Posts Tagged ‘womad’

festivals a-go-go?

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Live performance is no doubt one of the most expressive platforms responsible for taking music from a unidimensional experience and intensifying its potency manyfold into a multi-sensory one.

Stunning sounds isolated from the company of visual performance, will always remain so, or simply put: ‘a good song is a good song.’ However, there’s a time for reveling in Grado audiophile geekiness and a time for collective celebration, on-going sonic indulgence and Funktion-One PA systems. More specifically in the UK, this time spans periodically from late May till early September and is more commonly referred to as the season of summer festivals.

Attracting sound-craving fans from all four corners of the Isles and beyond, British summer muddy music festivals are heralded internationally as some of the most impressive. Furthermore, to perform at, is for many musicians a validation that they have entered the upper echelons of their given genre.

As discussed previously, the UK continues to churn out new festivals on a yearly basis offering yet more variety for those seeking alternative experiences. A spectrum of choices appealing to the mainstream, genre-driven and even ’boutique’ crowd can be witnessed in all sorts of publications and targeted media/mass communication leading up to the summer months.

The problem is, it seems as if the UK scene has reached a saturation-point whereby there are just too many festivals, too many choices to be made and nothing really interesting, actually happening. For example, there are the people that will go to say, WOMAD on an annual basis. It’s a ritual, they enjoy the vibe and know what to expect (even though they don’t). They will look forward to hearing some random ‘Zulu string quartet’ and will share the good news in the aftermath upon return to their abode. Then there are the others who follow their favourite acts around. They check the line-ups of the festivals that relate to their genre/s of choice and only go to the ones that they recognise the performers they want to see*.

*Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club will be playing @ Standon Calling this year.

Excuse my generalisations, I’m not saying that there’s a problem with either of these strategies for deciding which festivals to hit. What I do find interesting, however, is how this sheds light on a key task of the festival producer. He must either book the biggest m*********kers within his scope and appeal to the masses that way. Or not bother at all – simply call the festival niche and book those that exemplify the ‘vibe’ trying to be portrayed as well as focusing all resources on ensuring the appropriate crowd, atmosphere, etc and get people in that way.

Whether you require tens of thousands or a couple hundred, fundamentally, it’s the people that make the festivals, so they must be catered for.

So where am I going with this? The point, is that as plentiful as the options may seem, the overall end products are limited. You can pretty much go to a handful of contrasting festivals and get the gist.

For people that have been going for years, the seemingly “growing” UK music festival industry has in actual fact, plateaued and is in decline. The few gems of small festivals that have recently dared to be game-changing, now cease to exist. On the same token, the self-cannibalisation of larger festivals continue to increase as organisers eat at each other’s predictable line-ups. This predicament inspires only the uninitiated youth; true festival aficionados are today’s real casualties, since the remnants of better times are now extinct in the festival scene (or at least much harder to find).

Apathy should be the last emotion summonsed when considering festivals of any sort. Yet lets face it, after many years of the same summer festival clichés, who can really be arsed for the camping, crappy sanitation and over-priced food if anyone less than your favourite artist is set to perform? Not me.

In order to reverse this downward spiral, many UK and mainland European organisers have shut up shop, set their sights further afield and emigrated to Croatia. More specifically to, the Garden, Petrčane. These collaborations on new soil were never an attempt to recreate Ibiza or Ayia Napa but to provide an antithetical retreat for those that have become apathetic to the aforementioned commonplace ‘music havens’. This formula seems to have solved more problems than it initially envisaged as the festival scene in Petrčane (a small fishing village in Zadar) has continued to grow exponentially since its inception (in the form of the Garden Festival) 5 years or so ago.

Regarding festivals, mainland Europe shares pretty much the same story as the UK. However, being outside of the Euro-zone, Croatia seems to be one of the more mysterious and least rinsed locations in the midst of festival-hogging countries such as Spain.

Succeeding in its underdog route, the Garden, Petrčane is now boasting 5 solid festivals that can hold their own amongst the very best with added perks.

THE GARDEN FESTIVAL: 2nd-11th July

SOUNDWAVE: 23rd-25th July

SUNCEBEAT: 13th-15th August

ELECTRIC ELEPHANT: 27th-29th August

STOP MAKING SENSE: 3rd-5th September

These festivals do differ from each other, but only slightly. Really, it’s all about being low-key in gimmicks, high-quality in music and all-round, good vibes. Petrčane takes the general festival template and tones things down. People that go, tend to stay in villas, spending a longer holiday duration in the village and only attending the festival as part of the weekend in-between. Sound-wise, the majority of the festivals cater to those that are into the kind of music you’d find at Southport Weekender (who are the organisers of Suncebeat), with quality yet not ridiculously famous live acts. The Garden Festival is about as commercial as it gets but is still not really. And then you have the dance music vibes at Stop Making Sense, Suncebeat and Soundwave that encompass the genre right from the hardcore electronic to the jazzy, down-tempo scale of the spectrum.

The location is picturesque, atmosphere unpretentious and yet rammed with musicians and DJs playing what they want. In the name of hedonism, every festival offers boat parties across the Adriatic Sea allowing partiers the opportunity to revel in the glory of the location.

