More information and programme (English)

7th
edition of the ETHNO PORT Poznań Festival comes this year as a four-day event,
from June 12th to June 15th.
The three festival stages will see performances by fifteen artists and groups who represent diverse,
sometimes very remote cultures. The Festival, this genuine celebration of music, will begin with a concert
of an outstanding composer, vocalist and instrumentalist, Dhafer Youssef. On the first day, you are also
welcome to partake in the joy of music and dance in the Castle Courtyard courtesy of Poznański Dom Tańca.
The following days will bring a true mosaic of musical traditions. There will be artists from Finland,
Romania, India, Korea, Hungary, Congo, Turkey, USA, Jamaica, Brasil and Iran. Each day will aslo a feature
a performance by artists from the Polish scene of world music.
The invited artists do not differ only in terms of country or origins but also in the manner of approaching
traditional material from which their music springs. Each and every one of them has their own way
of rendering source material on stage: from meticulous reconstruction of the historical sounds to free
and unconstrained use of the potential inherent in their harmonies and rhythms. The diversity of approach
is also evident in the choice of the “tools”: traditional instruments go side by side with electric guitars and
state-of-the-art electronics. Apart from the giving the audience an opportunity to get to know the “Other”,
showing that creative freedom manifested in the artists’ choice is one of the major tasks we seek
to accomplish when developing the programme of successive editions of the Festival.
Besides concerts, which are Ethno Port’s core events, the audience may attend the accompanying events:
meetings and film screenings (as part of the Ethno Dossier project, prepared by AMU’s Institute of
Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology), music workshops and special activities for children.
The Festival will once again transform the space in the very heart of Poznań: throughout the week,
the car park in front of the castle will become a green meadow, showing how little is needed to change
our surroundings into a friendly space.
_________________________________________________________________________________
promoter: ZAMEK Culture Centre in Poznań
sponsors: Dalkia, Gaz System
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and designated grant of the Poznań City Hall.
festival office
Festival Director: Andrzej Maszewski / a.maszewski@ethnoport.pl, tel. 607 609 003
Festival Coordinator: Bożena Szota / b.szota@ethnoport.pl, tel. 607 609 031
Production: Andrzej Pazder / a.pazder@ethnoport.pl, tel. 607 609 026
Promotion: Grzegorz Bibro / g.bibro@ckzamek.pl, tel. 607 609 027
info@ethnoport.pl
www.ckzamek.pl
www.facebook.com/ethnoport
www.youtube.com/ethnoport
P
ROGRAMME
12.06. Thursday______________________________________________________________________
20:00 opening concert: Dhafer Youssef (Tunisia) / The Grand Hall
22:00 concert - dance party with Dom Tańca Poznań / Castle Courtyard
13.06. Friday______________________________________________________________________
11:00 -14:00 music workshops / room 213
12:00 press conference with the artists / The Rehearsal Room
13:00 Ethno Dossier / New Pałacowe Cinema
16:00 -20:00 Little Ethno / The Rehearsal Room
concerts
18:00 KAROLINA CICHA & BART PAŁYGA “In many a tongue” (Poland) / The Grand Hall
20:00 FANFARE CIOCĂRLIA (Romania) / car park
22:00 GANESH-KUMARESH (India) / Castle Courtyard
00:00 JAMBINAI (Korea) / The Grand Hall
from 23:30 festival club / Castle Courtyard & Dubliner Pub
14.06. Saturday_______________________________________________________________________
10:00 -14:00 „recreational” activities on the grass / car park
11:00 -14:00 music workshops / room 213
13:00 Ethno Dossier / New Pałacowe Cinema
16:00 -20:00 Little Ethno / The Rehearsal Room
concerts
16:00 TRANSKAPELA (Poland) / The Grand Hall
18:00 SÖNDÖRGŐ (Hungary) / Castle Courtyard
20:00 LES TAMBOURS DE BRAZZA (Republic of Congo) / car park
22:00 TAKSIM TRIO (Turkey) / Castle Courtyard
00:00 CHARMING HOSTESS (USA) / The Grand Hall
from 23:30 festival club / Castle Courtyard & Dubliner Pub
15.06. Sunday_____________________________________________________________________
10:00 -14:00 „recreational” activities on the grass / car park
11:00 -14:00 music workshops / room 213
13:00 Ethno Dossier / New Pałacowe Cinema
16:00 -20:00 Little Ethno / The Rehearsal Room
concerts
16:00 PEKKO KÄPPI (Finland) / The Grand Hall
18:00 TREBUNIE TUTKI & TWINKLE BROTHERS “Songs of Glory” (Poland/Jamaica) / car park
20:00 RENATA ROSA (Brasil) / The Grand Hall
22:00 HOSSEIN ALIZADEH & PEJMAN HADADI (Iran) / Castle Courtyard
from 23:30 festival club / Castle Courtyard & Dubliner Pub
DURING THIS YEARS FESTIVAL, VOCAL, DANCE AND INSTRUMENTAL WORKSHOPS WILL BE CONDUCTED BY
RENATA ROSA, LES TAMBOURS DE BRAZZA AND HOSSEIN ALIZADEH & PEJMAN HADADI.
