Womex 2009
MONDOMIX DAILY WOMEX WEBCAST IN COPENHAGEN
October 31st
It’s hard to believe it’s the morning during the groovy daycase Kouyaté-Neermann offers us. The Malian balafon player Lansiné Kouyaté and the French vibraphonist David Neerman mix African and jazz traditions in a happy way that could have been made for a late night session. After that, the few people in the audience were totally charged with good energy for the rest of the day.
You cannot fully understand and appreciate Oreka TX solely going by the record they released a few months ago. On stage the Spanish Basque musicians who initiated this project reveal their strange instruments, at the centre of which is the Txalaparta, a kind of xylophone made of different sized wooden beams hit with pestles. They also screened a movie of the journey they made together to create this music. We see them in Laponia where they met players who have a similar instrument, but made of ice, the live and the filmed sounds make an amazing combination. A gracious Sahraouian singer and a husky Mongolian one also join them and give the live show an emotional depth that is hard to capture on CD.
Tonight maybe you could track the diversity of shows on offer through the various incarnations of one instrument. Whether Cajun, Lautari or Quebecois, the accordion showed up in many of the sets and it was never the same twice. Over on the Ground Stage, Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole threw a proper Louisiana ‘La-La’ party, reviving old-school Creole zydeco and waltz, fronted by scrubboard, fiddle and accordion. With his own new compositions and soulful vocals young Grammy winner Watson locked down the connect between the American South-West, Africa and the Caribbean.
Solo singer Unni Løvlid stilled the air in the Nordic Club, her Norwegian folk funeral songs (gently referred to as ‘evening’ songs) made to carry the spirit to the next world. The notes were chilling, yet strangely comforting.
Brigada Retro Mishto have been playing Romanian gypsy music since 1945. This line up of venerable gentlemen (all aged 75+) channelled the aching mournful soul of their centuries old culture with phenomenal tenderness and skill. Violin virtuoso Cornel Bosoi etched impossibly melancholic melodies, accompanied by cimbalom, accordion, trumpet, double bass and guitar. And yet again the acoustics in the Studio 1 auditorium were just sublime.
Deep electro beats and oriental soul from Marseille take the Womexicans to the last danceable show of this edition. Watchaclan give happy bleeps and moody Arab melodies to the audience. It’s a generous and energetic set from the French electro rooted band signed to the German Piranha label.
For the closing party we were treated to a killer DJ session by Pedo Knopp and Samy Ben Redjeb of the Analog Africa label. Samy has amassed a seriously deep collection of thousands of vintage African vinyls. Through meticulous research, particularly in Benin, he’s released some truly rare gems on his distinguished compilations. Tonight we got sheer retro bliss on a packed dancefloor.
Mondomix
// ALSO
- Venus On Earth
- Collectorama - Story of Mister Soul
- Legends of Benin - Afro-Beat, Cavacha, Agbadja, Afro-Funk 1969-1981
- Joe Bataan & James Pants live at Cargo 11 June plus dates in Leeds and Birmingham
- The Music of Central Asia, Mongolian travel diary
- womex 2009, October 30th
- Khaled, Liberté
- Closed Zone – animated support for freedom of movement in Gaza
- Quantic and his Combo Barbaro album launch tour starts Friday 5 June at the ICA
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