Past Programs
Indigenous - 2008
Kenge Kenge (first aired on 6/5/08)
08/10/2008
The nearly-all-acoustic traditional instrument-playing Kenyan group Kenge Kenge create a dense, interweaving forest of sound in today’s program.
Founded in the early 1990s as the musicians for the Catering Levy Trust Choir - a government tax body that collects levies on hotels - the group evolved from a choir that sang religious and patriotic songs and hymns, to a band that played Kenya’s electric Benga music on traditional instruments: the orutu (one-stringed fiddle), the nyangile (sound box and gong), the asili (flute), the oporo (ox horn) and percussion. Benga started out as the transposing of traditional Luo rhythms to electric instruments. Kenge Kenge return the music to its roots after absorbing its development as a pop dance style. Unlike the clean sounds that electric Benga bands strive for, Kenge Kenge espouse a friendly distortion like that of the hypnotic Congolese group Konono No. 1. Kenge Kenge derives from a Luo expression which, roughly translated, means ‘a fusion of small, exhilarating instruments’. Amen.
Roberto Aussel plays Atahualpa Yupanqui
18/08/2008
With characteristic subtleness of phrase and use of silence, guitarist Roberto Aussel brings to life the music of fellow Argentinean Atahualpa Yupanqui on the 100th anniversary of this champion of folk music’s birth.
Born in 1954 in La Plata, Roberto began studying classical guitar from the age of 7 and went on to win first prizes at some of the world’s most prestigious competitions. He is known for his gift of being able to highlight a composer’s intention by his delicacy of phrase, across a range of diverse composers. He heard Atahualpa Yupanqui in his childhood and his music especially touched him. In Atahualpa’s music, Roberto heard the whistling of the wind, the silence between the mountains and the understanding of birdsong, his guitar vibrating as it related the suffering of the country folk, and rejoiced when performing a malambo from the Argentine Pampas. La Paloma Enamorada (The Dove in Love) is Roberto’s tribute to the music of a man which has raised such a profound feeling in him for many years.
Kenge Kenge
06/05/2008
The nearly-all-acoustic traditional instrument-playing Kenyan group Kenge Kenge create a dense, interweaving forest of sound in today’s program.
Founded in the early 1990s as the musicians for the Catering Levy Trust Choir - a government tax body that collects levies on hotels - the group evolved from a choir that sang religious and patriotic songs and hymns, to a band that played Kenya’s electric Benga music on traditional instruments: the orutu (one-stringed fiddle), the nyangile (sound box and gong), the asili (flute), the oporo (ox horn) and percussion. Benga started out as the transposing of traditional Luo rhythms to electric instruments. Kenge Kenge return the music to its roots after absorbing its development as a pop dance style. Unlike the clean sounds that electric Benga bands strive for, Kenge Kenge espouse a friendly distortion like that of the hypnotic Congolese group Konono No. 1. Kenge Kenge derives from a Luo expression which, roughly translated, means ‘a fusion of small, exhilarating instruments’. Amen.
Bedouin Jerry Can
21/04/2008
Blending Sufi chant and the 5 string lyre called the Simsimiyya with percussion played on jerry cans, ammunition boxes and coffee grinders, Sinai semi-nomads Bedouin Jerry Can make a powerful and clean desert sound on their CD Coffee Time.
The collective of musicians, poets, storytellers and coffee grinders from the Egyptian Sinai desert are from El Arish, an oasis city lying on the Mediterranean coast, and from the Sufis of the nearby settlement of Abo El Hossain. The group’s songs are about the Bedouins’ legendary generosity to guests, their trusty camels, untrusty sheep rustlers, beautiful women and last but not least...coffee.
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
25/02/2008
Gurrumul, the long-awaited solo debut CD by North East Arnhemland musical powerhouse Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, presents songs of his people, culture and land sung in his angelic voice, with elegant backing of guitars and double bass.
Blind from birth, Geoffrey, or Gudjuk as he is also called, is from the Gumatj nation, his mother from the Galpu nation. A former member of Yothu Yindi, his own band, The Saltwater Band, hail from Galiwin’ku on Elcho Island, NE Arnhem Land, and are a much loved and most popularly noted Indigenous band, partly because of Gurrumul’s influence and guidance.
Album launch, Darwin Entertainment Centre, February 28th and 29th 2008
Muyngarbi - Songs From Walking With Spirits
28/01/2008
On the CD Muyngarbi, Songs From Walking With Spirits, four Songmen from the Northern Territory sing, not with yidaki and clapsticks, but with the accompaniment of Daddy Cool guitarist Ross Hannaford, drummer Tony Floyd and bassist Michael Hohnen, whose reggae, country, latin and rock grooves give new flavours to Indigenous traditional song.
Since 2002 Songmen from Numbulwar to Maningrida have gathered in Beswick/Wugularr Community to maintain the ancient campfires. Our CD today features four Songmen - Roy Ashley Muyngarbi, Micky Hall Dugurrun, Victor Hood and Jimmy Wesan - singing the codes that unlock the map of kin, country and culture. Muyngarbi is produced by bassist Michael Hohnen and by actor/musician Tom E. Lewis, whose debut album Sunshine After Rain was awarded the Best Album of 2006 by the Indigenous Music Awards.
