In Berlin now.

Ok, now I am in Berlin. I took the train from Warsaw to Berlin yesterday. It took about 5 hours. It was a great train journey, good food and great scenery. I would like to have done all the travelling for this project by train but this was not possible given time demands. It wasa five hour journey but cost only 50 euros and that was first class! In Uk we would have to pay over 100 quid to travel first class for an hour and a half from Birmingham to London, something wrong there.

I enjoyed Warsaw a great deal but got a bit worried about whether we would get the job done or not. Everybody involved was very busy with other things and we just finally got together the day before I left. I was supposed to be working Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but ended up waiting around until Friday. However, the musicians and engineer who worked with me on Friday were amazing and we got a lot done. Zeter was the sound engineer. David from Mexico played percussion and Ton Van Anh from Vietnam was a singer. They were all very good and have made a very strong contribution to this project. I will post up more info and pictures soon.

Some Italy Pics.

Serge playing guitar on the devising day.

The guys playing in the park for the documentary filming. Crowds gathered when they played and applauded their music. I lay in the Italian sun, enjoying the show and taking my artistic director role very seriously.

Antoine being interviewed for the documentary.

Frederico was my jovial host in Italy. He organised the recording and also worked with Barbara on the Italian documentary. He informed me a great deal about Italian politics. Here in Warsaw there is also a great deal of talking about politics. I wonder if there will be such in talking in Berlin, they certainly don't talk like this much in England.

This is Barbara one of the Italian film makers. She was also a very good translator. Barabara is lucky to live in the part of Venice we know from movies and Cornetto adverts.

Italy Musicians

Well, I am in an internet cafe in Warsaw posting information about the Italy musicians. Should have had it up sooner but was very busy with the Sound It Out Elements concert in Sandwell and Dudley.

The Italy musicians where four very talented guys from Congo. They sang harmonies mainly in the call and response format particular to African music and accompanied themselves on drums. On the recording the play congas, bongos and clave but I found they could turn their percussive skills to any thing that made a good sound when beat.

Left to right, Raymond, Jacques, Serge and Antoine.

The main theme of their music was their Christian religion. I would normally feel a bit uncomfortable with religious music but these guys where so good and performed with such conviction that any such qualms evaporated instantly. The guys work during the week in various jobs and had given up their weekend to come and do the project with us. Serge was actually a teacher in Congo but works in a car mechanics in Italy. I think in most societies people from low income backgrounds are severely restricted in chances of self development or making a contribution to society that befits their intellectual abilities. For refugees I suspect the situation is much more difficult and people with specific talents and skills will find it hard to make best use of them. The Congo musicians in Italy where charismatic and joyful and I sincerely hope things work out well for them.

Off to Warsaw

Ok, I have been to Italy and recorded four very talented Congolese musicians. Some of this was over the existing Birmingham tracks and one track of the guys on their own. I have pictures to upload of the Italian musicians and film makers and will do so whilst in Poland! I am off to Warsaw tommorrow for six days and then heading to Berlin to finish the project.

Obviously I'm very excited and looking forward to seeing Warsaw and Berlin for the first time. I am also keen to do a very good job on the project and have done quite a bit of prep on the existing audio. I am intending to update the blog whilst out there so keep checking back in the next few weeks.

Italy

I was supposed to be going to Italy on the 1st May but two of the musicians there got jobs and didn't want to miss their first day of work. It was as well the tickets had'nt been booked. This is better though as it gives me time to prepare the material recorded in Birmingham and to learn a few Italian words and phrases.

The plan is for me to go to Italy on 11th May and then to Poland and Germany on the 26th May. The other good news is that I can do the Poland and Germany trip by rail. I love travelling by train, much more of an adventure.

I will get a better digital camera for the next stages of the project and aim to get some of the audio up to. I will keep the blog posted on future developments and make additions about music from the various countries the musicians come from.

Birmingham Recording Day.

No problems. It's amazing how these things come together. We recorded the two completed pieces and the extra material for the piece that will involve the other musicians too. Time did feel a bit tight but we set limits on how many takes we would do and moved on when neccessary. Obviously we don't sound like a band that have been together for years but it does sound good. A nice blend of Albanian and African music with a bit of my guitar thrown in.

