances from special guestsMeditteranean and Balkan BanquetBYO$50 per person $30 concession

Sculpt your own memento of 2006Gypsy and Eastern European film screenings in other roomBarrista making great coffee all niteChill Out room for Mum’s and kidsPlenty of on street parkingAt home atmosphereCall Mr Dabrowski 0415490102Email lucy@nadya.com.au

Please join Sangeet Australia for the final recital for 2006. Introducing to our Mehfil series Sarangan Sriranganathan on Sitar.

SANGEET AUSTRALIA:
Supporting Hindustani Music

presents

SARANGAN SRIRANGANATHAN - sitar

BOBBY SINGH - tabla

SUNDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2:30PM
THE DICKSON SPACE
35-39 DICKSON STREET NEWTOWN
TICKETS AT THE DOOR $15/12 con

Family discounts available. Wheelchair access available. On street parking. Enter via King Street. Short walk from Newtown train station or bus route 422 from Railway Square.

Performance approximately two hours with interval. Light refreshments available.

EXPERIENCE ACOUSTIC CLASSICAL MUSIC FROM INDIA

SOUL STIRRING AND PASSIONATE RAGAS IN A TRADITIONAL AND INTIMATE SOIREE SETTING.

About the Artists:

Sarangan Sriranganathan is a well known, award winning accomplished singer and musician from Sri Lanka who now resides in Sydney. The sitar is one of his many achievments. His recent concerts include The Commonwealth Games Festival and Womadelaide. More Information on www.sarangan.net

Bobby Singh is a much loved fixture in the Australian music scene performing extensively both locally and overseas. Increasingly he is exploring multiple fusion line-ups but trained rigourously as a classical musician under the tutelage of Aneesh Pradhan.

Powerspot Playlist 8-11-06

2006-11-08T08:58:00.000+11:00

Hi All
On the show tonight tracks from the following releases (and in no particular order of play at time of writing)

The Idan Raichel Project- CD The Idan Raichel Project-
Various Arists- World Circuit Presents.....
Te Vaka- CD Te Vaka
Sidi Mansour- Rimitti
Various Artists- Congotronics 2 Buzz N' Rumble From The Urban Jungle
Debashish Bhattacharya- Calcutta Slide Guitar
Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra- CD Boulevarde de L'Independance
Ali Farka Toure- CD Savane
Duoud- CD Sakat
Pt. Premkumar Mallik- In Praise of the Goddess- Devotional Songs from North India (Celestial Harmonies)
Music from India- Goddess Divine Energy (Celestial Harmonies)
Takashi Hirayasu & Bob brozman- Nankuru Naisa
The Newtown Festival will be happening this Sunday. I'll be manning the 2SER stall from 10am and then doing a set on the 2SER stage from 1100 onwards. It should be a fun day for all.
Check out the website for more info...http://www.newtowncentre.org/festival/

Regards, and hope that some of you will tune in and listen.

Joseph Tawadros performance 15-11-2006

2006-10-29T20:49:00.000+11:00

2006 Freedman Fellowship Winner Oud Virtuoso
JOSEPH TAWADROS LIVE IN CONCERT
with Special Guests JAMES TAWADROS (Req) and BEN RODGERS (Bass)
WHEN: Wednesday, 15th November, 2006 - 8pm
WHERE: Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium Of Music
ADDRESS: Macquarie St, Sydney
TICKETS: $25 Full / $20 Concession
BOOKINGS : email - joe@josephtawadros.com - www.josephtawadros.com

2SER Radiothon information

2006-10-25T16:53:00.000+10:00

2ser Radiothon: Support a Higher Frequency
October 20 -27
2ser kicked off their annual Radiothon today, celebrating the importance of independent media.
“ Supporting independent media is more important than ever” explains Tanya Stephenson, 2ser
Marketing and Development Manager.
“As we have already seen in the past week, the laws will set off a frenzied chain reaction of take up,
takeover, devour and conquer in the commercial media realm. However, as community media cannot
be taken over by commercial interests, 2ser will remain independent and untouched by the coming
storm - as long as listeners and the community choose to support it”.
With no play-listed music and independent, unbiased current affairs programs, 2ser is committed to
providing a media platform that operates in contrast to the otherwise highly commercial world of
news and issue reporting, advertising and music promotion. 2ser also continues to be one of the only
stations in which its presenters are allowed to voice their political opinion on air.
“ According to the most recent McNair Research, people are increasingly tuning in to community
radio to access local information and news, specialist music and talks programs, and to listen to a
station that plays Australian music and supports local artists” Tanya ads.
“The ‘Support a higher frequency’ Radiothon provides listeners with the opportunity to show their
support of 2ser and help ensure that the station and its programs continue for at least another 27
years.”
During Radiothon, people are invited to 'support a higher frequency' by subscribing to 2ser. The
station holds an educational community broadcasting licence and receives no government funding,
so relies on the support of local businesses and listeners so it can continue to provide Sydney with
an independent, local and real media alternative.
Subscription costs from just $33 per year for concession holders, with special packages also
available to businesses and artists (bands, DJs, performing artists). And to sweeten the deal,
subscribers joining up during Radiothon will not only be supporting a vital media alternative, but also
receive a copy of 2ser’s new “frequency” magazine, a Spunk compilation CD and 2ser key ring,
access to great prizes all year, and entry into the draw to win up to $50,000 worth of prizes, including
an Intrepid Travel “Road to Angkor” Trip for two, two days recording/mixing at Big Jesus Burger
Studios, subscriptions to the Monthly, New Matilda and Arts Hub, loads of CD and movie packs, and
more!
For more information about Radiothon or to subscribe to 2ser, call 9514 9514 or visit www.2ser.com.

PANDIT RAMCHANDRA SUMANJI (tabla)

2006-10-24T14:38:00.000+10:00

Asian Dance and Music Centre
presents

TAAL TARANG 2006

PANDIT RAMCHANDRA SUMANJI (tabla)
accompanied by Friends and Students

An Annual Celebration of Hindustani Rhythm, Dance and Music.

Saturday 28th October 7:30pm
Tickets $20 and $15 concession at the door.

Lithuanian Club
16-20 Meredith St
Bankstown
(near Bankstown Train Station)

Performers include:
Pandit Ramchandra Suman (tabla)
Inkaran Kantarajah (tabla) Chris Fields (tabla) Stephen (pakhawaj) Angeline (kathak dance), Shobha Bali, Anil Kumar and Sunita Sethi (vocals), Colin Berryman (sitar) and Adrian McNeil (sarod).

Come along and enjoy a variety night of classical and light classical music from India. Help to support live music in Sydney and raise funds for Panditji's Asian Dance and Music Centre.

