from
our
albums

12-14 July 2001

One of the most crowd-pleasing groups to have played at the festival, INKA MARKA is back to set the audiences on fire, as they did during their memorable appearance at the 3^rd edition of the festival in 2000.

A very exciting group that plays music from the South American Andes, INKA MARKA is made of five young men of Peruvian, Bolivian and Chilean origin who now live in Melbourne, Australia, where their popularity is growing nationwide with several CDs under their belt and regular public performances.

The music from the Andes is the traditional music from the highlands of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile, born from the fusion of native pre-Hispanic wind and percussion instruments with the mainly string instruments brought by the Spanish colonizers. It combines the haunting melodies of the Zamponas (Pan flute) and Quena (bamboo flute) with the rich sounds of the guitar and the Charango, a small ten-string instrument, sometimes made with the skin of a scaly anteater called the Quirquincho.

One of the earliest forms of world music to reach Western audiences thanks to the popular renditions of Daniel Alomias Robles’ “El Condor Pasa” by Simon & Garfunkel and Andy Williams, Andean tunes and sounds are often heard crossing over into pop music, such as with Shakira or even M. Nasir in Malaysia, who coincidentally played alongside INKA MARKA at the Rainforest World Music Festival in 2000.

INKA MARKA plays traditional tunes and Andean classics as well as more contemporary music from other parts of Latin America and the latest trends in the continuously evolving and vibrant Andean music, a music not at all static, with new pieces being constantly composed and new styles being created, such as Chicha music, the fusion of Andean music with the Afro-Caribbean sounds of the Peruvian coastal areas.

Once again, the Condor will meet the Hornbill and the sounds of the arid mountains of the Andes will resonate in the lush rainforests of Borneo, guaranteeing a great Fiesta of music and dance…

ADAMA YALOMBA, whose real name is Adama Traoré was born in the middle of the 70's in Kémacina in the West African landlocked country of Mali.

His father, Samadji Traoré was a farmer as well as a renowned musician. It is with his father that the young Adama will train for 15 years in the art of mastering the traditional Malian instruments such as the Kamele N’goni, a six stringed harp similar to the Kora, and the mythical n’dan, a string instrument with six handles traditionally used to welcome travelers who must then tell all about their adventures in far away places.

With his father, Adama will travel the length and breadth of Mali, a vast former French colony on the southern fringes of the Sahara desert. Although now a poor country with little arable land and waging a constant battle against the encroachment by the sands of the desert, Mali was once home to proud African empires such as the Songhai, and was also a center for the diffusion of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly from the famed city and learning center of Timbuktu.

Mali is also home to the enigmatic Dogon culture, whose understanding of the workings of the universe and their veneration for the star Sirius has led many New Age thinkers to believe that the Dogon had inherited their knowledge from Aliens from outer space !

Far from the fantasies of the X-files, the reality is that today, Mali has few economic resources. One of its biggest and most notables exports is its music, which has greatly contributed to the richness of World Music with such luminaries as Ali Farka Toure, Rokia Traore and more recently modernists such as Issa Bagayogo and Adama Yalomba.

Adama Yalomba, from the Bambara ethnic group, is an author, composer, interpreter and an excellent percussionist and guitarist on all kinds of string instruments.

Now residing in Bamako, the capital of Mali, Adama has played with a number of formations before striking on his own with his own formation and unique ethno-electronic style, assisted by talented percussionists, bass and guitar players.

With as yet a limited international exposure, having performed mainly in Mali and France, Adama Yalomba’s highly danceable and captivating rhythms are sure to get the Rainforest World Music Festival crowds fast on their feet, and help propel this young artist to the international notoriety he rightly deserves.

 The KHAC CHI ENSEMBLE, which is a husband and wife duo from Vietnam,  is bringing a whole collection of rare and unique traditional Vietnamese instruments, exquisite music and entertaining performances to the Rainforest World Music Festival 2002.

