Folk Musicians from Argentina, Czech Republic, India, Iran, Spain, and Sweden Transcend the Audience to Melodies, Rhythms and Tunes of Musical Heritage
How independent musicians persevere to keep traditional music alive; for this, they seek your support for sustenance, ‘not just Spotify’
Artists have the potential to nudge the earthlings to think of the unthinkable, the tangible and intangible aspects of the world around.
‘The job of an artist is to offer a sanctuary of beauty to an ugly world’ observed Jeff Goins the author. Indeed, the artists offer a sanctuary with their chosen medium of art but it is not easy for most artists to make a living out of their art form.
Artists: Folk Musicians
It is challenging and daunting for many musicians to eke out a living out of their music. And it is all the more severe for folk musicians for it is not mainstream, and do not make it to the top of the charts.
Yet the passion to keep the folk music alive and pass it on to the next generation, drives the folk musicians to work on their art form. They strive to share their art to transcend their audience to another realm of humanity: earthly, heavenly, and that that is between the earth and the heaven.
Six Folk Musicians:
Six artists gathered for a folk music festival named Minga Fesitvalen 2020 and performed in front of a small audience, coronavirus-dictated times, in Gothenburg on Saturday, 26 September.
The folk musicians from Argentina, Czech Republic, India, Iran, Spain, and Sweden transcended the audience to melodies, rhythms and tunes of musical heritage with fusion, improvisation and innovation.
Their music brought out bucolic, earthly, ethereal, folksy, idyllic, sublime, and uplifting moods with their sounds out of their voices and instruments. The folk musicians were Alan Haksten, Joan Peiro Aznar, Žofie Kašparová, Maryam Javidmehr, Sunniva Brynnel, and Prabhat Das.
The music festival was organised by Pelle Bolander the Art Director of Minga Festivalen along with Alan Haksten at Gathenhiemlmska huset in Gothenburg. Minga is the music festival where folk musicians from different cultures, who had never met before, flash and create something new that may wear or break. Among them, accordion was one of the musical instruments used by most artists.
Accordion:
The most famous according player is Marcel Azzola, who had died at the age of 91. In its obituary, The Economist noted, “The history of the accordion is not a happy one. For decades serious musicians have mocked it as the discordant, breathy, vulgar voice of peasants, clowns and fairground hucksters: an endless jovial or sentimental repertoire of folksy tunes. The wheeze of this “piano with braces” has become the sound people dread to hear in restaurants or at railway stations, accompanied by the hopeful chink of coins in a hat. So when Marcel Azzola was asked, in September 1968, to play his accordion to accompany Jacques Brel, the great Belgian chansonnier, at a recording of his song “Vesoul”, he was hardly surprised by a line in the lyrics: “I can’t stand accordions.”” But accordion has a place in the culture and folk music of most ethnicities in the world. There are different types of accordions: Accordina, Anglo-concertina, bandoneon, diatonic accordion, and piano accordion.
Alan Haksten: ‘music from other countries’
Alan Haksten is an Argentinean composer and accordionist specializing in tango. Born in Buenos Aires, he studied guitar and accordion under the guidance of private teachers, and learned composition and electroacoustic composition at the ‘Universidad Nacional de las Artes’ (UNA) in Buenos Aires. He was a tango musician and general arranger at the ‘Academia nacional de tango’. In his career, he composed music for films and plays such as “Julio & Bill”, “Alemania”, “El Señor de la Oficina”, “Yo soy Lucida” and “La Casa Canta”.
“This is very amazing. The public here in Göteborg is very (encouraging) and we would like to listen to music from other countries,” Alan said about the folk music festival that brought different folk musicians with diverse cultural backgrounds. “It is amazing to mix music not only with traditional music and experimenting and innovating.”
Joan Peiro Aznar: ‘music is a link between cultures’
Joan is a guitarist from Valencia, Spain. He plays traditional Catalan music, flamenco. He was one of the artists who performed for the audience with his guitar. In his bio on his website, he says: “For many years, my guitar has accompanied my life. I want to understand music through my feelings and to understand my feelings through music. To this end, I have travelled, studied and met wonderful people around the world who devote their life to music. To them I am thankful, for the smiles and the disappointments, for the courage and love, but mostly for their knowledge.”