A
RTISTS
12.06. Thursday______________________________________________________________________
DHAFER YOUSSEF
www.dhaferyoussef.com
DOM TAŃCA POZNAŃ
www.domtancapoznan.blogspot.com
A Tunisian virtuoso of oud, composer and singer, Youssef was
born in 1967 in Teboulba, a small fishing village. His family, albeit
not wealthy, was rich in musical traditions, boasting generations
of muezzins among its members. 1990 marks a watershed
in Youssef’s career as he decided to leave for Vienna where,
spellbound by jazz and other genres, he took part in numerous
jam sessions. Musical encounters with many brilliant artists,
in particular with a number of top Scandinavian jazzmen are
the source of Youssef’s major achievements. The artist has 8
albums to his credit, with Electric Sufi deserving particular
attention, being a fascinating attempt to employ voice as an
instrument. Likewise, the meeting of oud lute and electric music
produced extraordinary results, which in 2003 and 2006 won
the artist nominations forBBC World Music Award. His latest
release, Birds requiem has been conceived as a film score.
Youssef voice accompanies Hüsnü Senlendirici’s clarinet
and Aytaç Dogan’s canun. The project also features musicians
from earlier collaborations: guitarist Eivind Aarset, trumpeter
Nils Petter Molvaer, pianist Kristjan Randalu, double-bassist Phil
Donkin and drummer Chander Sardjoe.
Poznański Dom Tańca gathers musicians who explore the most
interesting and the most archaic forms of dance and traditional
music, instruments and performing practices. The core of their
activity is associated with processional dance – the oldest form
of celebrating the ritual of meeting. Polish folk dances represent
the other aspect of their practices, with the stately kujawiak,
mazurek , the sweeping polka, the old kontro (a modified
contradance) or the mystical oberek. During the encounters the
artists pay great attention to the presentation of disappearing
or rare instruments, such as Polish bagpipe, dulcimer, concertina,
bass, hurdy-gurdy, as well as to the art of story-telling and
collective party. The originator and the driving force behind
Poznański Dom Tańca is Jacek Hałas – accordionist, lyre player,
singer, co-founder and member of numerous groups and bands.
13.06. Friday________________________________________________________________________
KAROLINA CICHA
& BART PAŁYGA
www.karolinacicha.eu
FANFARE CIOCĂRLIA
www.asphalt-tango.de/fanfare/artist.html
Two brilliant multi-instrumentalists, Karolina Cicha i Bart Pałyga,
join their forces in a joint project entitled “In many a tongue”,
th
which received the Grand Prix at the 16 “Nowa Tradycja” festival
in 2013. The project enjoys constantly increasing recognition
in Poland and abroad. The concerts of both artist are a combination
of beautiful music and remarkable, though somewhat forgotten
poetry and exceptional stage personalities. “In many a tongue”
brings back, redefines and enlivens the culture of historical Podlasie,
where many nations and languages coexisted creating a unique
and rich culture which sadly faded into obscurity. Compositions
by Cicha and Pałyga merge the sound of archaic instruments
and modern means, while the songs are sung in nine different
languages. During the concert the audience will listen to lyrics
in Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Russian, Roma, Belarussian, Yiddish, Polish,
Tartar and Esperanto, and music performed on the combination
of samplers, loopers and ethnic instruments (morinhuur, dotar,
Jew’s harp, duduk, accordion, pipe, mandola). We will also hear the
archaic overtone singing.
Translation of the band’s name offers a surprise: Fanfara Ciocarlia
stands for Lark’s Song. It is even more surprising when one listens
to the fastest, most efficient and funkiest brass band of the world.