For more info please call 0421 808 817 or 9796 7401

Nils Petter Molvaer interview

2006-10-23T08:56:00.000+10:00

A good read for those interested in the music of this talented Nordic trumpeter

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=23039

Kim Sanders Live 12 Novemebr 06

2006-10-23T08:55:00.000+10:00

Multi-instrumentalist and World Music pioneer Llew Kiek will join Kim Sanders & Friends for a not-to-be-missed performance at the Clarendon in Katoomba on Sunday November 12.

Kiek will play bouzouki, oud and Turkish baglama (or saz). “I love the sound of the baglama”, said Kim Sanders yesterday. “To me, it’s the sound of Turkey. It takes me right back there every time I hear it. And every time I go to Turkey and hear a baglama for the first time, I always feel that wave of emotion. It’s a very emotional instrument.”

Sanders has studied, recorded and performed extensively in Turkey and plays a number of Turkish instruments himself. These include the the ney – the flute used in the ritual of the “Whirling Dervishes” - and the mey. He also plays Bulgarian
gaida (bagpipe), kaval (wooden flute) and tenor sax. And the Aardvark will also wail.

The band is propelled by eclectic bassist Steve Elphick and tabla master Bobby Singh.

The concert will feature a unique mix of Balkan Gypsy thrash tunes, haunting Sufi meditations, Indo-jazz grooves and uncategorizable originals.

Kim Sanders: ney, gaida, kaval, mey, tenor sax, aardvark
Llew Kiek: baglama, bouzouki, oud, keyboards
Steve Elphick: double bass
Bobby Singh: tabla
Photo: Peter Elfes C. 2006

The Clarendon
68 Lurline Street, Katoomba
12 November
Doors open and dinner 6pm, music starts 7.30
Info and bookings enquiries@clarendonguesthouse.com.au or 02 4782 1322

Visit Kim’s website http://www.netspace.com.au/~kimsanders

Nick Gold interview mp3

2006-10-19T18:56:00.000+10:00

Here's the interview from last night. Nick Gold is the creative genius behind the World Circuit label and they have just released an excellent compilation entitled World Circuit Presents.

http://savefile.com/files/170959

Powerspot 18 October 06

2006-10-18T17:35:00.000+10:00

Tracks from the World Circuit release Best of played on Powerspot tonight aren as follows.

Chan Chan -Buena Vista Social Club
Boul di Tagal- Cheik Lo
Rumba Argelina- Radio Tarifa
Rire Zarga Quana- Bellemou Messaoud
Al Vaiven Mi Carreta- Nico sanquito
Tumbanga- Orlando Cachaito Lopez
Flor de Amor- Omara Portuando
Tapha Niang- Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra
El Carretero- Guuillermo Portobales
Juan Pena- Sierra Maestra
El Son Te Llama- Orchestra Baobab
A Love Supreme- Anga Diaz
Dr Binol- Shirati Jazz
DU Du- Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate
Silencio- Ibrahim Ferrer & Omara Portuondo

Powerspot 11 October 2006

2006-10-11T23:18:00.000+10:00

Here's what I played on tonight's show.

Niyza- CD Niyaz- Ghazaal / Arezou (Six Degrees Records)
Midival Punditz- CD Midival Times- Kesariya (Six Degrees Records)
Hans Zimmer- S/T Black Hawk Down- Synchrotone
Joseph Tawadros- CD Storyteller- Storyteller
Jon Hassell- CD Maarifa Street- Divine SOS / New Gods
Bugge Wesseltoft- CD Moving- Moving

Various Artists- Putumayo Presents Acoustic Africa feat. Angelique Kidjo, Vusi Mahlasela, Djelimady Tounkara
Various Artists- Electric Gypsyland 2 (Crammed Discs)
Various Artists- World Circuit Presents - Ali Farka Toure- Amandrai (live) (pre release copy)

Next week I am running an interview with Nick Gold from the World Circuit label. Nick has been producing an array of wonderful recordings from around Cuba, Senegal & West Africa for many years now and has won 4 Grammy's for his work with the likes of Ali Farka Toure, Ry Cooder & the Buena Vista Social Club. He is a very likable man with many stories and more importantly many fine releases on the label. To celebrate 20 years surviving the music industry World Circuit have released an excellent compilation highlighting music from their well known and lesser known acts from over the years. We'll be highlighting this release next week on the show.

I spoke briefly tonight about the Songlines Festival up in the Blue Mountains ovr the next three weekends. Here is the link if you want to know more.

Kim Sanders is having a couple of gigs around Sydney in the next few weeks. Check it out via this link.

Kim Sanders news

2006-10-09T23:20:00.000+10:00

Be there or be somewhere else

Acclaimed World Music group Kim Sanders & Friends are all in Sydney at the same time and will perform at the Harp in Tempe on Sunday Oct 29.

The gig will feature music in the style of Balkan and Turkish Gypsies as well as the band’s usual eclectic mix of serene Sufi meditations, bent Balkan dance tunes and original compositions.
Kim has recently returned from Indonesia where he performed as a soloist and in collaborations with Indonesian musicians. “As usual,” he said yesterday, “it’s been hard getting everyone together for a gig. Someone is always away somewhere. Sandy has just been in Korea, for instance. On the other hand, it’s good for picking up musical ideas we can eventually incorporate into the band’s music. It’s a slow process, though. I first went to Indonesia in 71 and I’ve been performing there regularly for more than ten years now. I sometimes notice Indonesian elements in my playing now, but I didn’t include them consciously. The thing is, we’ve all been round long enough, studied and integrated our influences, so our music is our music not just a pastiche like so much so-called World Music. I hope so, anyway!”

In a career spanning more than twenty-five years Kim Sanders has performed with Gypsy wedding bands in Macedonia, studied with Sufi ney-masters in Turkey, played in mosquito-infested dance-halls in West Africa, tavernas in Greece, concert-halls from Beijing to Bandung, on national radio in Bulgaria… not to mention Rooty Hill RSL.

Saxophonist, composer and three-time ARIA-winner Sandy Evans has played and recorded extensively in Australia and overseas with her own Sandy Evans Trio, Clarion Fracture Zone, The catholics, austraLYSIS, the Australian Art Orchestra, MARA!, Bernie McGann, Waratah and many visiting American artists. She has recently been working with refugee musicians.
Double-bassist Steve Elphick has made many overseas tours with folk-jazz group Mara! and various jazz groups including Ten Part Invention and The Engine Room. He has played with many jazz greats including Lee Konitz and Steve Lacey. In Australia he has performed and recorded extensively with cutting-edge improvising bands including The World According to James, The Andrew Robson Trio and The Umbrellas.

Bobby Singh studied tablas in Bombay with the legendary Nikhil Ghosh, and now divides his tıme between India and Australia, where he has quickly become a “must see” performer on the world music circuit as well as the Indian Classical scene. He has performed with Ashok Roy, Shubha Mudgal, Aneesh Pradhan, Slava Grigoriyan, Joseph Tawadros and Flamenco Dreaming . He is currently working with The Bird, Circle of Rhythm and Dha.

