Be captivated by Balkanrazzia and Naadro at ‘Brass and Drums’ tomorrow
Saturday, 14 September 2013 00:00
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Witness the exciting musical stylings of boisterous weddings, love and mentorship as the Norwegian Embassy, Concerts Norway, Sevalanka Foundation together with Aru Sri Art Theatre present ‘Brass and Drums,’ starring Balkanrazzia, a highly acclaimed Nordic group; featuring Sven Andersson (saxophone), Erik Axelsson (euphonium and percussion), Mathias Gunnarson (trumpet), and PetterLindgård (trumpet and percussion).
The quartet will combine with Sri Lanka’s very own dyn-amic percussionists Rakitha Wickramaratne, Gayan Mano-kumara, Uth-palaI Roshan, Nupathi Nilam-bara, Chitrajith Chathuranga and Ranga Nuw-antha of Naadro on Sunday 15 September at 6 p.m. at the British School Auditorium in Colombo. Audiences will be treated to a unique blend of ‘West meets East’ along with Balkanrazzia’s own mix of oriental spice. The official media sponsor for this event is MTV Sports. The entrance for this concert will be free of charge. Reservations can be made by calling 0774433133.
This will be the 16th group of musicians touring Sri Lanka as a portion of a wider music cooperation established between the Norwegian Embassy, Conc-erts Norway, Sevalanka Foun-dation and Aru Sri Art Theatre. Norwegian Bands such as RasNas, The Indian Core, Nils Olav Johansen Quartet, SISU, Classical Evergreens Opera, Kohinoor, Tindra, Fiddle & Dance, Sounds of Strings, Rolf-Erik Nystrom, Julie & Marie and Lucky 3, 3 Trumpets and Prof. Thomas Caplin have previously delighted Sri Lankan audiences.
Similarly, Sri Lankan artistes too have been provided the opportunity to captivate audiences in Norway. The Galle Music Festival and Jaffna Music Festival are also a brainchild of the Music Cooperation in its efforts to create greater musical and cultural awareness across Sri Lanka.
Balkanrazzia
Imagine yourself at a boisterous wedding where the musicians play for 10 hours on end! Or maybe listening to one of the old, musical mentors from Paris? Both these, and the eternal yearnings of love, are stories behind the music you will enjoy when being at a concert with the group Balkanrazzia.
They play original compositions and European folk music, with added Oriental spice. Balkanrazzia belong to the Klezmer tradition, a Jewish musical tradition. Klezmer means instrumental singing, where instruments replace the missing vocalist, and the trumpet and the saxophone play the melody.
Oral transmission is particular to this type of music, meaning that the musicians learn the songs by listening to others.
This oral tradition is one of the key criteria of folk music, which derives its characteristics from this direct communication. It can come about directly through systematic training or informally through participation in a musical environment.
The audience will meet four young musicians playing music that makes it hard to sit still! The four musicians have great experience touring schools in Sweden and Norway, where students enjoyed catchy music and intriguing harmonies.
Sven, Mathias and Erik have studied both classical music and jazz at the College of Music in Sweden, and Petter owns a studio in Malmö as well as serving as drummer. With the exception of Mathias, they are all members of the horn section of Timbuktu, Scandinavia’s most famous rapper, and Petter and Sven are studio musicians. In 1997, they formed the 11-piece band Östblocket [The Eastern bloc] after seeing Serbian Emir Kusturica’s film ‘Underground’. Goren Bredovic wrote the music score for the film, and thanks to him, the music of the Balkans has spread throughout the world and enjoys a cult following.
Balkanrazzia was formed around Petter Lindgård and other musicians who play in Östblocket.
Naadro
Naadro, with its origins rooted in simple percussion instruments, soon mastered instruments from a wide range of cultures due to their passion for percussion.
Today Naadro creates an electrifying rhythm and sound using both Sri Lankan traditional instruments and other percussion instruments to produce their own signature style of percussion. The group is constantly exploring the potential of using traditional percussion instruments from India, Japan, Latin America and Africa along with traditional Sri Lankan drums to create new percussion music.
This blend of world percussion music traditions and styles has attracted a large and growing following across the world.
The group has toured India, Singapore, Australia, South Africa and USA. Naadro has composed many of their own original pieces complementing the wonderful repertoire of world traditional percussion music they perform so masterfully.
They are popular background music artistes used for Sri Lankan movies and songs. The group conducts programs for school children to popularise percussion music among the younger generation.
