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And now the number of days left to the 2nd weekend of July is decreasing. All the groups included in the line-up are now in place after months of negotiations and planning. Eighteen different acts will be under the bright lights of the two stages at the Sarawak Cultural Village – home of the festival. They will be performing over three nights – the 8th, 9th and 10th of July. Two groups scheduled for the beautiful Stage Two will be performing different sets on every night. One is ACQUARAGIA DROM – a wild gypsy quartet from Italy with violin, ciaramella, accordion, tambourines and dance. Also on Stage Two, will be some of the most beautiful, lyrical and spiritual music from Sarawak. JERRY KAMIT takes his beloved sape on as a soloist. BAUN LENJAU will travel miles from the interior of Borneo with her rare nose-flute. Equally uncommon will be BALU BUNGAN and PAYA KAJAN on the stringed lotongs. More upbeat will be TABUH PAK AINAL – a father and son duo on Malay drums. Friday night will have very tender music from Belize with FLORENCIO MESS AND THE MAYA K’EKCHI’ STRINGS. The 67 year old Florencio would be now putting the finishing touches on the harp, Maya guitar and Maya violin that he has mad specially for the festival. Soulful chants and vocals combined with hypnotic drums and lutes will be coming from SARAWAN – a six member group with music from Iran and Kurdestan. This will be first time Kurdish music – well known for being rich with traditions – will be brought in to the RWMF. TUKU KAME, a popular local group and resident cultural band at the Sarawak Cultural Village will be doing fusion Malay and Iban music on a wide array of local instruments. To close the night will be Celtic band SHANNON who are based in Poland. This is a heady mixture of bodhran, highland bagpipes, whistles, accordion and bouzouki souped up with the addition of guitar, bass and drums. MARCIN RUMINSKI from Poland will open Saturday night with a melancholic rendering on bagpipes. Then the powerful and gripping FAIZ ALI FAIZ with qawwali from Pakistan will take the stage with 8 other men as back up vocalists, hand percussionists, harmoniums and tabla. This is the man whom the organizers have been trying to fix a date with for 3 years. He is said to be the true successor of the legendary and late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who died in 1997. This will be spine tingling stuff. The beautiful NAMGAR from Mongolia heads what will be the most multi-ethnic band. Her musicians come from Mongolia, Russia and Moldova. With their stunning costumes and exotic instruments, the organizers can already visualize this band rising up among the surrounding rainforests of Borneo like the fierce Mongols during the reign of Genghis Khan’s reign. Queen of Colombian Caribbean music is PETRONA MARTINEZ – 67 years old this year and still dynamite on stage with sensuous vocals and percussions. She is famous for her bullerengue songs and music that were once only sung in the world of women during private parties pregnant women had because they were forbidden to be out socializing with the men. DJAMEL LAROUSSI and his all male band will be the closing act for Saturday with Algerian rai. This is the local dance music at its most lovable level – there will be no one sitting down once they hit the stage. Sundays usually start with a peculiar mix of sadness and fervour as the end of the festival is already in sight. We think that the CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY ENSEMBLE will milk the high emotions that will be present on this last day. They are the first Thai group ever to be in the festival and they will play music from different regions of the country on a massive collection of ethnic instruments. Then in contrast, another all male band – THE FOGHORN STRINGBAND from Portland, Oregon, USA will take over with early Appalachian and bluegrass music on acoustic string instruments. This will also be the first American band at RWMF. Lights, drama, costumes, masks, throbbing percussion, - these are all very descriptive of the stunning YELEMBA D”ABIDJAN from Cote I’voire. They have combined Malinke, Guinean and Ivorian traditions into a spectacular show they call “Rao” and they are led by the irrepressible Lassina Coulibaly. On this exuberant note, Yelemba will lead all the bands and musicians into the traditional rousing finale at the Rainforest World Music Festival so they can all take a bow, jam, and generally become one with the audience in what will be THE party of this year.
Yeoh Jun Lin |
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