October 29th

For fifteen years, the international trade fair Womex has offered music professionals and artists a platform to discuss and develop the business of world music. With over 2500 delegates in 2009, this specialist sector is a shape-shifting survivor. This year Womex is being held in Copenhagen, which means Roskilde festival (the Glastonbury of the north) is on hand to provide impeccable production for the 40+ band showcases. Inside the spectral blue box of the Jean Nouvel-designed Copenhagen Concert Center the shows unfold for the night.


Grupo Fantasma hail from the US – that crucial powerhouse of Latin music. They play a muscular set of salsa and cumbia infused with funk and psychedelic spins. Studio 1 is the largest auditorium here and it’s a spectacular venue, a vast wood- panelled cocoon. Inside, Addis Acoustic Project’s soft, jazzy versions of Ethiopian vintage classics drift upwards, it’s a gentle groove with carefully rounded edges played on mandolin, accordion, clarinet, double-bass and drums.


Later, there’s an ethereal performance by all woman Sufi group Deba. Their mesmerising voices give the ceremonial music of Mayotte an entrancing and magical lift. Montreal’s Josh Dolgin AKA Socalled invented hip hop klezmer, and he’s a genial performer – on accordion and vocals - rapping, singing and waxing lyrical in Yiddish, English and French. Playful and intense, it’s a winning style Berlin delegate Frank Klaffs described as ‘Groucho Marx meets The Last Poets’.

Over at the Nordic Club, Wimme, one of the greatest yoik singers, the shamanic singing of the sami people, presents us some of the mysteries from the Big North. The wind and wolves appear in his voice, while three sensitive musicians armed with saxophone, strings (banjo, ukukeke, guitar) and a percussionist who also manipulates electronics help him to build a fascinating landscape. Iranian, kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Khalor has teamed up this time with Brooklyn Rider, a string band he met while working with Yo Yo Man. Tonight, bows, plectrums and strings are at their best, the air becomes majestically musical. 

MONDOMIX

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