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Céleste Boursier-Mougenot
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Commission for The Curve, Barbican, London
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Commission for The Curve, Barbican, London
Trained as a musician and composer, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways. His installation for The Curve will take the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape.
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Bassekou Kouyate - "Ngoni Fola"
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..."Malian ngoni virtuoso Bassekou Kouyate – who states that time-honoured intention to me through an interpreter, while waiting to record a live radio session at the BBC – the record in question actually achieves its goal.
In a year dominated by female-fronted electropop and breakthrough urban crossover acts, the propulsive pleasures of rock ’n’ roll have been a little hard to come by. But the momentum generated in the course of I Speak Fula (the marvellously propulsive second album by Kouyate’s seven-strong ensemble, Ngoni Ba, which includes three other ngoni players, two percussionists and his wife, the powerful singer Amy Sacko) locates the group closer to the hallowed hard rock terrain of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird than the earthenware ghetto for which the world music circuit is sometimes mistaken.
The ngoni, Kouyate’s musical weapon of choice, is a hollowed-out piece of wood, covered in dried cowhide, with four strings running up a fretless neck. It looks like a kayak paddle or a small cricket bat, and creates (in the right hands) the thrillingly kinetic ripple of a more versatile banjo. As well as teaching the ngoni at his own academy in the Malian capital Bamako, rising interest in these increasingly fashionable instruments drives Kouyate to export them to Europe. ..." ( Telegraph, UK )
In a year dominated by female-fronted electropop and breakthrough urban crossover acts, the propulsive pleasures of rock ’n’ roll have been a little hard to come by. But the momentum generated in the course of I Speak Fula (the marvellously propulsive second album by Kouyate’s seven-strong ensemble, Ngoni Ba, which includes three other ngoni players, two percussionists and his wife, the powerful singer Amy Sacko) locates the group closer to the hallowed hard rock terrain of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Freebird than the earthenware ghetto for which the world music circuit is sometimes mistaken.
The ngoni, Kouyate’s musical weapon of choice, is a hollowed-out piece of wood, covered in dried cowhide, with four strings running up a fretless neck. It looks like a kayak paddle or a small cricket bat, and creates (in the right hands) the thrillingly kinetic ripple of a more versatile banjo. As well as teaching the ngoni at his own academy in the Malian capital Bamako, rising interest in these increasingly fashionable instruments drives Kouyate to export them to Europe. ..." ( Telegraph, UK )
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Amampondo - " Sens'Inkoma "
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Amampondo
Formed in 1979, Amampondo is a group from South Africa's Eastern Cape (Pondo Land) that started playing Xhosa traditional music, mostly percussion and vocals. Now it has blossomed into one of the most interesting and experimental groups in the country, opening its doors to let in the breezy jazz of Cape Town as well as a variety of other African traditional elements. The result is a remarkable blend of marimbas, drums, horns, piano and layers of male and female vocals. ( Calabash Music )
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Amampondo
Formed in 1979, Amampondo is a group from South Africa's Eastern Cape (Pondo Land) that started playing Xhosa traditional music, mostly percussion and vocals. Now it has blossomed into one of the most interesting and experimental groups in the country, opening its doors to let in the breezy jazz of Cape Town as well as a variety of other African traditional elements. The result is a remarkable blend of marimbas, drums, horns, piano and layers of male and female vocals. ( Calabash Music )
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Omar Sosa and Tim Eriksen - " Promised Land"
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Three-time Grammy-nominated Cuban composer and pianist Omar Sosa has long been influenced by his African roots. On his latest album, Across the Divide, he explores how popular music was shaped by the tunes that entered two ports during the slavery years: Havana and Chesapeake Bay.
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