Clandestino Program 2023

clan dest ino

program 2023

musical adventures beyond borders

Clandestino festival 8–11 june 2023

Irreversible Entanglements Jazz activists ft. Moor Mother THURSDAY 8 JUNE OCEANEN

This experimental jazz collective was born from the meeting of three artists who performed at Musicians Against Police Brutality – a p ­ rotest organized in solidarity with Akai Gurley, a 28-­year-old Caribbean immigrant who was shot dead by NYPD in Brooklyn. On stage that night were saxophonist Keir Neuringer, bassist Luke Stewart and poet Camae Ayewa, the latter also known as Moor Mother.

In their meeting, revolutionary ­improvisational music sprung forth, accompanying Ayewa’s ­lyrics about quantum physics as well as the trauma of the African diaspora. This was the seed that would grow into one of the most e ­ xciting jazz groups of our time. Three became five when drummer

Tcheser Holmes and trumpeter Aquiles Navarro were recruited. Their first ever session together was recorded and released in 2017 as Irreversible Entanglements – the band’s debut album which was featured in best-of-year lists by The Wire, NPR, among others. Since then, the quintet has been compared to greats like Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, while the group has ­developed further on two more albums.

Free jazz can be the art of spontaneous invention – something this collective does with open ears. On their latest release Open the Gates, Irreversible Entanglements create an abrasive upbeat sound poetry that aims to serve as a vehicle for black liberation: “It’s energy time!”

uKanDanz Rift Valley ragers THURSDAY 8 JUNE OCEANEN

blanco teta Transfeminist noise rock THURSDAY 8 JUNE OCEANEN With a name that translates as White Breast, this quartet describes itself as a transfeminist noise rock band. The group also sees itself as part of a large queer and pro-democracy movement in Latin American arts and culture, which is expressed in songs like Córdoba Police Department, a kind of catharsis against oppression and authoritarian violence.

Three of the members met at the ­Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires. Josefina Barreix’s vocal style set the tone from square one – alternating between screams and suppressed frustration.

Adding Carlos E. Quebrada’s noisy bass and ­Violeta García’s distorted cello to the mix, it soon became apparent that this punk combo would do just fine without a guitarist. However, a d ­ rummer was needed, and they found just the right one in Carola Zelaschi: a hard hitting musician who wasn’t “brainwashed by the c ­ onservatory” to use the band’s jargon, but instead played in next to every other underground band in the ­Argentine metropolis.

In 2017, the quartet released their first EP Blanco Teta on cassette, which was followed up in 2020 by Incendiada. Album number three, Rompegaga, is rumoured to be just around the corner.

Dressed in snazzy suits and black bow ties, singer Asnaké Gèbrèyès was a phenomenon back in the 80s and 90s. His ornamental tenor could be heard on radio, TV, and countless cassette releases in Ethiopia. Weyene Ajir (my mysterious brother) became a smash hit and is a classic to this day. Outside Africa, however, Gèbrèyès’ music was difficult to find until it was reissued as part of the Éthiopiques series.

Meanwhile, French guitarist Damien Cluzel was in Addis Ababa as part of a travelling circus company, and met Gèbrèyès. After falling in love with the Ethiopian jazz tradition, Cluzel returned to Lyon with the idea of starting a band that c ­ ombined

his own heavy rock riffage with the sounds of swinging Addis. Asnaké Gèbrèyès agreed to join in on vocals, and soon uKanDanZ was in the studio recording their first record. A marriage of Mulatu Astatke and Rage Against the Machine is one way to describe their debut Yetchalal.

Fast forward a few years: Following tours to all corners of the globe – including a ­steaming hot night at Clandestino Festival 2015 – u ­ KanDanZ is getting ready to release their new album, Kemekem. Once again, Gèbrèyèys’ voice makes breathtaking melismas, along with fiery sax and hammond organ, while the drums and bass are irresistibly danceable.

