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Sublime Frequencies Communiqué
24 February 2015
19 February 2015
Spectrum Culture Review: Various Artists: Folk Music of the Sahel Vol. 1: Niger
SUBLIME FREQUENCIES COMMUNIQUÈ
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Various Artists:
Folk Music of the Sahel Vol. 1: Niger
Rating: 3.75/5 
This year marks the 100th birthday of folklorist Alan Lomax, whose field recordings provided scholars and musicians with essential examples of American folk music. Sublime Frequencies co-founder Hisham Mayet carries on in this tradition with his own series of field recordings that go further than Lomax would have ever dreamed of. The first volume of the new Sublime Frequencies series Folk Music of the Sahel focuses on ethnic groups in Niger, and consists of field recordings Mayet made in his travels through the country in the past decade.
Mayet’s interest in the region stemmed from an ethnographic film about the Bori possession cult of Niger. You can’t get more exotic, and “other” than that, but if the allure of the spirit world was what started Mayet on this journey, he found not just spirit ceremonies but the extraordinary music of ordinary life.
Opening track “Al Fulani” comes from the Hausa region and features two musicians playing the gourmi, three-stringed instruments played with a stick, accompanied by vocals and a talking drum. The traditional string instruments are percussive, and bring complicated polyrhythms to a song that praises the beauty of women in a region of Western Niger. Lyrics aren’t provided, but I imagine this frenetic music boils down to, “I wish they all could be Fulani girls.”
Other tracks from the Hausa region tackle more serious matters. Ceremonial music performed by The Orchestra of the Sultan of Zinder has the chaos of free jazz, vocals and horn lines and drumbeats all in apparent discord from another. But there must be some kind of structure I can’t hear, because the chants are in honor of the Sultan, and you’d think he’d demand order in his praises.
If you came to this set looking for music from possession ceremonies, you won’t be disappointed. “Music for a Hauka Ceremony” is led by a goje, a one or two-stringed fiddle frequently used in possession ceremonies. This track is a rare recording of such a ritual, the musicians performing along with a priest, two mediums and a client in spiritual crisis. It’s distracting that, if you’re wearing good headphones, you can hear someone cough and hock up a luger near the end of the track, but perhaps this unceremonious sound is a signal that the spirit was expelled and the ritual was a success. The album includes a brief recording of a second possession ceremony in which the goje solo septs out from the traditional rhythm for some free spirited, incantatory improv.
Traditional instruments are featured through much of the set, but Niger is also known for a vibrant modern music scene. The seven-minute “Denke Denke” is guitar-heavy music for a Fulani wedding. “Bismillhia” is a collaboration between Ousenni, master of the stringed molo, and Koudede, a beloved Tuareg guitarist who died in a car accident in 2012. Those intrigued by this sound should track down music by Mdou Moctar, whose modernized Tuareg guitar music with electronic treatments are featured on albums released by the Sahel Sounds label. The booklet that accompanies Folk Music of the Sahel includes vividly colorful photographs of the people of Niger. I wish there were more photos to accompany the set, but as Sublime Frequencies has promised more volumes in this series, I’ll just have to wait for their next exploration of the region.
18 February 2015
SUBLIME FREQUENCIES COMMUNIQUÈ
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— SUBLIME FREQUENCIES' DOWNLOADS —
NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH BANDCAMP
at this link:
http://sublimefrequencies.bandcamp.com/music
Also available is the Sublime Frequencies Digital Sampler
for only $5.
12 February 2015
Fréquences Sublimes: Jean-Jacques Birgé - DVD reviews (In French) Google Translation available on page.