Kim Sanders: ney, gaida, kaval, mey, tenor sax, aardvark
Sandy Evans; tenor and soprano saxes
Steve Elphick: double bass
Bobby Singh: tabla

7 pm, Sunday October 29
The Harp
900 Princes Highway, Tempe
Tickets on the door: $18/15 conc
Kids are welcome, and meals are available.
Info 9559 6300

Lloyd Swanton & The catholics news

2006-10-09T23:16:00.000+10:00

The catholics' upcoming Sound Lounge show, this Friday 13th October, is
nearly sold out. Our last two Sound Lounge shows did sell out, so book now
to avoid disappointment.

Our special guest for this show will be pedal steel guitar legend Michel
Rose, former catholic who hasn't appeared with us for over five years.
Michel will be lending his unique approach to material from our highly -
acclaimed recent album, Gondola, and we'll be pulling out a few old cathos
favourites in honour of the reunion.

The catholics
Friday 13th October 8.30 -11.00pm
The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre
cnr City Rd and Cleveland St
$20, $15 concession/members; tix from Seymour Theatre Box Office 9351 7940
Tables/seats are now allocated on a first come basis for each performance,
so to guarantee entry, book now!

All the catholics' albums are available at www.thenecks.com

Martin Kennedy interview 06September06

2006-09-06T00:07:00.000+10:00

Here's the interview with Martin Kennedy from All India Radio talking about the new release Echo Other.

Chairman George interview mp3

2006-09-02T22:18:00.000+10:00

The interview with the enigmatic George Sapounidis is available for download

Part 1
Part 2

911 The Falling Man

2006-09-01T15:55:00.000+10:00

On TV last night was a documentary entitled 911 The Falling Man. This was a documentary based on a photo which was published of a man who had apparently jumped off the World Trade Centre on September 11 when the two planes hit the towers. Apparently about 200 people had jumped though officially the New York coroner had claimed no one had jumped, they were pushed out by the blast of heat coming from the plane as it exploded inside the towers. I like millions of others saw this event unfolding live on television at the time, and still see it as the event which changed my life. It has been five years now since that terrible day and I am still moved emotionally when I see the footage of the planes exploding as they impacted with the buildings, the two towers collapsing, the devastation and misery of lives lost for no reason other than someone hating the Americans and all they stood for. The photo was apparently only ever published once because it caused such an uproar at the time. I wonder what you or I would have done given the same circumstances, a thousand feet up in the air with no way out and a terrible roaring furnace beneath us making its way rapidly towards the top. Are there lessons for the living? I don't want to hate anyone for what happened though this act of flying the two planes into the buildings was unforgivable as is any act which results in a death. It's just that there was so much death in this case and it was so public. Who was the falling man? They believe it was Jonathon Briley, the sound man from Windows On The World, the restaurant at the top of the tower.

Powerspot 6 September 06

2006-08-31T15:44:00.000+10:00

Tonight's show starts off with an interview I did with Martin Kennedy from the group All India Radio. Imagine a mix of Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois' Apollo soundtrack, mixed in with a touch of Ennio Morricone spaghetti western music, and a twist of Angelo Badalamenti's Lynchian soundworlds. This might get close to what Kennedy achieves with his latest recording. This interview is available now for download via the blog. (www.globalgroove.blogspot.com)

The majority of the program is taken from the excellent 2CD compilation entitled Desert Blues 2 Reves D'Oasis dedicated to the desert blues music and musicians bordering the Sahara desert; featuring contributions from Cheb Mami, Rokia Traore, Mansour Seck, Djelimady Tounkara, Momo Wandel Soumah, Djelli Moussa Diawarra & Bob Brozman and many more.
(CD 22762 Network label)

Tracks played in order as follows.

Daymallah- Majid Bekkas
Lees Waxul - Yande Codou Sene & Youssou n' Dour
Mouso Teke Soma Ye - Boubacar Traore
Laidu - Rokia Traore
Almany - Djeli Moussa Diawara & Bob Brozman
Felenko Yefe - Momo Wandel Soumah
Mande Djeliou - Djelimady Tounkara
Trab - Cheb Mami
Sufi Dialogue - Soliman Gamil
Azara al hay - Rasha
Aitma - Tartit
Yango - Mounsour Seck

It took something like two years to put this compilation together, Starting with over 1000 tracks, this compilation has 26 of the best pieces of music you will ever hear of North & West African music.

The great Calypso singer The Mighty Sparrow will be performing live on Saturday night at The Enmore Theatre here in Sydney. I hope that some of the regular local listeners will be able to attend what will be an amazing night of high energy music. If you haven't already bought tickets don't hesitate. This legendary performer will be putting on a very energetic performance and guarantees to get you out of your seats and in the aisles dancing. More information at www.jaslynhallpresents.com. I will be playing one or two tracks by the man himself on tonight's program.

Last week's interview with George Sapounidis aka Chairman George is also now available for download at www.globalgroove.blogspot.com

Powerspot Chairman George Special

2006-08-31T15:41:00.000+10:00

George Sapounidis is a Greek Canadian who in his day job is a statistician for the Canadian government. He has a PhD in Mathematics and in general is a very clever man. At night time his musical persona comes out. He admits to being a folk singer, a troubadour, a romantic who sings in anything up to eight languages including Hebrew, Persian, Greek, French and oddly enough Chinese.

He has made somewhat of a name for himself in China, where he performs in various festivals often at the invitation of the Chinese government. He immerses himself into the local cultures as a result of having learned the Chinese language, and people relate to him easily and are drawn to him by his music, which in many ways is their music as interpreted by a foreigner.

George can possibly claim to be the only Greek singer in the world who can readily and confidently sing in Chinese. I haven't heard of too many others who can do this though remain open to correction.

George also had a dream, a dream which involved singing before the world when the Olympic flag was handed over by Athens in 2004 to Beijing in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. This dream was captured in a documentary entitled Chairman George which has been shown on a number of occasions in Canada to great acclaim and recognition.

I interviewed George Sapounidis at length this week about his being the only Greek singer who also sings in Chinese, as well as the amazing documentary Chairman George.

Most of tomorrow night's program will focus on George, a very likable man whose energy is boundless and inspirational. The music will be a little different but we feel listeners will enjoy listening to the man they call Chairman George.

For more information I urge you to go to www.chairmangeorge.com
The interview will be available as an mp3 download in the next few days.

Powerspot 9 August 2006

2006-08-09T08:57:00.000+10:00

Hi All,
There was a good response to last week's array of African sounds, so tomorrow night's program will feature more of the same. (hey...when you're on a good thing...stick to it) Most inquiries pertained to where they listeners could find the music I play on air. Rest assured I try not to play anything too obscure and if I do I normally make mention of it. Most of the material you hear is locally available. I tend to spend far too much time sifting through the second hand record shops down in Pitt Street, as well as weekend markets looking for material. Shops sucha s Birdland, Redeye and SO in Newtown are good starting points. Oddly enough JB Hi Fi have a decent range of world music to choose from as well. Maybe what I will start doing is inviting listeners to send me their favourite record shop details and I will compile a list to draw from on this blog. Feel free to contribute.