Mulatu Astatke Father of Ethio Jazz FRIDAY 9 JUNE PUSTERVIK

Mulatu Astatke is a master of musical innovation.

Together with his nine-piece band, he blesses us with a mix of vibraphone and tight brass arrangements; mystical melodies, congas and bongos.

As a young student of music he left Ethiopia for Boston and New York, where he soon added Afro American music, jazz and Latin American rhythm to his palette. Astatke recorded three albums in the USA during the late sixties with Purto Rican musicians, records that would later become ­popular sampling materials for contemp­orary musicians, and much sought-after ­collector’s items.

As he returned to Addis Ababa in the 1970s, Astatke’s knowledge about American jazz music was totally unique at that time and place.

His return would result not only in a number

of ­legendary records and collaborations with Ethiopian musicians like Hailu Mergia, as well as international stars such as Duke Ellington; ­simultaneously a new music scene developed, mixing funk and jazz with East African melodies, much thanks to Mulatu Astatke’s influence: Ethio Jazz was born.

After the coup d’etat in 1974, times became harder for musicians in Ethiopia. Mulatu ­Astatke’s music would in fact be off the international radar until 1998, when French record label Buda Musique dedicated an album in their E ­ thiopiques series to his music. Some years later, Jim ­Jarmusch used Mr Astatke’s music in his movie Broken F ­ lowers, and the old recordings were ­sampled left and right by stars such as Kanye West, Nas and ­Damien Marley.

tootard Disco Dal’ona FRIDAY 9 JUNE PUSTERVIK Rami and Hasan Nakhleh grew up in the Golan Heights. Like many others in the territories occupied by Israel, they have never owned a passport, instead they are using a document called “­ Laissez passer” to be able to travel. ­Laissez ­Passer is also the name of an album they released in 2017, ­influenced by both desert blues and reggae.

Since then the brothers have shifted their focus to the Lebanese and Egyptian electronic disco of the 80s. Hasan Nakhleh nostalgically recalled the PSR-62 he used to have in his childhood home, a simple ­keyboard with oriental scales. He tracked down an ­­instrument of the same type and that became the start of their ­latest album Migrant Birds.

It is seductive and melancholy, built on funky disco with microtonal synth melodies – sometimes the album feels like a Levantine ­mirror work to Daft Punk’s Random Access ­Memories. But TootArd’s most important i­ nfluences derive from the Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid, known for introducing Western disco and funk to classical Arabic tonalities.

As the title Migrant Birds suggests, freedom is a r­ ecurring theme: the dream of moving freely across physical borders and walls, but also across those invisible barriers that limit one’s way of being and loving.

Derya Yıldırım & Grup simsek Anatolia re-interpreted FRIDAY 9 JUNE PUSTERVIK

They may be heavily influenced by 70s psych­ edelic folk rock from Turkey. But pinning down Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek is difficult both in terms of genre and geography. This “outer­ national” group was formed in 2014 in Hamburg when Yıldırım met keyboardist Graham Mushnik, guitarist-flautist Antonin Voyant, and drummer Greta Eacott.

Derya Yıldırım’s vocals are nothing but heart­ breaking, while she also creates electrified ­melodies on bağlama. For her, this stringed instrument is a connection to the family’s homeland in ­central Turkey. Her parents came as guest ­workers

to Hamburg before Derya Yıldırım was born. But in her interpretations of the region’s classic folk songs, as well as in the group’s own compositions, tales of the villages of the Anatolian plateau live on. A wistful kind of home­sickness for a place she really only knows through her family’s stories.

At the same time, the band’s music contains a hearty helping of the here-and-now, and all ­members contribute their own temperament. Folk rock, disco and floating ballads: on the albums Dost 1 and Dost 2, Grup Şimşek succeeds in the art of combining tricky quarter tonalities and melismas with dreamy synths and perky drumming.

