I’m attempting to share some music that celebrates intimacies between people who lack physical closeness (ie people from various parts of the world), that ignores borders and border walls to explore our inner, musical, emotional, intuitive selves. There can be, and often are, such feelings of joy from collaborations such as these, and I think the referenced recordings prove this.
Where do I draw the line, because there is so much I might share! For today I’m picking these, two recent and one now 50 years old (unbelievable), but all of these recordings are new to me within the last 24 hours: Saba Sounds from Guo Gan, Zoumana Tereta & Richard Bourreau (2020); Ajoyo’s War Chant (2020); and Afreaka! (1970) by Demon Fuzz. I don’t have much to say much about the music specifically. Each draws on multiple musical backgrounds, each explores and exploits the backgrounds in different ways. But I think exudes from each of these is recordings is Joy and Freedom of Expression emanating in these cases from exploring multiple idioms simultaneously. The main thing, the purpose, is enjoying the music, whether making it or listening to it.
I will venture to propose that I myself am some sort of an impostor when I also say that I hope we can maintain distinctness, individuality of cultural identities while we continue to find common ground? It’s not just a musical dilemma. To make it personal: my sons have an American father and a Japanese mother. Often these kids are called “half” one or the other, and even though I have promoted “double” as a better alternative, the general population hasn’t yet caught on. As cultural identities merge and mutate are we losing or gaining? I’d like to say that if, in general, we are learning to accept one another, value one another, etc. then surely this is an overall gain. But is that the case? The tide flows back and forth as we open up, then jump on opportunities to close ourselves off once again. I’m being a little vague here, on purpose, because I don’t want to make this a political statement. So, coming back around, what are the implications if we make and listen to music in which boundaries are blurred are indistinguishable? Judging as good or bad generally doesn’t help (unless it’s really bad!), but how do we both maintain and move forward?
I imagine I’ve lost most readers either because I’m not making sense or because I’m such a bad self-editor. But I hope somebody out there enjoys the music! That’s the goal here, despite the ramblings.