Their music is a mix of folk, classical and new original material. Vietnamese music had been influenced by the Chinese as well as the Hindu Kingdom of Champa. Court music emerged in the Le Dynasty in the 15^th century and was played at religious and social occasions. It also accompanied plays and water puppets. Under Emperor Quang Tung in the 18^th century, theatre and court music became very popular.

Khac Chi and Ngoc Bich (pronounced “noc bic”) sing as well as play on their instruments. The melodies like most Oriental melodies are dexterous, taking  turns being sweet, haunting, humorous,  delicate and saucy.

The number and variety of Vietnamese instruments are many and Khac Chi is bringing quite a selection with them. For example, the one string zither Dan Bau, the stick fiddle or ko ni, large bamboo pipes called k’longput, and t’rung, a suspended bamboo xylophone.

The instruments they carry around with them all over the world is like a treasure trove – unknown and mysterious. To listen to Khac Chi is like to travel back in time for an intriguing glimpse into 4000 years of Vietnamese history.

The musicians themselves are also an amazement. Khac Chi, who named the ensemble after his name, attended and later instructed at the Vietnam Conservatory of Music in Hanoi. He is a composer as well as master multi-instrumentalist and determined to take the fragile music of Vietnam

Bic was the first woman ever to win the top prize in Vietnam’s competition for instrumentalists. She is also well known for her singing, inspiring other women to follow her example, but is best known as a pioneer when it comes to adapting the traditional music and instruments she grew up with to concert stages of the world.

Tranquility and Elegance…….that’s what to expect from KHAC CHI.

One of the biggest highlights of the Rainforest Festival this year is the exotic group of “warriors” called MATATO’A from Easter Island.

They fuse the music of Rapa Nui with Polynesian movements, Latin, modern folk, raggae and rock. Little surprise that they are going to be the closing act on Saturday (July 13^th) night.

The musicians of MATATO’A are bringing here their ancestral traditions. Body painting and costumes and dances are all part and parcel of their act. It is definitely going to be a very visual as well as aural experience.  

Easter Island is one of the most isolated islands in the world. Their nearest neighbours are Tahiti and Chile and they are 2000 miles away.  1200 years ago a double-hulled canoe filled with seafarers from a distant culture landed upon its shores.  Over the centuries that followed, a remarkable society developed in isolation on the island. For reasons still unknown they began carving giant statues out of volcanic rock. These huge monoliths , known, as "moai" are some of the most incredible ancient relics ever discovered and they dot the length of the coastline. Why they were made and how they were transported is still an unanswered question.

They named their new home “Te Pito O Te Henua" which means the Navel of The World. Admiral Roggeveen, who came upon the island on Easter Day in 1722, named it Easter Island. Today, the  land, people and language are all referred to locally as Rapa Nui.

In addition to the statues, they also possess the Rongorongo script - the only written language in Oceania. Despite a  growing Chilean presence, the island's Polynesian identity is still quite strong .

A lot of the mystery and fascination about the historical events that shrouds the island is remarkably similar to Borneo and Sarawak. It will be an amazing meeting of the 2 cultures when MATATO’A arrives in Kuching. There are also plans to juxtapose them with the Peruvian musicians from the group INKA MARKA at the workshops.

MATATO’A was formed in 1996 and they have been doing live as well as television shows, and producing many CDs. They are the rage in Chile as well as in French Polynesia and they have expressed their delight in being able to bring their music over to Borneo for the Rainforest Festival.

Among their instruments are the acoustic and bass guitars, traditional percussion, ukulele, harmonica, keyboards and Rapa Nui instruments  like stones, jaw of horse, Big drum, etc.

In 2001, OK!Ryos brought sweet sentimental South Pacific ballads to the festival. Do not expect the same from MATATO’A – it’s party time and this one’s going to be a blast! 

In an age of increasing globalisation and cross cultures, the world of music has not been untouched. It is now not unusual to find musicians incorporating styles and traditions from countries and cultures that are not their own.