Musical treats and delights to entice from the following masters of their trade.
Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra- CD Boulevard de L'Independance
Ali Farka Toure (The King of the Desert Blues Singers)- CD Savane- Savane
Ali Farke Toure & Toumani Diabate- Live Bozar Brussels 2005 (Promotional)
George Sapounidis- CD From Athens to Beijing - Good Morning Sun / Youth Dance / Sad Song Jam

The find of the year for me. George is a statistician by day and mild mannered Canadian Greek troubador singer of Chinese folk ballads by night. Lovely stuff and a real character who is immensely likable. Next week I will be presenting extracts from a special which aired on Canadian TV entitled Chairman George, all about his sojourns into China, the journey towards the winning over of hearts and minds. The documentary Chairman George is amongst other things a chronicle of George's attempts to perform at the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympics, when the torch was handed over to the Beijing Olympic Committee, What the hell, this would have been a perfect moment for this Greek singing Mandarin musical genius, a two for the price of one never to be repeated bargain of a lifetime. I will be speaking with George about his journey in the next few weeks so stay tuned.

2SER are having a reggae night over at The Marquee this Saturday night. This is pretty timely as I had been playing a lot of old Trojan records on the home hi-fi over the last few weeks. In the second half of the show as such, you'll be hearing from a few of the artists on this amazing label. Contributions from the likes of Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus, Delroy Wilson, El Paso, The Heptones, Alton Ellis, Augustus Pablo & Fay, Dennis Brown, Dizzy & The Soul Syndicates, Johnny Clark, Ken Boothe, Little Roy, The Upsetter & more.

Information below regarding this night.Firehouse meet Top Ranking Sound at The MarqueeSaturday 12 August, 2006...2ser's Fire on the Wire crew - Firehouse bring Sydney a big bad selection of reggae, dancehall and exclusive dubplate delivered in deadly sound system style. Here they meet Yonatan, the man behind OzReggae.com and who presents Top Ranking Sounds on Melbourne's 3RRR Radio. Tickets are $12 on the door or $8 for 2ser subscribers!I'll have some double passes to give away for this tomorrow night as well

I also rediscovered a four track CD by a local guitarist named Chris Raggatt, who had sent me his disc some time ago for consideration. Nice slide guitar work from a man who has a lot in common with the likes of Jeff Laing / Jon Butler / Bob Brozman. I'll be playing two acoustic tracks from his disc Voodoo Love Medicine-.

Don't know too much about him though I did find this blurb on the net.Chris has lived and played music on Sydneys Northern beaches for years. He is a dedicated guitarist who is passing on his knowledge and experience as a guitar tutor to many young guitar enthusiasts. When he is not teaching he is looking after his family, building guitars and developing music in his home studio in the hills of Avalon. He has played in Matt Finish, founded United Notions and is currently working with his new band called "Voodoo Love Medicine". This is also the title of his upcoming CD which provided the track "Save my soul" for ulu32.

Chris Raggatt- Voodoo Love Medicine- Secret Life / Save My Soul

Our good friends Kim Cunio & Heather Lee have asked we pass this message on to anyone who may be interested in this upcoming event. Two of the finest musicians and scholars living in Sydney exploring ancient Sephardic musical traditions. We will hear a track from one of Kim Cunio's earlier releases.

Kim Cunio- CD Under Eastern Skies- The Road to Bodhgaya

T h e T e m p l e P r o j e c tThe hit of the 2004 Melbourne Festival

The Temple Project was broadcast live around the country, stopping even the 7pm news! A one off show of this beautiful music is in Sydney for one night only. This is a night of spiritual music you will have never seen before.Saturday August 12 at 8.00 pm,At the "Stone Gallery on Oxford (Paddington Uniting Church)".395 Oxford St, (where the markets are.)$20 / $15Parking available at the Gordon St Church Car parkBookings 9331 2646 bookings@eastsidearts.org.auOr for more information oscarmarigold@optusnet.com.au

Features Kim Cunio, voice, instruments, Llew Kiek, Heather lee, voice, Llew Kiek, plucked strings, and Tunji Beier percussion.A b o u t t h e T e m p l e P r o j e c tIn 70CE the Second Jewish Temple was destroyed. The appalling casualties of the Roman invasion did not just include the innocent loss of life and those killed in resistance, but the destruction of a vibrant musical culture which included one of the great orchestras and choirs of the ancient world. The Temple project is an artistic speculation built upon the foundations of oral chant, archaeological records, and modern musicology. It is a rare project in our world, a chance to hear music as it might have been, performed by players at the top of their game. A mystical experience including yemeni shofar patterns, Baghdadi Jewish tunes from the ancient world, and stunning new compositions around all of this, featuring the angelic voice of Heather Lee.

I am hoping to catch up with Martin Kennedy from All India Radio later on this week for a chat regarding Echo Other their new disc. Also next week, music from Richard Khuzami, Duoud and other musicians leaning towards the sound of the East.

Playlist 2 August 2006

2006-08-02T22:41:00.000+10:00

I have been somewhat slack with updating this blog in the last few weeks but here we go with tonight's program. Playing George Sapounidis' material was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to interviewing him soon regarding his release From Athens to Beijing as well as finding out what motivates him, keeps him focussed. I'm not sure of what the audience made of a Greek singing in Cantonese but to me he is a unique character who has a lot to offer.

For more information, follow the links.

Ardavan Kamkar- CD Over The Wind
Ballake Sissoko- CD Tomora (mp3 download from www.calabashmusic.com)
Rokia Traore- CD Wanita
Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra- CD Boulevard De L'Independance
George Sapounidis- CD From Athens to Beijing
Peter Carolan- CD Overland
Various Artists- CD Traveler 06 (contributions from Midival Punditz / Niyaz / Bombay Dub Orchestra)

Powerspot 12 July 06

2006-07-06T20:24:00.000+10:00

Next week's show will probably have a bit of an islander type of feel to it. I received an excellent release by New Zealand group Te Vaka which I am itching to play, as well as a release entitled Spirit of Mambesak- Black Paradise, which is a recording of music from West Papua, and possibly one of the finest release this year. It also is a good opportunity to bring the excellent Bob Brozman & Papua New Guinea Stringbands release Songs of the Volcano in for another spin.

Tune in to hear this amazing music next week.

