Monthly Archives: August 2022

August 22. After Viljandi, a talk with Daina Zalane from Lauska, new artists, calls and plans #50

Summary 👇 

  • Memories from Viljandi Folk Music Festival
  • A talk with Daina Zalane from the label and culture management centre Lauska (Latvia)
  • Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
  • Open calls and more news from professional events. 💼 Some new news!
  • Brief presentation of the new collaborations for Mapamundi Música: Ali Doğan Gönültaş, Di Gasn Trio and Xurxo Fernandes’ Levaino
  • Meet me at ✈️

Hello, how are you? I’m fine, sending this letter from home with the t-shirt of the Viljandi Folk Music Music Festival. It is a really nice design, I’m loving to wear it. I share some more insights about the festival here below.

I tell you that this is the 50th edition of this newsletter. It started when I had Sherezade with me. You know I lost her as an employee because of the pandemic but we are still in touch. I will meet her in person  tomorrow. I remember well when I decided to start this newsletter as a way to be aware of interesting events, learning more about interesting people from our community and sharing all this info with many colleagues all around the world. After some time, I feel it has also helped to develop some reflections, at least on me.

I also tell you that this is the month of my birthday, that is on 26th of August. So feel free to send me your best wishes 😉

As always, if you have any news of interest for our community, let me know. Thank you very much for your attention.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música | +34 676 30 28 82 

Subscription is available here.

Do you want to share any useful experience or call relevant for our community of the world musics? Let me know.

Forward to a friend right from here Send this to a friend right from here
Share to FB right from here Share to FB right from here

MEMORIES FROM VILJANDI FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL

I spent the last days of July in Viljandi, Estonia, for the Viljandi Folk Music Festival. This year, the festival invited several foreign disseminators. Remember I published an interview with Ando Kiviberg about the festival in the edition of May, that is available here.

Beyond the music programme, which has been very varied, with options for everyone (which you can consult here), I would like to highlight two very interesting aspects of the festival:

  1. The average age of the audience, I don’t know the official data, but I would say that it doesn’t exceed 30 years old. There were hundreds or thousands of teenagers, attending the concerts at all hours. This was really exciting. In most of Europe we know that this is very different, also in festivals with very diverse programming and very affordable prices. It will be worth another future conversation with the team to try to understand what the mechanisms have been to achieve this.
  2. The physical space where it takes place is a dream. I’ve made for you a gallery of pictures from the festival on my Facebook profile, here in particular. The festival takes place in a park that belongs to the city council. There are some buildings in the park and one of them is the headquarters of the NGO Estonian Traditional Music Center. I thought it was a municipal public body but Tarmo Noormaa told me there that it is an NGO. And in the park there are hollows, nooks and crannies, some bridges, large esplanades as well,… in a way that allows to place several stages in the open air, easily accessible to each other for the audience, and to programme the stages in a way that hardly interferes with each other’s sound. In addition, as the organisation’s building is in the centre, it can be used as a space for the artists to leave their instruments and for the team to work, with all the comfort of being in their usual space.

Another feature that I find very interesting is that most of the bands play two times in different days, in different hours and most of them in different stages, that is very nice for the artists and also for the public not to miss a band if they play at the same time as another one of their interest.

This was the stage of the ruins, maybe the most iconic one, during the concert by Samba Touré:

The practical needs for the public are well resolved, with much offer of different kinds of food, many toilets, fountains of fresh water for free and places to sit.

I will talk about the program also in Mundofonías, when we return from the holidays in September but I’d like to mention the acts that I enjoyed the most of the ones I was able to attend. Click their names to see a video (not necessarily mine or even from Viljandi, just a video that I selected from Youtube): Ak Dan Gwang Chil (South Korea), Góbé (Hungary), Lüü-Türr 10 (Estonia), Gangar (Norway), Wowakin Trio (Poland) and the super young trio Triuka (Estonia, see below).

The Estonian trio Triuka were one of my favourite acts of the festival. This year the programme favoured young folk groups from the country and these youngsters totally won me over. I look forward to hearing from them in the near future!

This was the stage II Kirsimägi, the biggest one:

AND NOW THE FLOOR IS FOR:
DAINA ZALĀNE, FROM LAUSKA

Daina Zalāne is the Head of Label and Culture Management Centre LAUSKA in Latvia, that, according to their website “is a partner for independent artists and groups active in various cultural fields. “Lauska” helps to professionally organize and implement different projects and creative ideas”. She is also a member of the board of the European Folk Network, thanks to which I have been in frequent contact with her over the last year.

According to their website “The Culture Management Centre “Lauska” was founded on 29 January 2003 with the aim to support cultural processes and professional culture management in Latvia”. I sent a few questions to Daina about their several lines of activity and here you are the answers. 

General questions about Lauska:

Daina Zalāne: When we started, we wanted to keep the topic as broad as possible because we didn’t exactly know, which route we are going to take. We were a group of friends all engaged in culture but from various angles. For example, in the beginning I was managing a small ceramics gallery and workshop in the Old Town of Riga, because the artists were friends of mine and they needed administrative help. My husband is a historian by education and he had several ideas about projects treating history, oral history and history of everyday life in particular, about collecting pictures, recordings, stories. Some of it we also realised.

