Beats and tunes from diverse cultures

World Peace Music Festival Sur Jahan promises to bring artistes from diverse cultures to enthrall Goa with their music

| JANUARY 19, 2020, 03:35 AM IST

TGLife   


World Peace Music Festival Sur Jahan, celebrating cultural diversity and pluralism, is set to make a omeback at International Centre Goa from February 5-7.   

The festival aims to promote music with a message of harmony and togetherness. What the celebration has held together for the past years is an assemblage of World Music bands and folk artists of India, and the year 2020 will be no exception. The event lineup includes Dalinda - exploring Hungarian folk melodies; Radiant Arcadia – all women band from Denmark, Godfather of Nordic music ‘Ale Moller’, South Korean band Coreyah and the legendary singer Danyèl Waro from the Reunion island.   

The festival showcases traditional handicraft and folk performances. The event happens first in Kolkata, then comes to Goa and is also set to travel to Jaipur in Rajasthan.   

Performers   

Radiant Arcadia (Denmark)   

Radiant Arcadia was formed in 2013, by Annette Bellaoui, who thought it important to showcase the skills of women musicians, and the ability to collaborate across traditions, languages and nationalities. The musicians are from Muslim, Jewish and Christian background. They come from an array of traditions, from Nordic and Celtic folk music, to jazz, rock, Klezmer and Middle Eastern ballads. The band includes Tine Vitskov in clarinet and bass clarinet, Maren Hallberg in accordion, Anne Eltard in violin, Salam Susu in harp and vocals, Karen Jorgensen and Channe Nussbaum in vocals, Aoife Scott in vocals and bodhran (Irish hand drum) and Radia Sanchez in vocals and daff.   

Ale Moller and Ensemble (Sweden)   

Ale Moller has been active in Swedish folk music and has been pushing the barriers of Scandinavian music since the past four decades. His musical journey began as a jazz trumpeter, from which he evolved into a folk musician and has since become a prominent proponent of world music, combining Swedish folk traditions with those of Shetland, Greece, India and West Africa. He has released nearly 40 albums till date. For many years Swedish musician and composer Ale Moller, winner of Lifetime Achievement Award given by the American organization Folk Allience International, has created new music out of meetings between musicians from different cultures . This version of his band will have Ale Möller himself on various instruments like mandola, flutes, cows horn, clarino and harmonica, along with two singers - Mamadou Sene from West Africa, and Greek singer/dancer Maria Stellas. Anna Moller, Ale Moller’s daughter, Johan Graden, pianist/composer, and percussionist Olle Linder are also a part of the band.   

Coreyah (South Korea)   

Coreyah is a multiple awards winning Korean and world music ensemble consisting of six members. Three of the members are performers of traditional Korean instruments such as Daegeum, Sogeum, Tungso, Geomungo and traditional Korean drums, whereas one member is a vocalist, one a guitarist and one a percussionist. Their music thus reflects a rich blend of tradition and modernity. Coreyah made its debut in 2010. Since then, their signature style has constituted of a blend of various genres of ethnic and world music as well as popular music, while still maintaining the distinctive Korean musical flavor imparted by the traditional instruments.   

Danyel Waro (Reunion

Islands)   

The musical tradition that Danyel Waro symbolizes and upholds is acoustic Maloya, the blues of La Reunion islands in the Indian Ocean. Musician and poet Danyel Waro is known to sing Creole with unparalleled passion and emotion. According to him, the Maloya has put him in harmony with the La Reunion islands. Through his music he champions self determination and identity associated with that place. His music is thus a reminder of the cultural heritage of his place and also of the hope and courage in the face of the challenges posed by the independence movements of La Réunion islands that had erupted in the 1970s. Other member include Gilles Lauret, Mickael Tony, Bino Natanael and Philippe Xavier Albert Conrath.   

Dalinda (Hungary)   

Dalinda is, in essence, an A’capella band, that is, one that sings without musical accompaniment. This band has three women, Sara Timar, Fanni Eszter Nadasdy and Julianna Erzsebet Paar as lead singers and their music represents a celebration of womanhood and feminine energy – based on the traditional tunes of Hungarian folk music. Through their music, woven together by folk tradition and modern sounds, charge the audience with feminine energy and tells about the stages of womanhood in all its earthy and celestial cadence and candor. The messages imparted by their music are everlasting and relevant till date – birth, life, death, body, and soul. They have been playing live music since 2015 and have been performing before international audiences since 2017. Recently, Dalinda is evolving beyond A’capella and is venturing into sublime musical experiences involving instrumentals as well, imparting an aura of richness in terms of tunes to their breathtaking musical presentations. That is why, for this festival, they will be accompanied by a wonderful trio of instrumental performers Balint Konczei, Daniel Szabo and Attila Gyorgy Kaszap.   

Mangniyars (Rajasthan)   

Manganiyars are the traditional folk musicians of Western Rajasthan. The Manganiyars sing Rajasthani folk song, Marwar Lok geet and Sufiyana Kalam. The folk songs mainly revolve around the lives of the Rajas and Maharajas, daily lifestyle, gods and goddesses and several immortal love stories. Thane khan, Manjur khan, Samsu khan , Bhage khan, Kalyan khan and Tarif khan are the artists.   

Bauls (Bengal)   

Baul is a philosophy and Baul is a music. The philosophy gets passed from the ‘Guru’ to his disciples. Baul music is the soul of Bengal and is essentially the music of self-searching. It is about 500 years old. Lalan Fakir, who used to live at Kushtia in Bangladesh, may be called the champion of Baul music. Denouncing the material world, Bauls urge people to rise above the narrow divides created by caste, creed and religion to find love, peace and harmony. Baul music got inscribed in UNESCO Representative List of Heritage of Humanity in 2008. Debalina Bhowmick of Kolkata will lead the team and will be accompanied by Mallika Akar, Chhote Golam and Nemai Khyapa of Murshidabad. They are joined by Elvis Lobo in Guitar and Carlos Gonsalves in Percussions (from Goa) and Arpan Thakur Chakraborty in Dotara, Khokan Das in Dhol, Mohan Tati in Flute(from West Bengal).   


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