It was Blerim's birthday on the day we recorded and you can see him here pictured with his birthday cake. I would like to point out to funders that we purchased the cake with our own money and had the birthday party in the tea break time.

This is Isata the coordinator of the transnational project. Isata makes sure everybody knows what's going on and that they are in the right place at the right time. She also deals with endless amounts of forms and paperwork as in the picture above.

This is the sound man Tom doing his thing on the desk at the end of the day when we all sit on the sofa asking things that make his life harder. We recorded at Artisan Studio in Moseley, Birmingham. A nice studio built into the owner Jon Cotton's house.

Birmingham devising day.

All went well. We devised a piece of new music for the project and arranged a traditional piece that Blerim put forward. We also worked on small riffs and motifs for the piece that will involve everybody.The film crew came in the afternoon filmed us and did some interviews. It was very warm in the room and it got warmer when the film lights where on. It is pretty tough devising music in a new group from scratch and it got even tougher when we had the cameras pointed at us. I am a bit worried about doing this in the other countries. I hope we have enough time for seperate filming and devising.

Birmingham musicians

This is Steve, an African percussionist from Cameroon. Steve has been in England for quite a while and is really making it his home. He leads his own band and is studying a degree in international relations at Coventry University. I had worked with Steve before on some education projects and was glad to work with him here. I also hope to work with him again in the future.

The main music of Cameroon is Makossa one of Africa's hottest dance genres. I'll let you know more about it soon after a week of reading and listening.

Birmingham musicians

This is Frederick, he is from Congo and plays bass, keyboards and guitar although on this project he played only bass. Frederick is not long in Britain and his english is just developing. He speaks french and this gave me a chance to practice my Del Boy-esque french. However, Frederick's english was better than my french and Steve speaks french well so translated for us, I did try though.

In this project so far the country with the most musicians put forward has been Congo. And from the audio clips I have heard they are all amazing musicians.

Watch this space and I will find out more about Congalese music.

Birmingham musicians

.

This is Blerim, if you haven't already guessed he plays clarinet. Blerim is from Albania and has been in Birmingham about seven years. He is in the Sound It Out Infusion Ensemble and is also in a band playing mainly Greek music at restaurants, weddings and parties. His playing is very sweet and soulful and I suspect he must play in the Southern Albanian style which is gentler than the style of the North.

I will do a bit of research on Albanian music and let you know what I find.

Open Audition in Birmigham

In order to get to know some local refugee musicians and see their suitablity for this project we held an open audition at the CIP centre in Birmingham. It was a very enjoyable couple of hours as we had a jam and then the guys ( there where no women) each did a short performance. There was musicians from Conga, Cameroon, Albania and Iran and there was some beautiful music indeed.

Majit is an Iranian musician who emulates his traditional music and instruments on keyboard. I would normally prefer to hear the original instruments but I found his playing and style very effective. His keyboard had settings that enabled him to play the quarter tones that feature in Iranian music. He had to order the settings on a card from Iran as they are not available here, I am sure some creative musicians here could do some interesting stuff with that.

Unfortunately not everybody could be chosen and I had to choose in such a way to compliment the musicians from the other countries. We had some amazing singers from the Congo at the CIP audition but I couldn't use them as Italy will also be providing Congalese singers. I will be looking to hear these guys in future though as the air became hazy when they sang and I felt my worries melt, beautiful voices singing beautiful music!

A bit of background.

"Home from Home" is a transnational collaboration involving organisations from four European Union countries (Germany, Italy, Poland and Great Britain).

The project involves working with refugee/asylum seeker musicians in each of the four countries and devising tracks to accompany a film/documentary. The approach is quite flexible and I am recording as much music as possible with the musicians I meet. However alongside the individual pieces from each country there will also be a piece that involves every musician in the project. This is a tricky task and I am trying to make it as organic as possible using the musicians improvising skills and then doing a remix of the audio recorded at the end.

This is very exciting for me as a musician as I am meeting and learning about musicians from all over the world. In order to make the most of this oppportunity I decided to keep this blog and document some of the things I learn along the way. I hope you find it interesting.