The musicians come from Zece Prajini, a small village tucked away
somewhere in north-eastern Romania, whose beaten roads are
thronged by geese, horses and carts. The village is inhabited by 80
Gypsy families, who lead their traditional lives of farmers, subject
only to the change of seasons. In the communist years, the village
remained isolated, and this is probably why the old Ottoman
tradition of brass bands accompanying weddings and funerals
survived there, though it disappeared without a trace elsewhere
in Romania. In 1997, the band conquered Europe and then won
numerous fans in the USA, Asia and Australia. The musicians speak
only their Roma dialect, but their music is a universal means
of communication, a language understood all over the world.
Regardless of the place, the audience goes amok in much the same
way when they are hit by the juggernaut of Balkan funk, which
changes concerts into wild parties. The Times of London describes
them as a “heavy, monster sound”, while Fanfara’s recordings
introduced their incredible rhythms into dance clubs around
the globe.
GANESH-KUMARESH
www.ganeshkumaresh.org
JAMBINAI
www.earthbeat.nl/jambinai
Brothers Ganesh-Kumaresh come from Tamil Nadu, the Land
of the Tamils, a southernmost state of India. They are among the
most important performers and composers of the Carnatic music –
the classical music of southern India. They began to perform at a very
early age, reaching the first hundred concerts before they were 10.
The violinists represented their homeland in such prestigious events
as the Darbar Festival in London or the Asia Pacific Festival in Berlin.
Since 1972, they have recorded several dozen albums, which either
sprang from their own explorations or were outcomes of larger
projects made in collaboration with dance groups and such
recognised musicians as Dr. Balamurali Krishna, Ustad Zakir Hussain,
Vikku Vinayakaram, Ustad Shujaat Khan, George Brooks, John
McLaughlin or Trilok Gurtu. Brothers are also responsible for
a number of scores and pieces featured in Bollywood films,
e.g. Dance Like a Man and Chandrikai.
The band creates their own new genre, where post-rock and avantgarde, electric guitars and electronics meets the sound of traditional
Korean instruments. The artists take the audience on a journey
starting with hypnotic, meditative passages, through increasingly
dark, gravelly intensity to the white-hot explosion of molten steel.
The group employs traditional Korean instruments (haegeum, piri,
geomungo) and combines them with electronic, post-rock
soundtrack. Their work reflects the spiritual and social
contradictions faced by the generation which has come to grow up
st
in the 21 century. The artists’ background is the avant-garde scene
of the Seoul’s hip Hongdae quarter. In 2013, their album Differance
received a Korean Music Award. The band performed at World
Village Festival in Finland and Scena Contemporanea in Brasil.
With their challenging, provocative and yet deeply compelling
music, Jambinai explores the murky borderlands of tradition
and contemporary world, deservedly reaping popularity
and recognition.
14.06. Saturday_______________________________________________________________________
TRANSKAPELA
www.transkapela.com
SÖNDÖRGŐ
www.sondorgo.hu
The music of Transkapela is an encounter of two worlds. The first
is a universe of symbols, old beliefs and the extraordinary music
of the Carpathians. The second world is a contemporary one,
providing a background of musician’s imagination which gives shape
to the songs they compose. Their work draws on the cultural wealth
of Transcarpathia, its Romanian, Ruthenian, Hungarian, Roma,
Jewish and Polish roots. Transkapela have performed at the major
festivals of folk, ethno, world, jazz and indie music in the country
and abroad (e.g. in Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Spain,
Italy, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden,
Switzerland, Danmark, Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine).
In the course of a decade of their existence, Transkapela have
created a substantial body of artistic work and won many
prestigious awards, including the eminent “Folkowy Fonogram
Roku”, an award with which journalists of the Polish Radio
and music critics honoured their album Sounds & Shadows in 2005.
The group was founded in 1995 in Szentendre. Unlike most bands
playing Balkan music, Söndörgő does not rely on brass instruments,
opting for tamburitza instead. The tambura is a small and prolific
instrument similar to the mandolin which is sometimes
accompanied by wind instruments and accordion. The band’s
collaboration with Macedonian Ferus Mustafov, the king of gipsy
music, produced two albums Oj Stari and Oj Javore. Their third
release, Söndörgő & Ferus Mustafov In Concert proved an
international breakthrough, introducing them to stages and concert
halls across the world. The group’s latest Tamburising – Lost Music
of the Balkans, featuring great vocals from Antal Kov cs and K tya
Tompos came out 2011 under Harmonia Mundi/World Village label,
which brought the music of Söndörgő to listeners in 60 countries.