But eventually we turned out to be the biggest folk label in Latvia, because that is where our strength lies – in our network in the Latvian folk scene which has broadened into an international network.

Also our Ethno Music Festival grew organically from small-scale concerts at the opening events of our releases which we organised in different places in Riga and outside. Eventually we started working with different municipalities, who wanted a folk music stage in their city festivals, and then we grew into a separate, full-scale festival.

MM: On your website I see you are 4 people. How do you manage to sustain the organization? Do you get any grants from the government or is it sustainable with the services and products that you provide?

DZ: Our NGO Lauska is not based on membership fees. As a matter of fact we are only two active members working on the projects. The NGO is merely a body from which to initiate and administrate cultural projects. Our main funding body in Latvia is the State Culture Capital Foundation where we can hand in projects 3-4 times a year to receive funding and realise them – be they recordings, releases or concerts or workshops.
From there we also receive an annual administrative grant to be able to pay a small salary, cover transport and office expenses.
In addition to that we also are partners or initiators in different international projects, funded by Creative Europe or EEA Grants.
There is also some income from the CDs, books and vinyls we sell, but it is decreasing rapidly and we mainly keep the shop so that all our releases are easily available, as our mission is to spread information about traditional culture nowadays as widely as possible.

About the festival: 

DZ: The Valmiermuiža Ethno-Music Festival actually grew out of a compilation that we release every other year – SVIESTS. There we collect recordings of the folk groups and projects that are currently active in the scene in Latvia. As we always organise some concert or other event on the occasion of a new release, this compilation with 18-20 groups already asked for a festival.

The first five years we were located in the beautiful medieval town Cēsis, as part of the city celebration in the middle of the summer. But then we got a new partner – the Valmiermuiža brewery, that is located in a beautiful old mannor park, so there we now have the festival at the beginning of the Northern summer, in Mid-June, just before Midsummer. Our festival is slowly growing, in 2022 we already had two stages and two nights of concerts and other events. During the day there is a crafts and farmer’s market with local produce, as well as many activities for children and families, where they can learn about traditional crafts, natural materials and their use, traditional games and horse riding, etc. In the afternoon the musical programme starts with Latvian and international groups, that play what we call “post-folklore”.

When inviting groups from abroad, we are always looking for some special feature – maybe they are playing music from a specific region, singing in a special local language or dialect, or playing some specific local instrument, which people haven’t heard before and thus we can tell the stories about local nuances, diversity that adds colour to our global cultural landscape.

When darkness sets, one of the high-lights of the festival each year is the burning of the fire sculpture prepared by the Valencian artist Jordi NN.

TheEthno Festival „SVIESTS” reflects traditional culture and its different expressions that are based on their immediate environment and tradition, and thus can be understandable also for contemporary people who live in this same environment. The music in this festival is based on folklore and tradition that has passed the test of time and sounds authentic and enjoyable also nowadays.

Sviests – Butter – is a pure product, the best one can get from milk. In this time of margarine we invite to realise and return to values that have stood the test of time. Real values that we can enjoy and be proud of. It takes hard and accurate work to churn butter from milk and cream, to reach the stage when the unnecessary is separated and only the most valuable stays.

This is what the music groups in SVIESTS do – they explore and research the ancient traditional music and churn, churn until the very essence appears and the nowadays topical and unheard appears.

SVIESTS – “butter” – also has a slightly ironic meaning, because  until recently we could often hear about traditional or ethno-music a certain attitude – „kas tas par sviestu!” meaning  – “what is this rubbish” (literally “this is butter!”).

The main challenges

DZ: The main challenges of the festival and overall the cultural sector featuring live events is convincing the audience to attend. Especially after the pandemic, when people spent two years glued to the screen, it is very difficult to motivate them to buy tickets in advance – because the experience is that regulations can change quickly and concerts can be cancelled on short notice. Also people are not so ready to attend events where they don’t know exactly, what to expect. When the music groups are not mainstream, it requires a certain risk-taking to decide to spend time and money to go to a festival where one can be surprised by the diverse music and multitude of sounds from different parts of the world. But we are determined to carry on and provide this experience to people.

In one sentence: It is sometimes difficult to exactly describe, what the sound will be like, but I want to assure, that attending Valmiermuiža Ethno Music Festival will be an enriching and eye- and ear-opening experience you will not regret!

This is the album “Kas Jānīti Ielīgoja”, by the band Laiksne, that Daina mentions below:

About the Label and Studio Lauska:

We have been working and releasing music for almost 20 years now. And we have really gone the full circle – because the very first CD that we released – Summer Solstice Songs by the group Laiksne – we also had released as cassettes! Then there are years of CD publishing, both very traditional, authentic songs and music, as well as all kinds of contemporary folk and World music. It must be said that we always try to put some added value to our physical releases – be it design, be it song texts, or additional information about the music, that cannot be included in the streaming platforms. Some of our releases are really books with an additional CD. We also always translate all the information into English for international use.