“My music has been shaped by the rhythm of gipsy guitarists like Angelo Debarre and flamenco guitarists like Tomatito, the melodies of classical composers such as Debussy, J.S. Bach and Manuel de Falla and the harmonies of Jim Hall and Bill Evans. I studied all that without forgetting my roots: the traditional wind bands of Valencia, ‘les albaes’ and the sounds of the birds in the orange fields,” he divulged. “I believe that music is a link between cultures, and at the same time the most exciting and wonderful way to understand our differences. Music for peace and generosity, music to keep on imagining wildly beyond the borders of our circumstances.”
Maryam Javidmehr: Tanbour
Maryam Javidmehr is a folk musician from Qazvín in Iran; she lives in Sweden. Her oeuvre is oud- and tambour with interest in ancient musical instruments. She is also a sculptor and women-rights activist and champions for women’s empowerment. She brought out ancient tones from her ancient musical instrument named tanbour (a type of lute). She said it is an enriching experience to share music in the current times in front of an audience, and listen to music from other folk artists with stories from around the world in a unique spot.
The venue for the Minga Festivalen 2020 was Gathenhielmska huset, one of the oldest and historic buildings, in Gothenburg aka Göteborg, the second largest city in Sweden and the heart of Scandinavia. She said we need love today for one another and it is possible through music. She stressed the musicians need support from the audience not only during the Covid-19 period but all the time.
Žofie Kašparová: Composer, Classical
Žofie Kašparová is a musician of different genres: western classical music, jazz, Balkan music, Swedish traditional music. Born and raised in Czech Republic, she plays flute, bass clarinet, and has been teaching music. Her music evokes contemplation, oriental rhythms, minimalism and improvisational music springing into the unknowns.
Žofie won the open call of Czech Music Crossroads in 2017 for 13th Dimension, which was her band; Czech Music Crossroads is the biggest world music showcase and conference in the republic. She is an alumnus of Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague and musicology at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. She regaled the audience with her flute.
One of her current project is Peacock Tree comprising flute player, bass clarinet player and composer. Her music also has a fusion of Arabic rhythms.
Sunniva Brynnel: The Seventh Generation Female Musician
Sunniva Brynnel is an accordionist, singer and composer in jazz, improvised music, devotional music, and folk music. She tours across Sweden and the US; she has recorded and performed in Norway, Denmark, Ireland, England, Slovakia, France, and Hawaii.
Sunniva had shared the stage with Timo Alakotila, Neil Yates, Praful, Peruquois, Dave Douglas, Dónal Clancy, Corey DiMario among others. Sunniva comes from a lineage of seven generations of female musicians, and her mother — a Swedish folk singer — is one of her major influences. Born in Uddevalla on the Swedish west coast, she has started to play the piano at the age of 5 and singing in choir.
She played the accordion and sang a Swedish Midsummer song, and made the audience to sing along with her.
Prabhat Das: Support Artists Wherever They Are, Not Just Spotify
Prabhat Das is a percussionist and has been training tableau in Guru-Shishya Parampara (traditional teacher-student learning method) since he was 8 years old. He holds a BA in Indian Classical Music from the University of Delhi. He had participated in the music exchange program called ‘Ethno-Music Exchange’. He has toured successfully Germany, the UK and Poland for musical performances.
Prabhat gave an introduction about the Indian classical music and about table the musical instrument. With his tabla, he narrated a story of a hunter and deer!
After the performance Prabhat called upon the audience to support artists wherever and in whichever way one can, and not just Spotify but buying albums of artists and attending music festivals and performances of artists.
Pelle Bolander: Interest in Folk Music is Generated
Pelle is the art director of the Minga Fesitvalen 2020. He is an actor, violinist, performer, project coordinator, and music producer.
He said, “The idea came from visiting lot of festivals, venues, concerts, and discovering the nicest moments where after the gigs or between the gigs. The actual concerts are fine but the meetings in the backstage, gatherings with people whom you have not met before and suddenly discovering new stuff opening up. This is the first try out.” He wished the financial support would be extended for the next year by Konstnärsnämnden.
Konstnärsnämden is the artists-related government body in Sweden under the Ministry of Culture. Its task is to promote opportunities for artists to further develop their art, to promote artistic development and to support innovative culture. It also disseminates information about the artists’ economic and social conditions, and designs security in relation to artistic activities.
It has been very successful given the circumstances, and it feels like more interest has been generated among our followers on social media said Pelle. And it was gathering in the current circumstances of coronavirus pandemic and the social-distancing measures in place.
Sweden is in a semi-lockdown mode as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and one of the restrictions to social gatherings is a maximum of fifty people. If the covid-19 ebbs, and a drug for its cure is in place, possibly for next year’s Minga Festivalen many more may attend for it focusses on folk music of the world.