Powerspot 5 July 06

2006-07-03T13:49:00.000+10:00

Hi All

On the show tonight, mostly Celtic flavored with contributions from the following. Follow the links for more information regarding these artists,

Michael McGoldrick- CD Wired (The Hillbrook Reels)

Michael McGoldrick- CD Fused (Lough Mountain / Donal Og)

Various Artists- Music & Dances from Old Ireland 1925-1942 (Maggie Pickens / The Banks from Newfoundland / Miss Langford's)

Afro Celt Sound System- CD Anatomica (Mojave)

Iarla O Lionaird- Cd I Could Read The Sky (I'm Stretched On Your Grave)

Karsh Kale- CD Broken English (Rise Up /Dancing at Sunset

DJ Cheb I Sabbah- CD La Ghriba (Jarat Fil Hub [the Chalice Remix] / Esh 'Dani, Alash Mshit [the Rai of Light Club Remix])

Martyn Bennett- CD Grit- Blackbird / Liberation)
http://realworldrecords.com/grit/

The Necks- CD Chemist (Abillera)

Hope you can tune in for a listen.

Powerspot Playlist 28 June 06

2006-06-29T14:45:00.000+10:00

Tonight's show feature music from a number of releases by Australian composers, or composers now living in Australia.

Joseph Tawadros- CD Storyteller
- Track Storyteller

Joseph Tawadros is a young Egyptian oud player who is making a big name for himself here in Sydney for good reasons. He is talented and this talent is not escaping the attention of people like Richard Tognetti from the SSO who has just recently finished touring with him. Joe will be performing this Friday night with his brother James so go along and see this amazing musician who is carrying on a rich Arabic musical legacy.

http://www.josephtawadros.com

Kim Cunio & Heather Lee- CD- Music of the Dead Sea Scrolls
- Track El Eliyahu

Husband and wife team Kim Cunio & Heather Lee have been performing and recording ancient music for a long time now. Heather is also to my ears one of the finest sopranos we have in this country and a delight to see and hear. This recording accompanied the Dead Dea Scrolls exhibition of a few years back when it was on at the Art Gallery of NSW.
http://lotusfoot.com

Kim Sanders with Peter Kennard
- Cd Trance'n'Dancin
- Track Kaval Taksim- Track Ah Ya Zane

Kim Sanders is a great find for me. I was only made aware of his music last year when he contacted me and all I will say is I am glad that he did. He is an extremely talented musician who has travelled extensively around Indonesia as well as Eastern European countries absorbing musical cultures along the way.

http://kimsanders.customer.netspace.net.au/

Satsuki Odamura- CD Koto Dreaming
- Tracks Pretang / Tang with Linsey Pollak

Satsuki Odamura's new CD, Koto Dreaming is a collection of innovative and uniquely Australian multicultural compositions for koto. Koto Dreaming breaks away from the traditional sounds and compositions for koto, and includes Satsuki's own collaborative compositions with Australian artists. It is a synthesis of her inspirations gained by her working closely with Australian artists and a culmination of her fifteen years accumulative experience as a koto virtuoso based in Australia.
Koto Dreaming begins with a work commissioned by celebrated Australian composer Ross Edwards and includes pieces by composers Caroline Szeto, Anthony Briggs, Linsey Pollak, as well as Satsuki herself, in collaboration with Sandy Evans and Tony Lewis – who together comprise the trio Waratah.

http://satsukikoto.com.au

The Necks- CD Chemist
- Track Buoyant

Possibly Sydney's most famous or infamous jazz improvisers; this is album number 13 for the group and one of the most easy to listen to Necks releases in my opinion. Three pieces each clocking in at around the twenty minute mark, each different to the another. Buoyant is the more spacious of the three pieces available on this recording. It's difficult to categorize this outfit so I am not even going to try and bother to. Needless to say some of the most enjoyable and confronting music I have heard over the years has been from The Necks. I really rate this recording and urge anyone with an open mind to explore what is on offer here. We might even invite the group in for a chat in the next few weeks if they are in town.

http://www.thenecks.com

Adrian McNeil & Bobby Singh- Cd Aasha
- Track Rag Madhuwanti

Adrian and Bobby have been performing for well over ten years now, promoting Hindustani classical music here in Sydney. Adrian is one of the few 'white fellas' who has master the sarod, whilst Bobby Singh is without a doubt the greatest tabla player in this country and often involved with many different bands simultaneously. This recording was done shortly after the 911 incident a few years back. The title is a Hindi terms meaning Hope. Rad Madhuwanti is an afternoon raga of great beauty.

Powerspot Playlist 21 June 06

2006-06-21T08:20:00.000+10:00

On the show tomorrow night, tracks from the following releases. Hope that some of you may be able to listen in online. Follow the links for further information.

Nuru Kane- CD Sigui- Colore / Diarama
Ba Cissoko- CD Electric Griot Land- Le Reve De L'Oiseau / Women
Smadj- CD Take It & Drive- C’est comme ci c’était fait / Tristan
Mohammad Qadri Dalal- CD Maqamat Insolites- Tarkîb jdîd
Thierry Robin & Gulabi Sapera- CD Rakhi - Yakeen / Bichu Rap / Neem
Richard Khuzami- CD Fused- Faruk's Funk / Malfouf / Go With Me / Bazar Bop
Ojos De Brujo- CD Techari-Color / Sultanas De Merkaillo / Todo Tiende

Next week Powerspot will be all Australian music.

Powerspot Playlist 14 June 06

2006-06-16T08:42:00.000+10:00

On the show this week, I re-ran an interview with Eckhart Rahn, label manager of the Celestial Harmonies label, which is run out of Tucson Arizona. All music came from the label and artists included the following.

BUTSUGA - JAMES ASHLEY FRANKLINNanae Yoshimura- Art of the Koto Vol 3
THE COMPLETE PIANO MUSIC OF MIKALOJUS KONSTANTINAS CIURLIONIS, VOLUME ONE - NIKOLAUS LAHUSEN
THE HUGO MASTERS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CHINESE CLASSICAL MUSIC, VOLUME 1: BOWED STRINGS - VARIOUS ARTISTS
SEA & MOUNTAIN: MUSIC IN THE KOREAN STYLE - MICHAEL ATHERTON
George Deuter-
O NOBILISSIMA VIRIDITAS: THE COMPLETE HILDEGARD VON BINGEN, VOLUME THREE - SINFONYE
Kifo Mitsuhachi- Art of the Shakuhachi Vol 2
THE ART OF THE KOTO, VOLUME THREE: WORKS FOR NIJUGEN - NANAE YOSHIMURA
STREAM FLOWING: TRADITIONAL MUSIC FROM CHINA - WENG ZHENFA / FU RENCHANG
MUSIC OF LAOS: THE BUDDHIST TRADITION - VARIOUS ARTISTS
THE SEPHARDIC EXPERIENCE, VOLUME 1: THORNS OF FIRE - THE RENAISSANCE PLAYERS, WINSOME EVANS - DIRECTOR
THE MUSIC OF ARMENIA, VOLUME ONE: SACRED CHORAL MUSIC - THE HAISSMAVOURK CHOIR/MIHRAN GHAZELIAN, DIRECTOR
IN WINTER LIGHT: MUSIC FOR FLUTE AND GUITAR BY JOHN BUCKLEY - WILLIAM DOWDALL AND JOHN FEELEY
THE MUSIC OF ISLAM (SAMPLER) - VARIOUS ARTISTS
HOMRONG: CLASSICAL MUSIC FROM CAMBODIA - CHUM NGEK

As usual if you have any queries please contact me.

