exotraxx division

For the other ‘real’ political issues – which of course still are the main concern of this website – see the links above and all around.

Mikis Theodorakis, of course, stands for Greece, and he is an immortal monument not only in his own country’s culture, just as José ‘Zeca’ Afonso is in his – Portugal, where José Mário Branco comes from, too.

Fabrizio de André was born in Genova, Italy, and he sings in his native Genoese dialect. Pino Daniele sings Italian.

I Muvrini is a music group from Corsica, France, who perform a music rooted in the traditional polyphonic Corsican singing, and they sing in their native Corsican language.

The Orchestre National de Barbès neither is a national orchestra nor Barbès is a country – it’s the name of a quarter in Paris, France, and 08001 is the ZIP code of Raval, a quarter in Barcelona, Catalonia.

But Tahúres Zurdos really are from Spain – they split up in 2004, however.

And Marianne Faithfull, however, has her performance simply because she’s not only one of my own favorite singers and interpreters of Brecht-Weill texts but a really great lady as well.

Erkin Koray, born on June 24, 1941, and often referred to as Erkin Baba (“Erkin the Father”) for his pioneering influence on Turkish popular music, is reflecting in his music both his Turkish roots and the influence of western rock music.

Amina Alaoui, performing her ‘transcultural music‘, comes from Morocco, and she sings in all those languages which are spoken in Morocco: Arabic, French and Spanish. She joined the Catalan artist Lluís Llach, whose political and cultural impact in Catalonia is similar to that of José Afonso and Mikis Theodorakis in their countries, in his famous concert ‘Un Pont de Mar Blava’ – and that is what all these people is connecting: a bridge of blue water, the Mediterranean.

So Lluís Llach on his part joins I Muvrini in their song ‘Vo lu mondu’ – singing Catalan, of course.

Leaving the Mediterranean, we not only enhance the region but also the differences and thus the surplus value: the Afro Celt Sound System, initiated as a part of Peter Gabriel’s Real World project, combines ancient acoustic performances on bodhran, talking drum, Celtic harp, African kora, uilleann pipes and Irish whistles with 21st-century programming and grooves.

And their neighbours next door, Runrig, simply call what they make ‘Scottish celtic rock’.

Late Joe Zawinul, Austrian from Vienna and world citizen, co-founder of Weather Report, one of the first real jazz-rock formations, together with his ‘Syndicate’ celebrates his kind of music – world music at its best.

When Abdullah Ibrahim, who was born in Cape Town, South Africa, was forced into exile by the apartheid regime, he was called Dollar Brand – because he played the piano for money since he was fifteen. However, when he was invited to return from exile to play at the inauguration of the country’s first black president Nelson Mandela, he had changed his name to Abdullah Ibrahim. In-between he played a music which always was deeply rooted in the music of the townships – and this did never change.

Another South African jazz pianist who collaborated with Abdullah Ibrahim composing the famous album Jazz: The African Sound was the late Chris McGregor – but in spite of he was white and never had to change his name, he had to leave his native South Africa for London where he formed the Brotherhood of Breath, a who’s who of British jazz and committed to the African roots of jazz music.

And so it’s inescapable: it has to be US Jazz bassist Charlie Haden to introduce this music section with his Liberation Music Orchestra: “This is not America.”