LES TAMBOURS DE BRAZZA
www.maitemusic.com/fr/
/.../les_tambours_de_brazza
Les Tambours de Brazza of Congo, created in 1991 by the drummer
and songwriter Emile Biayenda, blend tradition and modernity.
The musicians play the ancient Ngoma drums as well as on
contemporary drum sets, bass, guitars and other instruments.
During the concerts, we get to hear the rhythms of the various
Congolese ethnic groups mixed with contemporary influences.
The rhythms take us back to the times when the great drum,
the ancestor of all percussion, was the companion of a whole
continent. Thus, Les Tambours de Brazza, practising their magic
of rhythm and body, establish a bond with ancestral gestures
and rites. And although their music resounds with the echoes of rap
and reggae, it is the drum which becomes a fully-fledged and
timeless instrument. Through their songs, cheerful and full
of humour, these modern griots convey the universal message
of peace, freedom and brotherhood.
TAKSIM TRIO
www.facebook.com/TaksimTrio?fref=ts
CHARMING HOSTESS
www.charminghostess.us
For centuries, Istanbul has been a point where the cultures of East
and West would meet. The name of the band, who draw on
the incredibly abundant tradition of the city, comes from one
of the busiest, liveliest and also noisiest squares in the very heart
of Turkey’s old capital. Taksim also has a second, more important
meaning, as it denotes a type of improvisation in Turkish classical
music. The three virtuosos are steeped in Gypsy culture, but at
the same time remain open to all other sounds and influences,
even those which stem from places remote from Bosphorus. During
their concerts, the velvety mellow clarinet of Husnu Seniendirici
weaves around the pure notes of Ismail Tuncbilek’s baglama
and the somewhat dryer, guitar-like canun played by Aytac Dogan.
Together, they forge musical magic whose oriental melodies merge
the old sounds with the very modern approach to tradition.
The trio’s music is an embodiment of Istanbul, in all its grandeur.
As the artists themselves put it, “it is a music for both the heart and
mind”.
Charming Hostess was established by Jewlia Eisenberg, an artist
who spent their formative years to the backdrop of traditional
and revolutionary soundtrack of a Brooklyn commune. Her work
celebrates the atmosphere and the mentality of the diaspora in
which she grew up. In her songs everything becomes one – the body
and the instruments, the sacred and the profane, the intimate
sensations and the collective experiences. All her wok was released
by John Zorn’s Tzadik Records, as part of the Radical Jewish Culture
project. Their latest albums are Sarajevo Blues, a tale spun on
Bosnian poetry of resistance and The Bowls Project, whose lyrical
material originates from Jewish amulets of the Babylonian era.
When sending us her promotional material, Jewlia Eisenberg wrote:
“With roots in Spain, branches in the Balkans, and the freak-folk soul
of Oakland, Charming Hostess rocks ancient music with a radical
sensibility.. Sung in Judeo-Spanish, Sefardic songs incorporate Arabic
scales, Hebrew chants, Turkish rhythms, Slavic harmonies, and
a diaspora consciousness. Charming Hostess sings Sefardic songs
of gritty sex, drunken musicians, and anti-authoritarian protest.
Music for lovers—of wine, women, and song.”
15.06. Sunday_____________________________________________________________________
PEKKO KÄPPI
& K:H:H:L
www.pekkokappi.com
TREBUNIE TUTKI &
TWINKLE BROTHERS
www.trebunie.pl
www.soundcloud.com/adry-itus/rasta-pontop-bass-itus-rmxx
Pekko Käppi is a visionary composer of the Finnish neo-folk scene
as well as a singer and player of jouhikko – an Old Finnish bow lyre.
His work has revolutionised the performing technique on the
instrument, which the artist plugged into the amplifier and
coupled it with other unorthodox equipment. As a researcher
of the Finnish folk music, he is more than well versed in the
ancient Finnish tradition of runo singing, into which he has woven
elements of blues and rock, and added some archaic experimental
chaos into the mixture. The artist’s new band – Pekko Käppi &
K.H.H.L. is a trio formed during recording sessions to the album
Rammat Jumalat, the contents of which are described by critics
as “archaic boogie”. The musicians say that the abbreviation K.H.H.
