Summary 👇
🔸Editorial
🔸Talk with Imed Alibi, musician, composer and director of the music department at the Atelier des Artistes en Exil en France
🔸Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects + announcement from Mundofonías 🗞️
🔸Reminder: talk at Womex, “Reshaping the narrative” ✍️
🔸Update: European Folk Day 🗓️
🔸Open calls and more news from professional events 💼
🔸Meet me at ✈️ with spotlight on Festival “Kurdistan” in Elbphilarmonie Hamburg
Hello, how are you?I am well. This month is special. I will celebrate my birthday. I have only one wish to ask: to have more wisdom to be able to go further with this whole music thing.I will expend that day returning from Plasencia (Cáceres province, in Extremadura region) after the concert by Seiva, the Portuguese trio with which I began to collaborate this year. The usual line up is two women and a man, but in this occasion the female percussionist had to be substituted.
Apart from that, I am full of anticipation about the MOST festival and the re-entry in general. This summer is being fantastic. Ali Doğan Gönültaş is in France right now and today will be his fourth concert out of 10 that he is doing in Aubernia and Languedoc with his trio. Autumn is going to be fun for them as well. I explain a bit more below.
Tomorrow Vigüela will play in a festival that has been going on for 51 editions, Cita Folk in Jódar, in Andalusia. In the next Autumn they will start a new project to popularise a very unknown style of traditional music: the son. I will give news shortly.
Soon I will also be giving news of a new collaboration that has me full of anticipation, a collaboration that I hope will be a boost of motivation and outreach for both sides. For now I will only say that it is a collaboration with someone from the other side of the Mediterranean 😍.
I hope your summer is going wonderfully and the return to routine is uplifting! And that the content below is of your interest.
Remember: 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
AND NOW THE FLOOR IS FOR: IMED ALIBI
| While you read, listen to the his works, here 🎧 |
| “Due to war, racial, ethnic, sexual and gender discrimination, or religious, economic and political marginalization, every day many people are forced to leave their homeland. Amongst them, some are artists often involved in a continuous fight against the authorities of their countries. Since it is the duty of art to be the voice of the oppressed and to reveal the underlying issues in the society, the creative sector in Europe must be particularly mindful of the matter and provide the infrastructures to better accommodate these artists. Artists must be able to continue to practice their art, not only as individuals, but also as custodians of their culture. It is through art that the culture of a people whose autonomy is threatened, will continue to live on.”
This strong statement is in the About page of the L’atelier des artistes en exil. The head of the music department is Imed Alibi. |
I first heard about Imed Alibi in this interview ➡️ . Click on the picture to access it. It was at the height of the pandemic. I highly recommend reading it. It is in Spanish but I’m sure you can translate it automatically into your language with sufficient results. I have not forgotten it. It opened my mind to some ideas I hadn’t dealt with before.
At that time, May of 2020, I was involved in a series of conversations with colleagues from other countries in an attempt to create an informal network of people with similar concerns. I don’t know how, but I came across this interview with Imed. It was explained that, shortly before the start of the pandemic, Imed had been appointed director of the highly relevant Carthage International Festival. The news had been widely celebrated by the new generation of local artists. Why? It sounded worthy of further reading…
That edition of the festival was postponed and they had to opt for national artists, given the uncertainty about key issues that could affect them, such as international travel. In that interview, Imed said that the festival’s intention was not only to carry out a series of artistic activities but also to support the sector, which has been terribly affected by the coronavirus crisis. Later, he added: “In my humble opinion, the Carthage shows should retain the emotion of live performance, because historically they have always been linked to the audience. It is the essence of the festival. And I sincerely doubt that it can be transformed into a digital version“. I felt the same about many initiatives at that time.
Despite this, we personally had a fantastic experience with Vigüela in an event commissioned by the International Labour Organization. We called it “Conciertajo”, a words game with concert + Tajo, that is both the river in the village of the band and a slang term for “work”. It was designed specifically for the digital medium, taking advantage of the options for interaction with the public. During some weeks before, we incorporated the public directly into the artistic creation. During the concert, we kept the talk with them. The concert was the culmination of a lot of previous activities. But it is true that most of what was done was to put a camera and broadcasting.
Back to Imed, he also said something that still resonates with me to this day, perhaps even more strongly: “As we know there are many very talented artists but they are not good communicators and in that case inequalities can be created if we don’t receive support or advice from specialists or record labels. And well, these are the difficulties faced by artists in our countries and I would even say in the world in general.”
