Taiwan's most diverse celebration of world music kicks off tomorrow and Sunday with free screenings of documentary films at Taipei's Guling Street Theater.
Organized by local indie record label Trees Music and Art (大大樹音 樂圖像) and co-sponsored by the Taipei City Government's Department of Cultural Affairs, the annual Migration Music Festival (流浪之歌音樂節) continues throughout next week with performances and workshops, culminating with three days of free concerts by foreign and Taiwanese musicians next weekend in Taipei's Da-an Forest Park (大安森林公園). Recent festivals have attracted crowds of around 5,000 over three days at Da-an park, Trees Music head Chung She-fong (鍾適芳) said.
Whereas the last two festivals were organized around a musical theme - the accordion (2005) and artists from different countries performing each other's music (2006) - this year's theme, Land and Freedom (土地之歌), represents a return to the festival's activist roots. The focus is on indigenous peoples - namely Taiwan's Aborigines and the Sami of northern Europe - and the role music can play in reconnecting younger, more assimilated members of these groups with their ancestors' languages and traditions.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF TREES MUSIC AND ART
This year's program is co-produced by the Riddu Riddu Festival, a Norwegian Sami music and culture festival started in 1991 by a group of youths seeking cultural self-awareness. Tomorrow and Sunday's documentary films are features and shorts about the Sami and Taiwan's Aborigines. Next weekend's concerts in Da-an park feature two Sami performers: Wimme Saari, who will sing traditional yoik chants, and Adjagas, a band that mixes yoik with rock and other modern styles.
Other notable performers include two members of South Africa's Khoi Khollektif, a group of poets and musicians from Cape Town and the Eastern Cape; Puyuma musicians Samingad (曉君), and Hao-en (吳昊恩) and Jia-jia (紀家瑩) who picked up the gong for Best Singing Group at this year's Golden Melody awards; Atayal singer Inka Mbing (雲力思), who will perform with an ensemble of children and elders from her tribe; and New Zealand's Wai, who fuse traditional Maori styles with hip-hop and reggae.
"The greatest challenge that humans are experiencing now is that of overcoming the perceived differences between each other," Iain Harris of the Khoi Khollektif said Thursday in an e-mail exchange. "We have been taught to be confined by borders. … And those borders have moved to our minds now."
"South Africa is a microcosm of the world, the whole world is in South Africa. What we are learning is that the differences that were once used to divide us are not real differences," he continued. "Generally as people we prefer to defer responsibility to someone else. A government. Religious leaders. Bosses. We think that it makes our lives easier. The music attempts to address this. To make us aware through the words and the music of our own capacity and the need for individuals to take responsibility."
Migration 2007 also encourages dialogue between local and visiting musicians through lectures and discussions. Among the more notable this year is a presentation by Bernhard Hanneken, artistic director of TFF.Rudolstadt, Germany's largest folk, roots and world music festival, on Wednesday at Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村).
Portions of the festival travel to Tainan on Oct. 9, and Chiayi, on Oct. 10 for Migration Plus.
Migration Music Festival 2007 highlights
Documentary Films:
Where: Guling Street Avant-Garde Theater (牯嶺街小劇場), 2, Alley 5, Guling St, Taipei (台北市牯嶺街五巷二號)
Tomorrow:
1pm: Let's Dance (17 min, Finland), The Story of Arctic Love (20 min, Finland), Hla Huy (山上, 27 min, Taiwan)
3:30pm: The Wind Whisper (10 min, Norway), The Stories of Rainbow (彩虹的故事, 39 min, Taiwan)
5:30pm: Last Yoik in Sami Forest (54 min, Finland), Where Have All Our Lands Gone? (土地到哪裡去了?, 30 min, Taiwan)
7:30pm: Malakacaway (馬拉卡照酒, 80 min, Taiwan)
Sunday:
1pm: Sami Daughter Yoik (58 min, Sweden)
3pm: Tsou (部落地圖：阿里山:鄒, 50 min, Taiwan)
5:30pm: Siyabosokanen, 50 min, Taiwan
7pm: Greater than Ourselves (30 min, Norway), Last Yoik in Sami Forest
9pm: The Dream of Returning Ancestral Land (回歸故土之夢, 47 min, Taiwan)
Music
Main Stage: Da-an Forest Park (大安森林公園)
Oct. 5:
7:30pm: The Khoi Khollektif (South Africa)
8:30pm: Wild Fire (野火樂集, Taiwan)
Oct. 6:
7:30pm: Wimme Saari (Finland)
8pm: Wai (New Zealand)
9pm: AM Until Sunrise (AM到天亮), with Samingad
(曉君), Hao-en (昊恩) and Jia-jia (家家) (Taiwan)
Oct. 7:
7:30pm: A Gathering of Indigenous Voices (原住民詩歌吟唱)
8pm: Inka Mbing and Ensemble (雲力思與樂團, Taiwan)
9pm: Adjagas (Norway)
Dialogues
Wednesday:
Taipei Artist Village, 7 Beiping Rd, Taipei
(台北市北平路7號)
10pm: A Festival of Festivals, TFF.Rudolstadt - Germany's biggest folk, roots, and world music festival - concepts and insights
2pm: City Marketing and Revival of Tradition, How to Orient a City's Music Festivals (城市行銷與傳統再生─城市音樂節該如何定位?)
Oct. 5:
Room 270103, Zong He North Building, National Chengchi University (政治大學綜合院館北棟270103教室), 64 Zhinan Rd Sec 2, Taipei (台北市指南路二段64號)
10am: In Search of a Lost Tradition ─ The German folk (song) revival in two different political systems ─ similarities and differences
Lectures and discussions will be in English and Mandarin
Migration Plus - Tainan
7:30pm, Oct. 9 at Cheng Kung Hall, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan (成功大學成杏廳)
Concert: The Khoi Khollektif
Migration Plus - Chiayi
2pm, Oct. 10 at the Experimental Theatre of the Chiayi Performance Arts Center (嘉義縣表演藝術中心實驗劇場)
Film: Riddu Riddu, Festival Summer
Concert: Adjagas
Migration Music Festival 2007 includes many programs and activities not listed above. For a comprehensive schedule in English and Chinese, long on at
www.treesmusic.com/festival/2007mmf
Source: taipei times
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