Gradually all the music had to be published electronically on all the major platforms. In the past years some groups – like Auļi – do not publish their music in CD or other physical format anymore – instead they concentrate their effort on music video making. And recently we published our first vinyl by the legendary Latvian singer-songwriter Haralds Sīmanis.

Our studio Lauska has become specialised in recording all kinds of traditional instruments, but at the same time our sound engineer Kaspars Bārbals has now mastered the art of recording in the Dolby Atmos spatial audio technology which is the way of music listening in the future, once people will get tired of the low-quality sound experience from their phones and computer speakers.

One has to be resilient and be ready to change with the times and technical developments as well as adjust to listening tendencies of the audience.

This is the piece “Pla apli”, called like the latest album by Haralds Sīmanis, that Daina mentioned above:

 

BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS 

  • #1 for Transglobal World Music Chart in August is 2022 is: Vieux Farka Touré’s album Les Racines.
  • Mundofonías: on holidays during August! But don’t miss us: on the website there are hundreds of shows available!
  • And… note that I already have 132 editions of Music Before Shabbat. It is a special way to enjoy music and learn about history and social dynamics associated to the migrations, identities and many other complicated issues. Visit the website and enjoy. 

OPEN CALLS AND PROFESSIONAL EVENTS

If you have anything to share in this section in a future edition, let me know. 

  • The European Folk Network’s annual meeting, open registration until August 26th. It will take place in Manresa during the Fira Mediterrània. The welcome to the attendants will be on Friday 7th of October and the day of talks and meeting will be on Saturday 8th. After the activities of the network, the attendants will be able to enjoy the showcases of the Fira. Non-members of EFN are very welcome to attend the conference and can register to access airport transfers and lunch, etc., but will pay their own hotel costs. More details and registration, here.

As I am directly involved on this event, as part of the board of the EFN, I can tell you that this is going to be a thilling event, combining a carefully designed program by the EFN with the usual know-how and good taste of the Fira Mediterrània.

  • Pro/Press accreditation for Visa for Music 2022, open. “Accreditation requests are now open ! If you are a music professional or a journalist/media, ask for your accreditation by filling the google form linked to the button.” It will take place in Rabat, November 16th-19th.  To request the accreditation, click here.

  • Tallinn Music Week 2023, open call. Artist submission will close at 23.59 (CET) on 12 December 2022. Dates: “Music festival: Thu, 11 May – Sat, 13 May. Around 150 artists from various genres and scenes from all over Europe and beyond in Tallinn’s best venues play to an audience of around 15,000 people and to 1,000 music industry professionals from international markets and Baltic-Nordic region.” Check their proposal and apply here.

  • Mundial Montréal, professional registration is open. Early-bird rate available, here. “Mundial Montréal is back for its 12th edition from November 15 to 18 in person and via its virtual networking platform from November 1 to 25!”
  • Afro Pépites, two calls:Call for artistic project: opens till 30/09/22. Not just music, but almost any kind of art. Learn more, here.
    • Call for talent-hunters: the Afro Pepites Show is a tool dedicated to talent-Hunters. “The committee members will receive the instructions by e-mail. You will have to select 5 musical projects and 5 other projects (painting, dance, sculpture, short film….), in the quiet of your home, between 03/10/22 and 23/10/22.” Learn more, here.
  • Mobility grants to book Spanish artists, by Acción Cultural Española. The dates and conditions for this grants have been dramatically enhanced. The official information is here.

👉 Check the Spanish artists I offer from Mapamundi Música, here. They are Vigüela, Entavía, Jako el Muzikante, Xabi Aburruzaga, Citra Trío and Xurxo Fernandes’ Levaino.

 

NEW COLABORATIONS WITH ARTISTS

I will send more information about them soon but feel free to ask anything whenever you want. In the meantime, I invite you to discover (or just to enjoy them if you already know them) these artists with whom Mapamundi Música is beginning a joint path: Ali Doğan Gönültaş, Di Gasn Trio and Xurxo Fernandes’ Levaino. This is exciting! Click their pictures to watch a video:

MEET ME AT

Will we meet? Drop me a line!

  • Next Thursday 18th I will attend the festival Folk Plasencia (in Spain), where I have a concert by Entavía. On 20th, I will be in Roa (Burgos) where it will take place a festival for the 40th Anniversary of the Denomination of Origin of the wine of Ribera de Duero. There I have Entavía and Albaluna.
  • On 24th August, with the Ukrainians Hudaki Village Band in Bilbao, at the Aste Nagusia.
  • From 8th to 11th of September I will be in Tavira, Portugal, for the Fair of the Mediterranean Diet, to which I have to joy of providing the concerts by the Croatian band Veja, the Greek Rodopi Ensemble and the Israeli Neta Elkayam Arenas Trio.
  • On 16th of September I will travel to Vienna for a concert by Ali Doğan Gönültaş.
  • After that, I will attend, of course, the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa and the meeting of the European Folk Network. At the Fira, we will make the world premier of the show mujereson, with the dancer Patricia Álvarez and Vigüela. This picture below illustrates this new show:
  • The EFEx Showcase in Manchester, 13th Oct – 16th Oct.
  • And WOMEX in Lisbon, 19th Oct – 23th Oct.