SUBLIME FREQUENCIES COMMUNIQUÈ
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Fréquences sublimes
Filmés "roots" comme par des amateurs appliqués et passionnés, évitant souvent les commentaires pour laisser parler les images et les sons, ces field recordings ont plus de charme que bien des documentaires peaufinés et formatés. Axés sur la musique traditionnelle des pays visités, ces récits de voyage s'attardent sur le contre-champ de la vie quotidienne, révélant le paysage sonore et social contemporain où surnage la tradition. de Matt Dunning oppose ainsi le gamelan javanais à la fête populaire du Festival Sekaten, un cours de danse dans le Palais Mangkunegaran se superpose à la vie nocturne de Solo.
est un voyage de Laurent Jeanneau filmé par David Harris sur les plateaux du Sud-Est asiatique à la frontière entre la Chine et le Laos. De rituels shamaniques en chansons d'amour le collecteur de sons commente sa démarche et ses rencontres. Le road movie s'axe sur les musiques rarement entendues des minorités ethniques qui risquent de disparaître rapidement.
Le film de Hisham Mayet, , dévoile diverses cérémonies vaudous du Bénin (ex Dahomey). On y découvre le culte Sakpata, dieu de la terre, de la variole et de la guérison, les Egoun-gouns, revenants du Royaume des Morts pour conseiller les vivants ou la police secrète des Zangbeto se déplaçant la nuit déguisés en meules de foin...
Ces trois DVD appartiennent au label de Seatle, , dirigé par Alan Bishop des Sun City Girls, qui a déjà publié une centaine d’enregistrements en cd, vinyles et dvd en provenance d’Asie du sud-est, du Moyen Orient, du Maghreb et de l’Afrique. Une partie (dont ces DVD) est distribuée en France par . Ils n'en révèlent pas seulement les musiques traditionnelles ou actuelles, mais aussi la vie quotidienne, "les curiosités, les petits riens « en voie de disparition », ceux-là même que les reportages s’échinent à gommer si scrupuleusement".
Les enregistrements de rue sont évidemment passionnants, mais ce sont les programmes radio qui me font le plus rêver. Certains sont des plunderphonics, zapping de séquences plus ou moins longues comme j'en réalise depuis les années 70, suite de mon enfance où je cherchais les bruits du monde sur les ondes courtes du gros Telefunken de mon grand-père. , Radio Morocco (on y est transporté mieux qu'avec n'importe quel disque), Radio Palestine (cosmopolite à fond), Radio India, , Radio Sumatra, Radio Pyongyang (sous-titréCommie Funk and Agit Pop from the Hermit Kingdom !), , Radio Algeria, Radio Myanmar, Radio Niger, Radio Vietnam... Au catalogue on trouve aussi des albums trépidents du Syrien ou du Turc , des groupes , , et des kitcheries délicieuses de la compilation birmane , la merveilleuse , le irakien, le guitariste égyptien , le malais, et tant d'autres. Il existe d'ailleurs un DVD mp3 réunissant les 51 premières références dont beaucoup sont aujourd'hui introuvables car le label sort souvent en tirage limité. "Vivantes mais également vibrantes, humoristiques, souvent low-tech (parce qu’à l’exacte fréquence des pays traversés), plus proches de l’art audio que des projections « Connaissance du Monde » telles sont les productions Sublime Frequencies".
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09 February 2015
NOTHING SOUNDS BETTER REVIEW with sample: Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band - Juguya
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I happen to live in an area of the country that is rather optimistically dubbed “The Sun Belt,” but whoever gave it that name has never spent a February in North Carolina. We are in the cold, gray days my friends, and Punxsutawney Phil has forsaken us. Thank God, then, for the sunny sounds of Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band to carry us through these dire times. Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band (henceforth BCMB) hail from Burkina Faso and play a heady brew of Afrobeat and folk music rooted in the Burkinan tradition. Their bouncy jam “Juguya” makes you want to dance until you can’t feel your feet anymore, but it’s not just fun and games: there’s plenty of grit to go around.