Ottmar Liebert Tour Dates Australia

2006-06-09T14:24:00.000+10:00

Speaking with Ottmar Liebert'>Listen to the interview

July 2006: Australia/New ZealandQuartet:
OL - Flamenco + Electric Guitars, Jon Gagan - Bass Guitars and Keyboard, Dave Bryant - Percussion, Stephen Duros - Flamenco Guitar + Keyboard

Jul 14 Melbourne, Australia – The Arts Centre, Hamer Hall
Jul 15 Canberra, Australia – Canberra Theatre
Jul 20 Newcastle, Australia – Civic Theatre
Jul 21 Sydney, Australia – Marconi Club
Jul 22 Sydney, Australia – State Theatre
Jul 23 Adelaide, Australia – Norwood Concert Hall
Jul 25 Perth, Australia – Burswood Theatre
Jul 27 Auckland, New Zealand – Town Hall
Jul 28 Wellington, New Zealand – St. James Opera House

Sarodist Adrian McNeil in concert 25 June 06 2.30pm

2006-06-08T23:11:00.000+10:00

Sangeet Australia: Supporting Hindustani Music presents
The Mehfil Series
Adrian McNeil (Sarod)
Pandit Ramchandra Suman (Tabla)

Acoustic Classical Music of India
Soul stirring and passionate Hindustani ragas in a traditional and intimate soiree setting.
tickets at the door $15/$12con/family discounts available

Where- Dickson Space
35-39 Dickson St
Newtown

www.sangeetaustralia.org

Adrian McNeil has lived, studied and performed in India for many years. He has made a number of recordings for national television and radio. A guitar student since childhood, Adrian began training in Hindustani music in 1980 as a disciple of Pt. Ashok Roy. He has intensively studied the musical instrument the sarod and Hindustani classical music for twentyfive years according to the strict precepts of the guru-shishya parampara traditional training method. For the last five years he has been a disciple of Prof. Sachindra Nath Roy and also the expert vocalist and musicologist Dr. Ashok Ranade, both based in Mumbai. Adrian has a Ph.D. in music and has published important articles and a book on Indian music, and has taught in music departments in Australia, USA, UK, India and Hong Kong.

Pandit Ramchandra Sumanji is a highly experienced tabla and pakhawaj player of unusual depth and talent. He received his musical training from an early age from two well known musicians, his uncle Pt. Lokmanji, and Guru Purushottam Dasji of Nathawadar Gharana. he has accompanied many of the great masters of Hindustani classical music such as the Dagar brothers, Siddeshwari Devi and many others in India and abroad. He is a celebrated Kathak dancer as well, an art form he studied for many years with Chiranjee Lalji, Shambhu Maharaj, Lachchu Maharaj and Birju Maharaj. His compelling percussion playing has all the lilt and grace of this exquisite dance form. He now lives in Sydney where he has many students at The Asian Dance and Music Centre (Australia) which he established in Bankstown.

Sangeet Australia is a small, grass roots, artist run organisation presenting monthly recitals, and a range of other activities including workshops and concerts for local and international artists alike, to increase awareness and understanding of this rich and complex tradition. Our focus is to present the most excellent standard of this music in a manner that is sensitive to and respectful of the artists involved. Sangeet Australia mehfils provide a unique opportunity to engage with this music in a relaxed and thoughtful way. To contact Sangeet Australia call 0416 352 900.

Sangeet Australia highly recommends:
‘Music Concepts. A Concise Dictionary of Hindustani Music’ the comprehensive work by eminent scholar-musician Dr. Ashok Da.Ranade now available on the excellent and reliable website of the ethical, artist run label of Underscore Records. For this and a host of high quality recordings in a variety of Indian musical styles see www.underscorerecords.com

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with all our concerts.
www.sangeetaustralia.org

ain't it the truth

2006-06-08T10:32:00.000+10:00

Recruitment - A True Classic

One day while walking down the street a highly successful executive woman
was tragically hit by a bus and she died. Her soul arrived up in heaven
where she was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter himself.

"Welcome to Heaven," said St.Peter. "Before you get settled in though, it
seems we have a problem. You see, strangely enough, we've never once had an
executive make it this far and we're not really sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in." said the woman.

"Well, I'd like to, but I have higher orders. What we're going to do is let
you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven and then you can choose whichever
one you want to spend an eternity in."

"Actually, I think I've made up my mind...I prefer to stay in Heaven", said
the woman.

"Sorry, we have rules..." And with that St. Peter put the executive in an
elevator and it went down-down-down to hell. The doors opened and she found
herself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. In
the distance was a country club and standing in front of her were all her
friends - fellow executives that she had worked with and they were all
dressed in evening gowns and cheering for her. They ran up and kissed her on
both cheeks and they talked about old times. They played an excellent round
of golf and at night went to the country club where she enjoyed an excellent
steak and lobster dinner. She met the Devil who was actually a really nice
guy (kinda cute) and she had a great time telling jokes and dancing. She was
having such a good time that before she knew it, it was time to leave.
Everybody shook her hand and waved good-bye as she got on the elevator.

The elevator went up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates and found
St. Peter waiting for her. "Now it's time to spend a day in heaven," he
said. So she spent the next 24 hours lounging around on clouds and playing
the harp and singing. She had a great time and before she knew it her 24
hours were up and St. Peter came and got her.

"So, you've spent a day in hell and you've spent a day in heaven. Now you
must choose your eternity," he said.

The woman paused for a second and then replied, "Well, I never thought I'd
say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a
better time in Hell."

So St. Peter escorted her to the elevator and again she went down-down-down
back to Hell. When the doors of the elevator opened she found herself
standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and Filth. She saw her
friends were dressed in rags and were picking up the garbage and putting it
in sacks. The Devil came up to her and put his arm around her.

"I don't understand," stammered the woman, "yesterday I was here and there
was a golf course and a country club and we ate lobster and we danced and
had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland of garbage and all my friends
look miserable."

The Devil looked at her and smiled. "Yesterday we were recruiting you; today
you're staff."

Powerspot 7 June 06

2006-06-07T23:02:00.000+10:00

On the show tonight, you either heard or you missed the following.

I interviewed guitarist Ottmar Liebert who will be touring Australia in July. The interview can be downloaded here.

Music tonight came from mainly from the Ocora label out of France.