The whole interview is very interesting. Imed talks about the digital alternative and to what extent it was useful, about copyright in this area, about the conversations with the government to support artists, about the situation of artists in authoritarian regimes….
I contacted Imed to invite him to the talks with colleagues but the initiative fizzled out as the challenges were pulling on all of us and we didn’t manage to meet up with him. But luckily I have been meeting him on a few occasions and discovering more interesting things. The last time we met was in Ostrava, for the Czech Music Crossroads, of which I already spoke in the previous edition.
Portrait by Cedric Matet.
In Ostrava I learnt that he leads the department of music of the Atelier des artistes in Exile. That reminded me immediately about Alan Ibrahim and his organization Music For Identity, with whom I made a long and deep interview in this previous edition.
| Before reading the interview, it is useful to check out the website of the Atelier des artistes in Exile. And the website of Imed Alibi. |
And I said before, Imed is a musician himself. He is a percussionist and composer. This is a video from his Youtube channel: Imed Alibi Feat Kel Assouf et Natanael Ramos.
This video is from a concert from last October, made in Tenerife, the island in Canarias, that is nowadays in the news because of the fire that has burnt 7% of the land. The festival is Naturajazz. The program for 2023 is not announced yet. I wonder if they will have strenght and resources to make it this year 🙁
But back to Imed, it is time to share his insights:
Mapamundi Música: For the interview, as your profile is so special, I will separate the questions in two parts:
1. About your work as artistic director and artistic advisor of music festivals.
🔸MM: This newsletter is received by artists and managers from many places of the world. What can be useful for you? Are you interested in any specific profile of artists? Or, in other words, what do you search for in the artists with whom you could collaborate specifically for the advisory work you are doing currently?
Imed Alibi: It’s always interesting having new profiles, new artists especially emerging ones, we never have enough information… newsletters can also remember us some artists we may forget especially nowadays we have a boom of projects… innovative ones captivate us.
🔸What is the best way to approach you? Or how do you find the artists that can be of your interest?
IA: Music markets, one to one meeting, emails… I also navigate and research on internet..
🔸MM: Have you identified any common mistakes or shortages that the artists/managers do when approaching a person like you, who can be the decision maker in a festival or can have a strong influence on an artistic program?
IA: A festival or a venue can’t have so many artists per year, per session, it’s obvious, so no need to insist, sometimes it’s just embarrassing 🙂
🔸MM: You have a really huge experience and success both as an artist and as a cultural manager and you have collaborated with other referential artists. Which do you think is a key characteristic of the artists who succees?
IA: Patience, focus on one project for several years, it takes time to build an identity and to continue a career.
2. About your work as responsible for the music department of the Atelier des artistes en exile in Paris.🔸MM: Over the last few months I have had various conversations about the situation of being a refugee or migrant artist. For example, in the conversation with Alan Ibrahim, from Music for Identity, where we also talked about the process of the Refa group, initially Refugees for Refugees. More recently, I was talking to a friend in Madrid about a Cuban musician who is making his way in the jazz scene and we thought that with his appearance (he is black), as soon as the people see him, a lot of preconceived ideas appear in people’s minds, whatever he does, he is going to be the black Cuban musician (here there is not as much diversity in the music scene as in other places).At the same time, we were talking with Alan about how using these concepts is also useful to sell or to open some doors, but in the end it can trap the person in a limiting concept. What do you think about this and how do you deal with it from your atelier?IA: In France what we call ethnic music or world music is already putting musicians in boxes, the idea for us is to help artists to be really independent and continue their career in Europe in spite of the prejudices.
🔸MM: I have seen the list of artists on your website. There are a lot of them. I imagine that many of them are refugees for political reasons, is that right? But not all of them, right? Some are for economic reasons or because they have left in search of better development opportunities?
IA: Most of them are refugees for political reasons, others for sexual persecutions… Not economic.
IA: https://aa-e.org/fr/ and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiguqu2MIScLiQTA9gLFHOw
Thank you, Imed! 🙏
BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS
- #1 for Transglobal World Music Chart in August 2023 is: Amatssou by Tinariwen (Wedge)
- Mundofonías: this year we decided to take holidays in August so we don’t have any favourites. But we have news. RadiONeria, from Corcubion, Galicia, started to broadcast Mundofonías.
Juan Antonio decided to post some “Essentials” on Facebook during August. The Essentials are those pieces that we have enjoyed the most, from any moment of the history of the recorded music. This Ni Yeye, by the Zanzibari band Culture Musical Club, is worth of that term:
Reminder
TALK AT WOMEX: RESHAPING THE NARRATIVE
I already mentioned this event. This is a reminder. This morning I was talking with my colleagues to prepare the next steps and we are thrilled.
