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Moving across the boundaries

By Gavin Phipps
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Sep 30, 2005, Page 13

The Migration Music Festival will feature the Guichen Brothers, main picture, and many other artists. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE MIGRATION MUSIC FESTIVAL

The varied and extensive sounds of the accordion will be resonating through the capital this weekend, when the fourth Migration Music Festival (流浪之歌音樂節) brings together several of the world's most innovative purveyors of the squeezebox for a series of concerts at Taipei's Da'an Forest Park (大安森林公園).

Organized by local indie record label, Trees Music and Art (大大樹世界音 樂文化協會), and co-sponsored by the Taipei City Government's Department of Cultural Affairs, the festival is one of the nation's most diverse celebrations of world music. Over the past four years the festival has showcased groups and individual musicians from Japan, Iran, Macedonia and Mongolia as well as Taiwan, and has featured a feast of genres ranging from Czech gypsy music to Taiwanese Hakka vibes.

When the festival first took place in 2001 it saw performers wowing crowds in both Taipei and Kaohsiung. The challenges of staging a dual city festival, however, proved too much for the minor folk-based indie label, which relies on public donations, government sponsorship and volunteer work to run the event.

For cost and logistical reasons organizers scaled the event down in 2003 and now the annual Migration Music Festival is a three-day affair and only takes place in Taipei. While this may not endear southern-based music fans to Trees Music's cause, it certainly hasn't stymied the event's growth in Taipei.

The Migration Music Festival has proven hugely popular with music fans of all ages over the years and last year saw record crowds numbering in the region of between 4,000 and 5,000 swamping Da'an Forest Park in order to catch non-mainstream groups from Norway, Romania and Poland in the act.

"We try to make it feel like more of an educational event rather than a commercial one, which means we're pretty much at liberty to invite whoever we want to perform," said Trees Music's Chung She-fong (鍾適芳). "I think this is one of the main reasons that, unlike regular rock festivals, the Migration Music Festival is able to attract such diverse

audiences and has remained hugely popular with people of all ages."

To keep the festival fresh and to ensure that it maintains its appeal organizers opt for a different theme each year. While previous Migration Music Festivals have touched on everything from activism in music to migrant musical genres, this year's festival is less about the role music plays in breaking down political and geographical boundaries, and instead focuses solely on the varied musical repertoires of one particular instrument -- the accordion.

"We found that people in Taiwan associated the accordion with either nakashi or romantic visions of Paris' Left Bank. We wanted to show them that the instrument is very versatile and can be used to create very varied styles of music," Chung said. "Innovative accordion music is very different from the stereotypical sound and we wanted to introduce these ideas to Taiwan."

A total of five innovative international accordion-based acts representing France, Hungary, Poland, Uruguay and Finland will perform and hold workshops this weekend. Each act has its own unique and non-conventional way of presenting squeezebox music.

The festival begins tonight with a performance on the Uruguayan bandoneon -- an accordion-like instrument employed by Tango musicians in Argentina -- by Luis Di Matteo. Although mainly used by tango acts in South America, Di Matteo brings the sound of the bandoneon to new and exciting levels that are far removed from tradition and incorporates heavy doses of electronica and more mainstream classical sounds.

Tomorrow evening it is the turn of the Polish act Motion Trio and the French

accordion combo, the Guichen Brothers to entertain the crowds. The Poles will kick off the evening's entertainment with a set that will cover a broad spectrum of styles and genres, which include contemporary classical, jazz and avant-garde dance music. In stark contrast to the classical jazzy flavors of the festival's Polish representatives. France's Guichen Brothers will be following up with a set packed with accordion based rock music and improvised contemporary folk.

The final day will see Finland's Kimmo Pohjonen performing his own hybrid brand of squeezebox vibes, which combines Finnish folk with tango and includes live samples and loops. Hungary's Zoltan Lantos will close the festival with what promises to be an exciting set packed with a blend of traditional Eastern European accordion oriented music, improvised jazz and elements of world music.