Al Bilali Soudan Desert blues explosion FRIDAY 9 JUNE PUSTERVIK

Addis-Dakkar Local DJ royalties FRIDAY 9 JUNE PUSTERVIK Blessing the booth: Daniel Lemma and Eric Magassa make up the core crew of Club Addis-­ Dakar – a community for different c ­ ultural expre­ ssions seeking their roots on the A ­ frican c ­ ontinent as well as in its multifaceted ­diaspora. Since 2015 Addis-Dakar has been a recurring club event in Gothenburg, focusing on dance, food and music from different parts of the mother ­continent. Club Addis-Dakar is a puls­ating, groovy proof that what is in constant motion becomes ­impossible to pin down.

Taking their name from an ancient moniker for the city Timbuktu, this quartet brings ­trad­itional music with roots in the 16th century into the p ­ resent: playing harvest and festival melodies that ­Tuaregs have performed in Mali for ­hundreds of years. This is the cornerstone of what in latter years have become known as desert blues, but while many of their peers opt for electric guitars and ­modern drum sets, Al Bilali Soudan stick to traditional percussion and the string instrument tehardant – albeit electrified and distorted. The front figure Abellow Yattara comes from a f­ amily of musicians,

­ enerationally versed in the ­tradition of griot. He g and the other group members are ­frequently hired hands in other well known bands. As far back as in the 1970s Yattara was already recording with Ali Farka Touré and Orchestre de Tombouctou.

In concert, they are a blues explosion. No ­matter how ancient their music, it is reborn in every moment, through improvisations and hum­ our. In a way reminiscent of the most c ­ onfident jazz ­combos, they take their chances and show off their skills, before handing the baton to the next player in line.

Zoë Mc Pherson (live) West Pride official afterparty SATURDAY 10 JUNE GOTHENBURG FILM STUDIOS Zoë Mc Pherson is a Berlin based multimedia ­artist, performer, researcher, sound designer, spatial sound shaper, DJ, curator and founder of the label and AV platform SFX. Their breathless third album Pitch Blender is a tight set of cybernetic dancefloor experiments that flicker between the rave and the art space.

bcuc Soweto party machine SATURDAY 10 JUNE GOTHENBURG FILM STUDIOS

Those who took part in Clandestino’s festival excursion to Bottnaviken last summer may testify to the explosive potential that this South-African party machine released in the Bahusian night.

Since then they have released an exciting EP BCUC Elektronikalizer 10"Dubplate, and rumour has it that the much awaited Millions Of Us album is just waiting to drop – thus we get an excuse to invite this seven-strong band once more.

BCUC stands for Bantu Continua Uhuru ­Consciousness. They formed in Soweto, just a stone’s throw from the church where Desmond

Tutu hid anti-apartheid activists back in the day.

Their origin was in a container, turned restaurant, turned rehearsal space.

With melodic bass lines, signal whistles, a plethora of drums, as well as singing in Zulu, Sotho and English, they set off a hedonistic dance explosion that seconds as a weapon in the fight for equality. In their own words they provide an “emo-­ indigenous Afro psychedelic fire from the hood”.

With an impressive instinct for dynamics, they let the pressure build and build, to then suddenly hold back… and set off anew in another direction.

Kin’gongolo Kiniata Street punk rumba SATURDAY 10 JUNE GOTHENBURG FILM STUDIOS

Eric Magassa Visual art SATURDAY 10 JUNE GOTHENBURG FILM STUDIOS Eric Magassa is a visual artist, working across painting, photography, video and collage. In his work he explores questions around ­identity, liminality, and their connection to place and m ­ emory.

Previous exhibitions include Malmö Konsthall (2023), Gothenburg Museum of Art (2022), ­Marres House for Contemporary Culture in the Netherlands (2021), GIBCA (2019) and Valongo Festival in Brazil (2019). During this year’s ­Clandestino ­Festival Magassa will be showing a new body of work in the form of video projections.

This band had its origin in one of the many power outs that plague the mega city Kinchasa.

When loudspeakers everywhere go silent, street v ­ endors start making their own music to attract customers. This particular time, a man could be heard tapping out rhythms on empty ­plastic bottles: “kin’gongolo” they rang out, and this became the name of a new music project.

