Cygnet Folk Festival 2014.
On the other side of the hill that raises behind my home lies
the small Tasmanian town of Cygnet, a town that has over the years reinvented
itself as it has moved its focus from a purely rural town of local farmers to
becoming a centre of sorts for the creative arts. Each year Cygnet holds a Folk
Festival now on its 32nd year, and over time the quality of the
performances has continued to grow to the point that the Festival now has an
international reputation. I must confess that over the years I have not taken
as much interest in the events as I should, confining my visits to the free
performances and the craft and food stalls that seem to be heart of such
Festivals. Events that are scattered throughout the town over the three
festival days, some of questionable quality and have wondered at times what all
the excitement was about. This year I decided to buy a full day ticket and
listen to events that are held in the
various halls. This year there were some
120 different performers drawn from around the world and it would be impossible
to classify all the styles and quality
of their music.
Naturally,
various acts appeal to different tastes and with this years Festival’s theme of
World Music the task of what to visit was not an easy one. Many of the
musicians held workshops and master class in addition to their performances.
Personally I felt four groups stood out, well from the ones I heard. Horse and
Wood, a recital by Mongolian, Bukhchluum Gangbured and John Robinson was one
they produced some amazing sounds. The music could best be described as a mix
of Arabic Mongolian, Scottish mix jazz and heaven knows what. Bukhu sang with a
mixture of deep throat vocals switching to different stunning sounds of singing
that you would have to describe as amazing while playing his Mongolian guitar.
The effect was quite unworldly, whether this is a traditional type of singing
in his country I do not know, but it underlines the tremendous diversity of
cultural life now present in Australia.
Mara Trio
whose throaty rendition of Balkan, Turkish, and Bulgarian songs, struck a cord
with the audience. To my ear she had that untrained voice from the throat
rather than the lungs so much loved in Romania. Nicholas Lens’ Latin Mass,
Flamma Flamma that I heard a few years ago had the same quality. He used some
untrained Romanian female singers in the mass to produce this haunting sound
that stays with you almost for ever.
The two
headline acts, one the Afenginn Group from Denmark, fresh from having just won
a Best World CD award, and other Gordie Mackerman and his Rhythm Boys were the
crowd favourites. The Danish group had a wider range of musical repertoire
moving from soul music to full jazz. The Rhythm Boys however were hard to beat
in performance presence. This Canadian group from Prince Edward Island played a
vibrant bluegrass jazz. At first I thought Gordie the violinist was Irish, a
thin young man who could dance on rubber legs, play music plus held the
audience spellbound. He was able to extract sounds from his violin that I am
sure Stephane Grappelli would have been proud. Their music had that Tigar Rag quality
so much loved by early jazz fans. There
were times when the floor seemed to be moving as much as the violinist from the
tapping of so many feet. How Gordie is able to dance, play at such a tempo at
the same time begs belief. These were for me the standout performers and the
Cygnet organising committee for this Folk Festival need our congratulations for
enticing these musicians to our little island at the bottom of the world.
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