On “Juguya,” Baba Commandant alternately croons and howls his way through waves of dense funk, his voice shifting back and forth like a nimble reveler threading their way across the dance floor. His donso ngoni, a traditional West African hunter’s harp, skitters underneath the electric instrumentation, giving the song’s monster Afrobeat funk a delicate skeleton upon which it ceaselessly dances. Towards the song’s conclusion a saxophone cuts in and picks up speed, racing pell-mell onward to collapse at the finish line, utterly spent. It’s a sentiment anyone who listens to this track can appreciate. Sublime Frequencies is slated to release the JuguyaLP in late February. I think I speak for all my fellow stir-crazy, frozen-ass Sun Belters when I say it can’t come soon enough.
- Peter Schultz
On “Juguya,” Baba Commandant alternately croons and howls his way through waves of dense funk, his voice shifting back and forth like a nimble reveler threading their way across the dance floor. His donso ngoni, a traditional West African hunter’s harp, skitters underneath the electric instrumentation, giving the song’s monster Afrobeat funk a delicate skeleton upon which it ceaselessly dances. Towards the song’s conclusion a saxophone cuts in and picks up speed, racing pell-mell onward to collapse at the finish line, utterly spent. It’s a sentiment anyone who listens to this track can appreciate. Sublime Frequencies is slated to release the JuguyaLP in late February. I think I speak for all my fellow stir-crazy, frozen-ass Sun Belters when I say it can’t come soon enough.
- Peter Schultz
04 February 2015
The Stirring of a Thousand Bells – LIVE in TORONTO - Film Screening & Live Music by Andrew Timar & Bill Parsons Duo: This Friday, Feb. 6th
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Two
films take viewers on a visual / musical tour of life in Indonesia,
to mark Small World's first film screening at the Centre.
The Stirring of a Thousand Bells (Sublime Frequencies 2014, 51 min), by Matt Dunning
The evening will start with a musical performance:
An Imaginary Live Soundtrack for Ambient Worlds: Indonesia meets Canada by the Andrew Timar & Bill Parsons Duo
The Stirring of a Thousand Bells
Film Screening & Live Music
by Andrew Timar & Bill Parsons Duo
to mark Small World's first film screening at the Centre.
Friday February 6th
doors: 7:30 pm - show: 8:00 PM
venue: Small World Music Centre
180 Shaw Street, Studio 101, Toronto
Price: $10
Gamelan is one of the ancient music traditions of the world. In Solo,
it’s still a part of everyday life and an important cultural custom. A
complex wonder of human invention, it comes from a timeless world of
aural tradition, contemplation, and relaxed living. These films capture
the essence of the gamelan tradition, in the context of the changing
modern world. Come and experience Java and feel what it’s like to be
lost in a world of history.
The Stirring of a Thousand Bells (Sublime Frequencies 2014, 51 min), by Matt Dunning
1. Sekaten - 35’15” - Experience Java's most cosmic music festival where
the old world and the new are colliding, creating captivating images
and sound. It attempts to put the viewer in the perspective of someone
experiencing the Sekaten festival for the first time, leaving a sense of
curiosity, and desire to learn more about Javanese culture.
2. Srimpi Muncar - 15’20” - Enchanting melodies and meditative dance from Mangkunegaran Palace, with arresting images from throughout Java.
2. Srimpi Muncar - 15’20” - Enchanting melodies and meditative dance from Mangkunegaran Palace, with arresting images from throughout Java.
The evening will start with a musical performance:
An Imaginary Live Soundtrack for Ambient Worlds: Indonesia meets Canada by the Andrew Timar & Bill Parsons Duo
Playing Sundanese instruments from West Java, Indonesia Canadian
composer-musicians Andrew Timar (suling: ring flute & kacapi:
zither), and Bill Parsons (kacapi, & guitar) with guest Matthew
Dunning (kendhang sabet: Central Javanese barrel drum) weave an ambient
soundtrack to an imaginary film, woven with fixed and improvised
interlocking minimalist sonic textures, using threads of Sundanese
songs, bronze Javanese kemanak, bells and gamelan drumming.
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