It is going to be the first time that I actually participate in this WOMEX activity and I am very happy to do it with two tremendous colleagues: Martyna van Nieuwland and Andrea Voets. Click on their names to read a bio. Specific day and time details will be announced at a later date.
Update
EUROPEAN FOLK DAY
The first ever European Folk Day will take place on 23rd of September. The call for participations is open (indeed, until the very last day). There are already 67 events aligned to the concept. All the information is available on the website.
The European Folk Day is a pilot project co-ordinated by European Folk Network (EFN) with financial support from the MusicAIRE project jointly organised by the European Music Council and Inova with funds from the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission.
| Do you have a call of interest for our community that you want to share? Let me know asap. |
OPEN CALLS AND PROFESSIONAL EVENTS
About open calls, just two reminders:
🔸Upbeat Awards. The voting is still open for 18 days (12 September 12 PM, CET.), here.
🔸#AuxSons reentré. In this previous edition I already talked about the digital magazine #AusSons, born in the frame of Zone Franche. This is a re-entry reminder for the community and the new subscribers: “#AuxSons is a French collaborative media shining light on worldwide music. You can create an account on our platform and contribute with article proposals to give visibility to your projects. We then moderate the submitted content before publishing them, and sharing on our social media and newsletter, if they comply with our specifications and our editorial line.”
Check their website for more information and to make your account.
About professional events…
🔸September, 7-9, Veszprém, Hungary, for the festival of BALKAN:MOST.
I have been following the MOST project in this newsletter, I think from the beginning. This festival, which will take place between 7 and 10 September in Veszprém, Hungary, is the culmination of the project of 4 years. This is how they present this event:
“The first professional event of this scale, the BALKAN: MOST conference offers three days of ample networking opportunities and inspiring discussions centered around the region’s music. We have invited the movers and shakers of the international scene, as well as the authentic voices of the region: the scene is set for fruitful cooperation. BALKAN:MOST strengthens the bridge laid down by MOST; four years of intense exchange and dedicated work involving 10 partner organizations and participants from Europe and Balkan countries. The conference will feature all pillars of the extensive undertaking from artists, festivals and music professionals, and provide yet another chance to forge collaborations across Europe.”
In addition to concerts, there will be several conferences and other professional activities, such as speed meetings, in which I will be hosting some artists. I will participate in all the activites I can and I will tell more about what happened, in the newsletter of September.
I will be travelling from Madrid with my colleague David Sierra, from Sierra Contratación Artística, with whom I share many things, such as our relationship with the magic land of Castilla-La Mancha (Mapamundi is legally settled in Toledo and David is from the region and lives there), we both work with artists from a very similar circuit and, well, we get along great 🥂.
In the picture, David Sierra and me, with the violinist Jitka Kubesovà. In Veszprém we will take new pictures:
MEET ME AT
If you happen to attend these same events, drop me a line. If you are not, they can be interesting for you too in any case. They are special events.
- September, 7-9, Veszprém, Hungary, for the festival of BALKAN:MOST. More info above.
- October, 5-8, I will go to the Fira Mediterrània in Manresa. Ali Doğan Gönültaş will perform there and I will attend also as a delegate as in many previous occasions.
October, 11th. Very special concert at the Alte Oper Franfkurt with Vigüela and several other Spanish performers for a program designed by alba Kultur. In the picture, Mari Nieto, singer of Vigüela, one of the protagonist of the event.
- October, 18-21, Manchester. English Folk Expo, which this year hosts the annual meeting of the European Folk Network.
- Womex. 25-29 October, La Coruña.
- 18-19 November. Hamburg, Germany. At the Elbphilarmonie there will be a wonderful program curated by alba Kultur, called Festival “Kurdistan”. Click here to discover the full program. It includes the performance of the dengbêj Saîdê Goyî. It will be a very special event, as Goyî rarely performs in this kind of professional environments. Thanks to the will of his son to take his art out of the private environment, in the past two years, the dengbêj has recorded two albums with the musical direction of Ali Doğan Gönültaş: Stranen Dile Min (2022) and Jinê (2023). These steps set the beginning of a path that would took him to this his first performance abroad: this unique event in Hamburg! Gönültaş (voice, tembur) will perform also with his own trio and he will accompany Saîdê Goyî, also together with Emrah Oğuztürk (mey, kaval, duduk, zurna).
In the picture, Ali Doğan Gönültaş and Saîdê Goyî in the surroundings of Şirnak:
Here is Saîdê Goyî’s second album:
WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS
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