Valeria Miranda Family- Basta Ya
Musicians of the Nile- Taksim Arghoul
Ravi Shankar- Dhun Man Prasad
Fernando Machado- Virade Coimbra Fado of Coimbra Soares
Liu Yao Jin- Classical Music of China
Alim Qasimov- Rang, Uzzal, Zarbi Ussad- The Art of the Mugham
Vassilis Tsitsanis- Hoamge to Tsitsanis
Lakshmi Shankar- Raga Khafi- Seasons & Time
Munir Bashir- Taqsim- The Art of the Oud
Nusrat fateh Ali Khan- Manaqib Khawaja Mueenuddin Chisti- Live paris 1985

All tracks off a Ocora sampler entitled The World of Traditional World-Collection Ocora Radio France

Powerspot 31May06

2006-05-31T16:01:00.000+10:00

On the show tonight(and in no particular order at time of writing) musical treats from the following to tempt and entice you to tune in.

U Srinivas & Michael Brook- CD
DreamRonu Majumdar- CD Lady Astride The Tiger
Ronu Majumdar / Ry Cooder / Jon Hassell- CD Hollow Bamboo
Hector Zazou- Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses
James Ashley Franklin- CD Butsuga music for shakuhachi
Harry Manx- Live at The Basement
Nuru Kane- CD Sigil
Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate- in concert at Bozar Brussels Jan 29-2005 (promo release)
Kim Cunio & Heather Lee- CD Infloressence
Rachel Cogan- CD Sojourn
Daude Neguinha- CD Te Amo
Richard Khuzami- CD Fused
WengZhenfa-Sheng/Chinese Mouth Organ- Stream Flowing traditional music from China

I was hoping to speak with tabla master Bobby Singh this week but this will need to be held over for another week due to unforeseen circumstances. I will also run an interview next week with Ottmar Liebert, the 'nouveau flamenco' guitarist, who will be touring Australia in July.

Cheers....Hans

Powerspot 24 may 06

2006-05-24T22:57:00.000+10:00

Tonight's edition of Powerspot was a little bit different in that most of the program was given over to Lloyd Swanton, who many will know as the bass player for The necks, as well as leader of the group The catholics. He came in tonight to speak about the new release Gondola and we also had a bit of fun doing a sort of musical blindfold test.

Material on the show tonight came mainly from the CD Gondola by The catholics, certainly in the first 45 minutes or so. Other pieces played included works from the following artists and CD's. I'm glad to report that lloyd picked most of the artists and if you are interested in hearing this interview it should be uploaded next week. There will be a link to this on the Powerspot blog.

(In no particular order)

King Curtis- King Curtis Live at Fillmore West
Lonnie Liston Smith- CD Watercolors
Johnny Hartman- CD I Just Dropped By To Say Hello
Quincy Jones- CD Body Heat
Bugge Wesseltoft- CD Moving
Jon Hassell- CD Fascinoma
Horace Andy- CD True Love Shines Bright
Louie Vega presents Luisito Quintero- Cd Percussion Madness
Bill Laswell- Dub Chamber 3

Tune in next week to hear tabla player Bobby Singh talk about his instrument of choice and put on the musical blindfold.

Cheers....Hans

Powerspot Playlist 10 May 06

2006-05-10T09:07:00.000+10:00

On the show tonight, musical treats and delights from the following.

Next week we speak with Natacha Atlas re the new album.

Albin De La Simone - J'Ai Changé- CD So FRenchy So Chic
Nicolas Repac - La Nuit Mène Une Existence Obscure-CD So Frenchy So Chic
Têtes Raides - Les Radis-CD So FRenchy So Chic
Solade- CD Boro Song- For That / Oceamn Lullaby / What It Is
Jalilah’s Raks Sharki- CD In A Beirut Mood- Lebanese Banquet
Natacha Atlas- CD Mish Maoul- Haram Aleyk / Wahashni
Gotan Project- CD Lunatico- La Viguela
Jessica- V/A Putumayo Kids Present Reggae Playground- Ying Yang
Asheba- V/A Putumayo Kids Present Reggae Playground- Reggae Lullaby
Toots & The Maytals- V/A Putumayo Kids Present Reggae Playground- Take Me Home
V/A Jamaica Ska Down- Ken Lazarus- I Don’t Love You Anymore
V/A Jamaica Ska Down- Ken Lazarus- Beatles Got To Go
V/A Jamaica Ska Down- Monty Morris- What Are You Going To Do
V/A Jamaica Ska Down- Monty Morris- Sammy Dead
The catholics- CD- Gondola- CD Oaxaca
Nuru Kane- CD Sigil- Mami

Powerspot 3 May 06

2006-05-02T23:08:00.000+10:00

On the show tomorrow night, musical treats from the following (and at time of writing in no particular order)

The interview with Gotan project has been postponed. I'm hoping we can do it by next week.

Gotan Project- Lunatico
Bombay Dub Orchestra-Bombay Dub Orchestra
The catholics- Gondola
the ipanemas- samba is our gift
grupo batuque- ole ola futebol bonito
Bugge Wesseltoft- Live
Nils petter Molvaer- Remixes
Natacha Atlas- Mish Maoul
Kim Cunio & Heather Lee- Music from the Dead Sea Scrolls
Bobby Singh & Adrian McNeil- Aasha

The Necks- news

2006-04-27T22:48:00.000+10:00

THE NECKS IN EXCITING NEW AUSTRALIAN TV SERIES, WITH AUDIO ON INTERNET

10pm on Tuesday 2nd of May sees the first episode of SET, an exciting new
(Australian) ABC-TV series of live improvised and experimental music
performances, and the first episode kicks off with The Necks playing a 25
minute piece, Taghairm.

The audio from SET will also go to air on ABC Radio National's Music Deli,
on Friday 5th May at 8:00pm, repeated on Sunday 7th at 4:00pm, and then
again on Tuesday 9th at 2:00am

Necks fans outside Australia will be pleased to know that the audio will be
available at: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/musicdeli/default.htm

and as a free podcast for 7 days after the TV broadcast at the SET website:
http://www.abc.net.au/set

SET runs on Tuesdays at 10pm throughout 2006, in three batches of three
shows:

2nd May The Necks
9th May Francis Plagne
16th May Anthony Pateras

11th July Ernie Althoff, Rod Cooper
18th July Oren Ambarchi
25th July Splinter Orchestra

12th September Hi-God People, Jim Denley, Peter Blamey
19th September Stasis Duo, Amanda Stewart
26th September Rob Avenaim, Dale Gorfinkel, Lucas Abela

This is a fantastic initiative from the ABC, with a second series already
under discussion. Please let them know you approve, by phone or through
their website, www.abc.net.au

(Even if you live outside Australia, if you think it's great that a
government-funded national network is devoting half an hour of free-to-air
TV a week to cutting edge impro and experimental music, please let them know
by sending a message through the website link above!!)

