From ethnic sounds to pop fusion, JONATHAN CHEN grooved to an assortment of musical beats during the recent Penang World Music Festival.

Techung from Tibet opened the final night's performance.

IT was a celebration of diverse cultures at the Penang World Music Festival 2008 (PWMF) last week.

Art lovers from all over gathered at the Penang Botanical Gardens for three nights of ethnic music performances by artistes from Malaysia, France, the Reunion Islands, Mexico, Tibet, USA, Croatia, Canada, Iran, India, Denmark, Kenya and Australia.

Set against a near perfect backdrop of rustic lush green hills, crowds started gathering as early as 6pm on the final day of performance to book the best seats in the house, some fully armed with portable deckchairs while others roughed it out on the grass.

As with the inaugural PWMF which was held last year, once again two huge stages were set up side by side to facilitate the smooth transition of performances, assisted by equally huge screens, ensuring that no one in the audience missed out on the action happening on stage.
The first performance of the evening featured Techung, critically-acclaimed by many as one of the key keepers of traditional Tibetan music. Opening the evening with a traditional Tibetan tune using a Tibetan instrument called a piwang, he mesmerised the crowd with his voice which was reverberating magnificently against the hills, which formed a natural amphitheatre.

“I love your trees and I respect them, but allow me for now to imagine the snow-covered trees of the Himalayas with my fellow Tibetans going on a pilgrimage,” he said before performing his next number, successfully getting the audience immersed and lost within his soulful cries.

Canada-based Balfa Toujours heated up the atmosphere with their sprightly Cajun-flavoured bluesy tunes and they had the crowd jigging to their music.

The family-based group, led by Christine Balfa, has been recognised as one of the most important groups in Louisiana and is touted to be the future of Cajun music.

Next up, the ladies in the house were in for a treat with France-based Lo Cor de la Plana, which featured a six-piece male acapella ensemble, which according to MC Hairy Dick, sang songs of love.

Their performance was interesting in the sense that the ensemble members who possessed powerful soulful voices also doubled their roles as percussionists on various types of North African hand drums, which at times provided exciting, anticipative rhythms whilst at other times producing thunderous booms echoing against the hills.

The deep cultural implications behind the music, however piqued my interest, but finding it a little difficult to pinpoint the uniqueness of this particular genre of music, I turned to Universiti Sains Malaysia music lecturer Razif Mohd who also attended the show, for help.

Razif described such a genre as “remote regional music” from southern France, where many immigrants from Morocco and Tunisia bring along their cultures and creat their own unique brand of music over the years.

Next up was what I would deem the most distinctive act — a performance by Danish band Afenginn, which combined punk, Nordic folk, world music and jazz against some solid bass rhythms and quite a bit of head banging to match.

Comprising the highly-energetic Kim Nyberg on mandolin, Rasmus Kroyer on clarinet, Niels Skoymand on violin, with Rune Kofoed and Aske Jacoby taking care of the rhythm, the group provided the audience with their personal brand of progressive style fusion-world tunes.

At first glance, Afenginn could be regarded as the “ethno-world” version of progressive rock band, Dream Theater, complete with a healthy dose of aggressive stop-start rhythms thrown against haunting lines from Skoymand’s violin, growling clarinet licks and the almost kiddy like twangs from Nyberg’s mandolin.

Show closers Kenge Kenge of Kenya then took the stage by storm with their own brand of explosive percussive songs, which got the crowd up on their feet and started swaying to the music in no time, guided at times by two Kenge Kenge dancers.

Armed to the teeth with all sorts of traditional instruments including the bul drums, the nyangile sound box, asili flute, oporo horn and trademark orutu fiddles, the band successfully managed to the infect the crowd with their benga music style.

However, the transition into the finale where all performers over the three days were supposed to perform as one, was not as smooth as it should have been, which dampened the climax of the show a little. But despite all of that, the spirit of music appreciation and sharing was evident during the entire performance, leaving most keen on attending next year’s show.