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The music of Madagascar is unlike any music you’ve ever
heard. It’s also like every kind of music you’ve ever
heard. Sounds like a paradox? The legendary Malagasy guitarist
Etienne Ramboatiana puts it in a nutshell “ The music of
Madagascar combines the spirituality of Oriental music, the rhythms
of African music, and the intellectualism of European music”.
This musical adventure is the brainchild of Sean Whittaker who
came to Madagascar in 1993 on a one year contract to help build
windmills and ended up staying for five.
Obsessed by the astonishing, varied folk music
that he had heard throughout the country and perplexed by its
lack of exposure he returned in 2002 to “scratch the itch”
With the assistance of Hanitra, the female vocalist with internationally
renowned group Tarika Samy and many others, Vakoka was born, a
project to capture diverse traditions that gathers some of the
greatest musicians from around the island in a confluence of the
ancient and the modern.
The only prerequisite for the music was that
it had to be performed with Malagasy soul and this is where paradox
is heaped on paradox. What is Malagasy soul? African rhythm? The
incantations of American Indian music? Polynesian music? The delicate
tracings of pre-Renaissance European music? Brazilian music? Merengue?
The twelve pieces on this disc are nothing and yet all of these
things and firmly based on traditional Malagasy models. With a
varied array of singers (including the wonderful Hanitra), traditional
valiha (stringed) instruments, sodinas (traditional flutes), a
bevy of percussion instruments , brass instruments, violins ,acoustic
guitar and a touch of electric and styles of Malagasy folk music
never recorded before, including one section recorded live in
the market-place, one could be forgiven for thinking that it couldn’t
possibly work.
Yet it does. Brilliantly so. I’ll cite
the last number Hiran’ny Gasy not because I think it’s
the best track. Such terms as best or good are meaningless in
the context of this work. It is a truncated version of a hira
gasy spectacle which is presented by wandering orchestra-troupes
consisting of dance, music, drama and mime and a fitting close
which to my mind exemplifies the Ramboatiana quote above. Introducing
Vakoka is approaching its hundredth audition. It refuses to leave
my CD player.
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