L. stands roughly for “Bones of a Dead Crazy Horse”.
After the two decades which have elapsed from the first
revolutionary recordings of Trebunie Tutki & Twinkle Brothers,
the time has come for a new joint project, entitled Songs of Glory/
Pieśni chwały. The release is not only a record of yet another,
highly creative encounter of musicians who come from distant
parts of the world, but also, as the artists put it, “a proposal
for those who Seek, Remember, who want and are able to Love.
Although the new notes are light and have that dance-like quality
and the joy of shared music-making resounds through every bar,
we speak about dignity, identity, the right to be yourself, to your
own tradition and you own path to God”. The leaders of the bands,
Krzysztof Trebunia-Tutka and Norman Grant agree that time
is their ally. Thanks to time, they were able to “believe in nature”
in every single moment spent together and in every composition,
and then sing in their charismatic voices: “Choćbyś ostoł som nie
dej złomać sie, bo o honor swój trzeba dbać co dzień/ I Will
Honour You and I Respect You”.
RENATA ROSA
www.renatarosa.com
HOSSEIN ALIZADEH &
PEJMAN HADADI
www.hosseinalizadeh.net
www.pejmanhadadi.com
Renata Rosa is one of the most distinctive and characteristic
figures among Brazilian artists of the young generation. In her
work, she draws on the traditional rhythms of the states Alagoas
and Pernambuco: coco, toré (a type of indigenous vocal
poliphony), maracat and cavalo marinho. Her singing goes hand in
hand with brilliant technique of playing the rabeca – a stringed
bow instrument which dates back to medieval times. Enchanted
and captivated by the music of north-eastern Brazil, Rosa subjects
it to the heat of her own sensibility and combines with the
influences of urban culture, thus concocting an exceptional and
powerful sound of her own. Over 9 years, Rosa played more than
190 concerts across Europe performing in major concert halls and
at renowned festivals. In 2004, her debut Zunido da Mata brought
her one of the most important prizes in international world music the Choc de l’Année awarded by the French Le Monde de la
Musique magazine. Her second release, Manto dos Sonhos was
nominated for World Music Central’s Best World Music Album
2012. At present the artist is working on her third LP entitled
Encantaҫões. In today’s world music scene, you will find few such
voices as Renata Rosa.
Hossein Alizadeh is one of the most important figures in
contemporary Persian music. He learned its classic variation with
many masters, which produced the first recording, a collection of
the traditional radif compositions. He studied composing at the
University of Tehran and subsequently composition and musicology
at the Berlin University. Alizadeh was also a conductor and soloist of
the Iranian National Orchestra of Radio and Television, the founder
of Aref Ensemble and a member of the famed Bejart Ballet
Company’s orchestra. The artist recorded dozens of albums, with
one, made in collaboration with Djivan Gasparyan, nominated for
Grammy Award for Best World Music Album of 2006. A virtuoso of
tar and setar lutes, instruments known across Persia before Islam.
During Ethno Port Poznań, Alizadeh will appear with Pejman
Hadadi, an Iranian percussionist renown and much acclaimed for his
innovative approach to the traditional tombak drum, which consists
in his ability to produce melodic patterns within rhythmic structures
and to create complex variations on the basic sounds of the
instrument. The artists have performed together in the most
prestigious concert halls of the world (UCLA Royce Hall, Toronto
Centre for the Arts or Carnegie Hall).
______________________________________________________________________________________
FESTIVAL PASS – PLN 100
pass including opening concert – PLN 120
day ticket for Friday (13.06.) – PLN 60
day ticket for Saturday (14.06.) – PLN 70
day ticket for Sunday (15.06.) – PLN 60
concert tickets
Dhafer Youssef – PLN 40 / Pekko Käppi – PLN 20 / Ganesh-Kumaresh – PLN 30 / Jambinai – PLN 30
Transkapela – PLN 20 / Söndörgő – PLN 20 / Taksim Trio – PLN 30 / Charming Hostess – PLN 30
Karolina Cicha & Bart Pałyga – PLN 20 / Renata Rosa – PLN 30 / Hossein Alizadeh & Pejman Hadadi – PLN 30
free entry
Dom Tańca Poznań / Fanfare Ciocărlia / Les Tambours de Brazza / Trebunie Tutki & Twinkle Brothers