"The groups we invited are certainly not mainstream. We wanted to try the make the event more avant-garde," said Chung. "To be true to the theme of new definitions of the accordion we obviously had to invite acts that create new and [hybrid] accordion styles."

The festival also encourages dialogue between local and visiting musicians through screenings of documentaries, lectures by guest speakers and music-related workshops. Organized in conjunction with Chinese Culture University's expanded education department (中國文化大學推廣教育部) and scheduled to take place at the university's Jianguo Campus, the screenings, seminars and music clinics cover a wide spectrum of themes.

There are a couple of accordion-based documentaries, but the festival's screening room will also host films about jazz stars Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey and Rashaan Roland Kirk and famed tango musician Astor Piazolla.

Organizers expect the most popular of this weekend's screenings, however, to be that of Dick Fontaine's 1984 hip-hopumentary Beat This! Hip-hop History. Filmed in the Bronx in New York, Fontaine's film explores the origins of the musical genre that has swept the world in recent years. Fontaine tells the story through a series of interviews with hip-hop pioneers like Afrika Bambaataa, DJ Kool Herc and Easy AD.

Filmed long before the genre entered the mainstream, let alone arrived in Taiwan, Fontaine's straightforward and in-your-face cinematic style makes for both interesting and intense viewing. Whether you're a hip-hop fan or not, as a historical retrospective of the world's fastest growing music phenomenon it is a must-see.

In addition to the screening of several of Fontaine's documentaries the filmmaker will also be hosting a seminar and question and answer sessions.

Like the concerts, admission to the lectures is free. If the popularity of last year's lectures is any indication as to how well Fontaine will be received then then those wishing to hear or put a question or two to the documenter should arrive at the venue early to ensure that they get a seat.

Migration Music Festival rundown of events:

Music
Main Stage: Da'an Forest Park (大安森林公園)
Tonight: 7pm to 8:30pm - Kou Chou Ching
(拷秋勤) followed by a screening of Dick Fontaine's 1984 hip-hop documentary Beat This! Hip-hop History
8:30pm to 10pm - Luis Di Matteo (Uruguay)
Tomorrow: 7pm to 8:30pm - The Guichen Brothers (France)
8:30pm to 10pm - Motion Trio (Poland)
Sunday: 7pm to 7:30pm - Zoltan Lantos (Hungary)
7:30pm to 9pm - Kimmo Pohjonen (Finland)
9pm to 10pm - Open set by all overseas artists

Film
Documentary Hall: 1F Gallery, Chinese Culture University, 231 Jienguo S, Rd, Sec 2, Taipei (台北市建國南路二段231號).
Tomorrow: 10am to 12pm - Tango Maestro: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla
1pm to 2:30pm - El Acordeon del Diablo
3pm to 3:30pm - Vallenato Vallenato and the Story of the Accordion
4pm to 4:30pm - David Moffett and Ornette
4:30pm to 5pm - Sound: Rahsaan Roland Kirk and John Cage
5pm to 5:30pm - Who's Sonny Rollins?
5:30pm to 6pm - Q&A with documentary director Dick Fontaine
Sunday: 2:30pm to 4pm - Art Blakey: The Jazz Messenger
4pm to 5pm - Beat This! Hip-hop History

Lectures
1F, Chinese Cultural University (Jienguo Campus)
Tomorrow: 3pm to 4pm - Vallenatos: The National Song of Columbia: Martha Hawley
Sunday: 1pm to 2:30pm - The Correlation of Music Festivals and Public Media: Martha Hawley
5pm to 6:30pm - Why Do We Still Believe in Documentary?: Dick Fontaine

Workshops
Tomorrow: 9F, Chinese Culture University (Jianguo Campus)
2pm to 3pm - Luis Di Matteo
3:30pm to 4:30pm - Kimmo Pohjonen
Sunday: 10F, Chinese Cultural University (Jianguo Campus)
2pm to 3pm - The Guichen Brothers
3:30pm to 4:30pm - Motion Trio
All concerts and festival related activities are free of charge.
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