Powerspot 26 April 06

2006-04-25T20:43:00.000+10:00

Longish pieces on tonight's show, from the following artists and albums.

Natacha Atlas- CD Mish Maoul (Mantra)
Chem Ngek- Homrong - classical music of cambodia (Celestial Harmonies)
Grupo Naidy- iArriba Suena Marimba- Currulao Marimba Music from Colombia (Smithsonian Folkways / Fuse)
Various Artists- So Frenchy So Chic (Filter)

Moritz von Oswald & Mark Ernestus CD Rhythm & Sound Trax
Imprint / Outward (Basic Channel)
Tabla Beat Science Audio Grab from DVD Live
Bugge Wesseltoft- CD Moving- Track Moving

Powerspot 19 April 06

2006-04-19T08:50:00.000+10:00

On the show tonight, musical treats and delights from the following.

(Artist- CD- Track- Label- website)

Satsuki Odamura- Koto Dreaming-Makura-Orpheus Music-(www.orpheusmusic.com.au & www.satsukikoto.com.au)

Satsuki Odamura's new CD, Koto Dreaming is a collection of innovative and uniquely Australian multicultural compositions for koto. Koto Dreaming breaks away from the traditional sounds and compositions for koto, and includes Satsuki's own collaborative compositions with Australian artists. It is a synthesis of her inspirations gained by her working closely with Australian artists and a culmination of her fifteen years accumulative experience as a koto virtuoso based in Australia. Koto Dreaming begins with a work commissioned by celebrated Australian composer Ross Edwards and includes pieces by composers Caroline Szeto, Anthony Briggs, Linsey Pollak, as well as Satsuki herself, in collaboration with Sandy Evans and Tony Lewis – who together comprise the trio Waratah.

Jon Hassell- CD Fascinoma- Caravenesque- Water Lily Acoustics - www.waterlilyacoustics.com

Jon Hassell—trumpet
Ry Cooder—guitar
Jacky Terrason—piano
Ronu Majumdar—bansuri
Rick Cox—guitar, bass clarinet, samples
Jamie Muhoberac—zendrum
Joachim Cooder—drums
Rick Masterson—tambura
Rose Okada—tambura

After twentysome years of recordings and performnaces, this is the first time I've ever played someone else's song. With this recording I locate myself squarely within that aspect of music which is fundamental and irreducible: the beauty of the sound. This is what Dane Rudyar calls "tone-magic" — a concept derived from ancient practice wherein the quality of the tone itself communicates meaning quite apart from any further arrangement of an "artifice" of music. At the same time I celebrate here my first contacts with musical exotica in the form of certain songs and melodies heard as a child on the radio or in movie scores. This music created a kind of permanent technicolor oasis in my spirit — a place where I always want to stop for a cool refreshing drink, whether from Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol's "Caravan", or Ravel or raga or gamelan or Gil, or Joao or Joujouka — and a place which became the underlying spring from which flowed my "fourth world" musical paradigm. Jon Hassell
Marc Anderson- Cd Time Fish- Asylum Downs

Knut Hamre & Steve Tibbetts - CD A- Olav Bergsland- Hannibal- (www.frammis.com)

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Miichael Brook Remixed CD Star Rise- Nitin Sawhney- Tracery Remix- Real World- (www.realworld.com)

V/A-Eastern Uprising: Dance Music from the Asian Underground [compilation]- Krome Assassins- Return of the Shankar- Higher Ground- http://www.higherground.co.uk/

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Miichael Brook Remixed Star Rise-Asian Dub Foundation- Taa Deem Remix- Real World- (www.realworld.com)

Various Artists- Music of Laos- The Buddhist Tradition- Sep Naichangva Khamenpaktho / Pheng Kaonok- Celestial Harmonies- www.celestialharmonies.com

Laos has remained a mystery to most Westerners even after the names of its neighboring countries—Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand—have become commonplace. Music of Laos: The Buddhist Tradition is the result of a collaboration between the University of Applied Sciences in Emden, Germany, and the Ministry of Information and Culture of Laos. If Laos is still a mystery to the West, its music is even more obscure. As producer Gisa Jähnichen points out, little research has been done on musical practises in Laos. She determined that only 22 albums were ever issued of Lao music—some on cassette only, many of dubious quality, and most generally unavailable. Apart from the khen, most types of Lao music were woefully underrecorded. Buddhism has greatly affected both the ‘classical’ ceremonial ensembles and the rural or ‘folk’ singing and playing of the farmers and villages. Music happens at all the major events in the Lao calendar, especially at the beginning of the New Year and during full moons, and at weddings, funerals, and other special occasions. The songs performed at these events are not haphazard; there is a strong tradition of prayer and thanksgiving that can be heard at a village wedding as clearly as at a grand temple festival. It is this tradition that is represented on this recording. Recording the ceremonial ensemble of Champasak in Champasak province (which is the source of the first four tracks on this collection) offered an opportunity to record a fabulous set of instruments that had been made in 1750 and are still in use. But in Xieng Khuang, Jähnichen’s crew spent three days without water and electricity, and automotive repair seems to have been as much a part of the production team’s job as the actual recording. The infrastructure of Laos is not up to modern standards, and while the area of Luang Prabang was served by a new road, unregulated irrigration by local farmers made it difficult to get very far without having to alter course several times. Jähnichen also found that the religious/ritual music of the province was far less accessible than the classical court and entertainment styles. The last five tracks on this collection come from Luang Prabang, featuring the Pi Mai ensemble, and while they clearly feature a ‘classical’ ensemble and some fairly obvious ‘popular’ tunes, they nevertheless show the pervasive influence of Buddhism, as they were all part of the Buddhist New Year celebration held in April. Through it all, Jähnichen recorded as much as she could. “We made a cross-section of actual music practices; it was not our aim to record the whole musical history of a particular ethnic group.” With her crew she documented 24 different ethnic groups in Laos between June 1999 and May 2001. They made nearly 1000 audio recordings totaling almost 80 hours of material. Music of Laos: The Buddhist Tradition is obviously just a sample of the resulting archives. This volume, as the title indicates, serves merely to hint at the enormous presence and impact of Buddhist thought in various forms of Lao music.

Rokia Traore- Live at Le Cigale Paris 2004 (DVD) - Audio extract- Label Indigo- www.label-bleu.com

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/womad2004/rokia_traore.shtml

I also did a quick interview with local musician, sound explorer and healer Vicki Hansen from the group IndiaJiva who have a special event coming up May 6 at Eastside Arts Centre. She spoke about her new label Medicine Music which will be officially launched on the night. More information at www.medicinemusic.com.au. Music in this section from her albums Global Roots-The Odyssey & Sacred Ragas. The interview will run for 14 minutes. The interview will be available for download over at the Powerspot blog by Thursday and will be online for a month.