This year, there are some sizeable names reaching such as Carl Craig, Jazzanova, Roy Ayers, Norman Jay, Francois K and Mayer Hawthorne, as well as many lesser-known artists to keep everyone on their toes.

Despite still being classified as ‘boutique’ (due to its size), the steadily growing and loyal fan-base are fast spreading the gospel of Petrčane and sadly enough soon, these festivals will find themselves at the brink of losing what initially made them the vibe to be at. As more dough is being pumped into the area, the once word-of-mouth policy has already morphed into a major marketing push that will no doubt attract the good and the lame. After all, everybody loves the sunshine. I personally give the location a few more years before it becomes the next ‘England with sun, sand, sea and sex’ all over again…

Catch it now before its too late.

 

Review: Grupo Vocal Desandann

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

“The Creole Choir of Cuba, referred to as “Desandann” domestically, is composed from the descendants of several waves of Haitian migrants who escaped slavery at the end of the 18th Century or more recently came as labourers to work Cuba’s sugar plantations.

Between 1795 and 1805 30,000 Haitians emigrated to eastern Cuba. Two more waves followed, 1920-1940 and the 1980’s. 

Today, estimates of the Haitian population in Cuba range from 300,000 to 1 million. Each wave of emigrants had its own distinct characteristics and brought with them their strong music and dance traditions, religion and cultural habits on their journey from Haiti to Cuba.

Grupo Vocal Desandann preserve the rich cultural patrimony of their parents’ and grandparents’ birthplace through music especially ”La Cancionistica” which has been enriched by elements of other Creole speaking Caribbean countries.

Their repertoire consists of a wide range of choral arrangements with percussion including Choucoune, a Haitian merengue, Gran Toumobile, a Creole Mazurka and Doudou Moin, a Martinique merengue.”

This was the intro the audience were given yesterday before the group came on. Honestly speaking, I tried not to set my hopes too high, preparing myself for a ‘user-friendly,’ cliched and a comfortably ‘ethnic-extravaganza.’

What came next was pure magic. In a language foreign to the entire audience, Desandann communicated a message that went far beyond the literal translation of their set. They told their tales of struggle, hardship and celebration using nothing but pure energy and emotion. Sound-wise, the harmonies were beyond sublime. Although slightly over-choreographed and a touch gimmicky at times, each performance seemed to hold a spiritual truth that connected us as listeners, to their forefathers’ stories and experiences. I would love to say that their execution was disciplined but that would be selling it short; despite the strict military precision at which Desandann progressed from one song to another, each song seemed to evoke spirits that possessed them whilst they delivered their messages. The level of intensity was immense and we were all captivated as they went from sombre goosepimply lamentations to traditional Creole folk and even high-octane tribal chants.

Please forgive my writing if this sounds cheesy, STOMP, this is NOT. In fact, of late, I’ve been quite uninpsired by the live performances I’ve experienced. For the unknown acts I’ve stumbled across – the recurring vibe I feel, is that of the hustle of the group performing, i.e. trying to appeal to the audience they were paid to please and lacking in the energy they once used to fuel their ambitions to reach a greater ideology through sharing these gifts.

“We all gotta eat, right?”

And as for those who’ve already made it, I personally feel as if there’s a plague of laziness, whereby the artist/s know precisely what’s going to happen and when, whilst the audience also know precisely what is going to be delivered and when. Its all value for money, no surprises and all that s**t.

Essentially both cases have the same boring outcome: a certain predictability and a false depiction of the artists’ freedom in live performance.

Desandann on the other hand, achieved the complete opposite by every measure. A ‘palatable,’ ‘riveting’ group unravelling many layers of freedom and truth. What I anticipated to be the ‘Caribbean version of Ladysmith Black Mambazo‘ turned out to possess a much richer core and purer intent.

Wilton’s Music Hall was a perfect setting for the performance with its peeling walls and worn out, yet beautifully embellished interior. Its stripped-down ambience was brought back to life by Desandann as they paid homage to history and time.

I cannot completely vouch for their non-cheesiness as there was a moment where I assume the organiser of the event was light-heartedly dragged out into the front to strut his stuff with one of the female singers. In saying that, it gave the choir a chance to express their gratitude for being provided with such an opportunity.

Desandann are quite familiar to other Caribbean Islanders and have been touring there, in America and Canada for quite some time. During Haiti’s disaster, Desandann were deployed there to maintain morale amongst the citizens, singing in the streets and in aid hospitals. However in Europe, Desandann seem to have soared in popularity only a year or so ago. Tonight, they featured on Jools Holland so hopefully they’ll be able to keep on returning back to teach those that have not yet heard.

As a result of their unexpected British popularity when they came to the UK to perform at WOMAD and the Edinburgh International Festival last year, Desandann recorded an album here in two days. I have not heard it but have since come to learn that they also perform songs in English, hymnals and other easily-likable styles. Thus I am unaware of the album’s content. Everything I have critiqued, relates to this particular live show. I can imagine the potency of Desandann’s message being lost within digital media formats. Who knows? However, in order to support their journey, I will definitely be picking up a copy. Desandann live, is a performance everyone ought to check out, in at least one stage of their life.

 

Desandann UK Website

Desandann MySpace