Livika in Madrid
Drums drums drums! In Madrid, we hooked up with Daniel Salorio and Guillermo Fernandez-Cid who are both obsessive collectors of drums. Livika, their band, are a group of musicians who believe in bringing cultures and…
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Flamenco & Luis Ortega!
Ole! Just knew at some point we had to feel the heat and record some fiery flamenco. Fast toe-tapping and stamping of Cuban heels, incredibly rhythmic finger clicking and – yes – castanets! So we headed to Madrid and the rehearsal studios of La Corrala de la Danza to record a session with one of Spain’s leading flamencos dancers, Luis Ortega with his two colleagues Fernando Alfaro
Freezing Bucharest, Romania!
It’s well into New Year and we’re in the very very very cold city of Bucharest to play a gig (it’s -13 degrees here!). We’ve only just started recording samples for the project, so it was fantastic when…
Griots & Gorée Island
Abdoul Mbaye (on the left) comes from a ‘griot’ family – essientially storytellers in western Africa who perpetuate the traditions & history of a family or village in song. The keeper of ‘history’s living…
Ndem village, Senegal
In Dakar, during a night time power cut, we met up in total darkness with musician Pap Guissé who that night invited us to visit the idyllic and peaceful village of Ndem where he’s from (about 4 or 5 hours drive from Dakar) to record…
Senegal rap!
While in Dakar, we hooked up for an afternoon of filming with the I-Science crew at the very happening arts centre and work space Les Petites Pierres, a great place where music meets arts meets fashion. Founders Senegalese…
African ‘talking drums’!
While in Dakar in Senegal, we went to a concert of world music star Baaba Maal and were utterly captivated by his tama drum player Massamba Diop. So after the concert we spoke with him to see if he was up for being recorded and to be…
Mariachis & Mexican songs
Still in Mexico and we did an interview for Indie Rocks Magazine with editor Luis Alberto González who kindly took the time to introduce us to Leika Mochán, Dora Juárez and Sandra Cuevas aka Muna Zul. The acapella trio simply blew us away with their beautiful harmony singing, making the hairs on the back of our neck stand up! Queens of improvisation, they mix genres from folk, jazz and bossa nova to local styles like susurros, cacareos, aullidos and chasquidos.
We’re in Mexico!
While in Mexico to perform at the huge Sonorama Festival in the incredible Azteca Stadium, we were introduced to Humberto Alvarez, formally from the well known Mexican band Sangre Asteka. These days Humberto is an expert in pre-Hispanic music, which we recorded him playing – from Aztec whistles and drums to playing a virtually Neolithic ‘stone xylophone’, which he feels would have been one of the first instruments humans likely invented
First stop Brittany!
We’ve begun work on our new project Orchestra of Samples! For our first official recordings, we headed off to France and beautiful Brittany for a short residency at the venue L’Echonova in the town of Vannes to record local band Lyse and other musicians playing celtic instruments.
In the Himalayas!
Prior to creating this project but in many ways helping plant the seed for the whole idea of Orchestra of Samples, we had many hours of footage and field recordings we’d filmed in the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan in 2007, when we’d been invited as part of an artists expedition by London’s October Gallery aiming to record and preserve aspects of the country’s ancient ritual dance culture.