In Europe, many groups play “world music”  - sometimes described loosely as rhythmical music with  inspiration from non-european cultures. However, oriental music is very rare even though immigrants from the Orient and the Middle-East are the largest minorities in Europe.

Then came ORIENTAL MOOD  -  a group of 7 men and one woman, most of them fair and unmistakably Danish.

Elements from musical traditions of Turkey,  Balkan, Kurdistan, Morocco, Egypt and India melt together with western music-styles, creating ORIENTAL MOOD’s own special “worldsound”.

Lars Bo Kujahn started as a jazz fusion drummer, but soon took interest in Balkan -and middle-eastern music. He lived for many years with one leg in Copenhagen, the other in Cairo, where he learned arabian drumming and to play the arabian harp, Qanoon.

Claus Mathiesen who plays clarinet, has his roots in experimental rock and Balkan-music. He started playing middle eastern music when he got in contact with turkish musicians in the beginning of the eighties. He studied and travelled in Turkey and the Balkans.

Frank Juul is one of the few westerners who really learned to play the Indian tabla. He studied art during a five years stay in Benares, India.

Marco Spallanzani is a jazz-fusion guitarist with a big love for world music.   He also plays saz – a turkish lute.

Niels Lichtenberg is the  bass-player of Oriental Mood and a specialist in Brazilian and Latin music. 

Yasar Tas  is the joker of Oriental Mood. He is a Turkish Kurd with a big passion for  the saz, oud, zurna,may and percussion.

Martin Andersen is the drummer and enfant terrible in Danish jazz and world music. 

Asmaá Mnour, the only member based in Cairo,  sings the lush and seductive melodies of ORIENTAL MOOD.

If you close your eyes while listening to this band on stage, you would be smack in the middle of Turkey, smelling warm incense and swaying to music that could come out of the Arabian Nights. With your eyes open, you might even be lulled into forgetting about blue eyes and blond hair!

See you at the festival. Bring along your seven veils…..

Surrounded by Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and the Russian Federation, is the Republic of Belarus. It is covered largely by forests and lakes, is rich in wildlife and crossed by major rivers such as the Dnieper. Belarus can trace its origins back to when it was a district in the Kiev region of Russia in the late 9^th century.  

IVAN KIRCHUK is a multi-instrumentalist who specializes in ethnology and folklore of his homeland Belarus. He owns and plays rare ancient instruments and, with his group, TROITSA, performs music that has almost disappeared from the region.

TROITSA will be one of the international groups who are performing at the Rainforest World Music Festival in July at the Sarawak Cultural Village, Kuching.

They play and sing ancient songs accompanied by instruments. Ivan Kirchuk has spent a lot of his life traveling all around the Belarusian countryside learning the lore and old ways.

Ivan is a bigger-than-life character with a magnificent beard to match. He is a professor at the University of Minsk and teaches national folk history. He has a wonderfully soulful voice and he will be bringing with him instruments like the Gusli, Domra, Flutes, Ocarina, Zmyk,and  Duda.

He also worked at the  Minsk Art College as the head of the section "Rituals and Folklore", and is the author of more than 20 programmes of reconstructed ceremonies for music and art colleges in Belarus. His unique works of arranged authentic folklore were frequently televised and broadcast in Europe, the USA and Australia.

Not only does Ivan perform with TROITSA, he  was the founder and the leader of educational laboratories and other folklore groups like "Pradviesnie", "Bliskavica", "Dabradzieji" and "Dziva", which have participated in numerous festivals in Belarus and abroad during 10 years.

The Belarusan antique puppet theatre "Batlejka" which has been  known in Belarus since the 16^th century is also a pet project of Ivan’s.

The 3 members of TROITSA will be playing on main stage at the festival. There will also be workshops where Ivan Kirchuk will be introducing and demonstrating on his precious instruments that he will be bringing in with him.

To listen and to look at TROITSA is like to travel back in time where hardy Russians with their husky voices sang in the face of the cold winds of the Steppes.

Back    Next