December 29, 2010

Songs of the Volcano


















Papua New Guinea Stringbands & Bob Brozman - Songs of the Volcano

World renowned guitarist Bob Brozman travelled to Papua New Guinea – one of the last places on the planet to have guitars arrive from afar – to capture a sound largely untainted by outside influences; a raw, unique sound developed in isolation. The energetic and distinctive blend of voice and instrument performed by the Rabaul community’s local stringbands reflects their unfailing optimism in the face of adversity, be it war or the volcanic eruptions that have destroyed the town twice in one century, making this album truly ‘Songs Of The Volcano’.

In addition to this extraordinary album, this package features a full length, behind the scenes DVD documentary of the making of the album.


One of the few accidental, yet beneficial, side-effects of colonialism has been guitars washing up on shores all over the world. Papua New Guinea is no exception. Home to a huge indigenous population speaking more than 800 languages, it lay largely undiscovered until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and hence is one of the last places on the planet to have guitars arrive from afar.

Rabaul, in Papua New Guinea’s far flung province of East New Britain, is a town which has had its share of hard times. In the same century it has been destroyed twice by massive volcanic cataclysms and once by a devastating war imposed on it by outsiders. The Tolai people of Rabaul have suffered greatly from these natural and manmade disasters and yet, somehow, have always managed to bounce back and keep their spirits high. One of the main contributing factors to their capacity for optimism is their music, an energetic and unique blend of voices and instruments performed by the community’s local stringbands.

Bob Brozman is a world expert and leading exponent of the National guitar. An ethnomusicologist fascinated by the global voyage taken by the guitar over the last 500 years, he has collaborated with local musicians all over the world.

To create Songs Of The Volcano, in his capacity as Adjunct Professor of Music at Sydney’s Macquarie University, Bob went with filmmaker Phil Donnison to five villages in East New Britain to perform with five different Tolai stringbands. The purpose of filming and recording the performances was partly to document this fragile music before it disappears, and partly to facilitate the musicians in Papua New Guinea where there is an astonishing lack of musical infrastructure.

Rabaul is the location where guitars first arrived in Papua New Guinea, and the music carries a fragile innocence and beauty reminiscent of what guitar music may have sounded like in Hawaii in 1860, or Mexico in 1830. Most music travelled throughout the Pacific Ocean on boats, with sailors leaving behind instruments and ideas to then percolate in isolation. Hence, the music on this album will seem at once exotic, yet somehow familiar. Even today, there is still very little mass media penetration in Papua New Guinea, though that is changing and makes the preservation of this raw and unique sound more necessary.

This album and accompanying film present the story of this creative collaboration, a joint effort between an indomitable group of island musicians and one of the world’s greatest guitarists. Unlike Bob’s other world music collaborations, where there is a blend of styles between Bob and another established artist, Songs Of The Volcano has Bob in a more supportive role, playing simply as a member of each band in their own style.

The creation of this project not only yielded some great friendships, an unforgettable story and some remarkable results, but will enable the musicians to continue their pursuit of a musical life.

The musicians on Songs Of The Volcano are the first recipients of instruments, strings and musical supplies from Bob’s ongoing Global Music Aid Foundation, which seeks to provide donated instruments and materials to musicians in developing countries.


source


Volcano
don't blame this ass
for using a pass
and if it is thegoodone
just say, it will be done
if not by me, then someone



14 comments:

  1. Yes! a nice reminder to dig this CD out again...
    never saw the DVD... maybe I should :)
    listening now... goodone :)

    I would never blame an ass
    for crossing the pass
    how would we come into the next
    valley...

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. blame the volcanic ash
    for playing such goodguitar
    even if they come from afar
    in ancient valleys they pass

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mi or kokolo could anyone of you press publish for the ready post found in the edit dashboard after few days?
    I'll be off for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You have a really great blog - thank you for the presentation of this fine music.
    may your days be sunny - Bill Bo

    ReplyDelete
  5. hi if I could ask for a password? thank you

    ReplyDelete
  6. don't blame this ass
    for using a pass
    and if it is thegoodone
    just say, it will be done
    if not by me, then someone

    pw thegoodone ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. thegoodone

    will let you pass

    ReplyDelete
  8. what does it mean what do I do?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you Miguel and Nauma sorry to cose you trouble.
    Anonimous the pass is; thegoodone just copy it and paste, please. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  10. thank you very much and sorry for the confusion, please also removed the comments about my email address
    ps great blog I will look warmly greet

    ReplyDelete
  11. Uh, the only really good one is the one that keeps us together, that is who I adress.

    ReplyDelete