The players call it street punk rumba – rhythms with roots in the 1950s and groups like OK Jazz; but at the same time with post-apocalyptic junkyard vibes, worthy of your sci-fi franchise of choice.

The members play on self-made instruments: Lebrino makes sound out of tin cans and china.

Mille Baguettes beats on metal scraps. Ducaps drums on a set of plastic bottles. And while Juno Bass takes care of the low end with a three string bass, Bébé Mingé embellishes the whole ­commotion on a futuristic tin can-guitar.

Their songs emerge out of rhythmic jams.

Succinct missives are shouted over the top, often with messages of encouragement directed at the young fans of Kin’gongolo Kiniata, struggling to make a life for themselves in a Congo weighed down by unemployment.

Langendorf United Swedish Jazz Mafia SATURDAY 10 JUNE GOTHENBURG FILM STUDIOS

Hatis Noit Looping lotus SATURDAY 10 JUNE GOTHENBURG FILM STUDIOS

They may be a brand new jazz constellation, but Lina Langendorf and her quintet exude a remarkable mastery and authority over the audience from the get go. With honking saxophone riffs they tease out echoes from Addis Abeba as well as New York. And through the interplay between acoustic and electronic instruments, other, imaginary places take form: a land beyond maps, to get deliriously lost in. This music is tight, ­raucous, and brimming with the joy of exploration.

Lina Langendorf is a saxophonist who has let her curiosity guide her to everything from reggae and rock to Mali blues and Ethiopian jazz. She has interpreted the compositions of ­Clandestino

star Mulatu Astatke, and collaborated with a long line of illustrious names such as Toumani Diabaté, Vieux Farka Touré, James Yorkston and Nina Persson.

Behind the piano she has engaged Martin Hederos, known from Hederosgruppen, Tonbruket and Soundtrack of Our Lives, while the group’s rhythmic heart is drummer Andreas ­Werliin, previously in Wildbirds and Peacedrums and Tonbruket. Daniel Bingert layers the arrangements with electronics and samples, and, providing the groove that the whole concoction swings to, Ole Morten Vågan picks out surging patterns from his double bass.

Despite her impressive and versatile voice, it was less than obvious that Hatis Noit would pursue a career in music. With little to no encouragement from home and no formal training, it took an encounter with a singing female Buddhist monk for Noit to discover her calling. All at once she recognised the power of the human voice to connect us to nature and the cosmos.

The name Hatis Noit refers to the stem of the lotus flower. In Japanese mythology this stem is a symbol for the interconnectedness between the

living and the spirit world. For musical inspiration she reaches into classical Japanese ­Gagaku music, as well as opera, Bulgarian chorals and – perhaps most importantly – her forerunner Meredith Monk, and those experimental vocal techniques she has developed over the decades.

Live, Hatis Noit creates bewildering, modern a cappella arrangements through simple means: looping and layering her voice; droning and ­twittering; startling us with forceful operatics and constructing luscious choirs.

Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy Frafra gospel deluxe SATURDAY 10 JUNE GOTHENBURG FILM STUDIOS

Jana Rush Footwork pioneer SATURDAY 10 JUNE GOTHENBURG FILM STUDIOS In the late 90s a few DJs in Chicago began playing their ghetto house vinyls at 45 rpm instead of the advocated speed of 33 rpm. They mixed in flavourings of hip hop and drum & bass, ­creating a brand new, super fast genre: footwork. As warehouses on the West Side shook to fragments of rap and funk, the new style of music became paired with a new dance culture, borrowing steps from breakdance, house and tap dancing.

One of the pioneers within footwork – and most probably its youngest progenitor – was Jana Rush, who began spinning discs at the age of 10. Influenced by house icons such as Robert Armani, Cajmere and Paul Johnson she started producing her own raw dance hits in this new mould only three years later.

After a lengthy hiatus – during which she worked as a firefighter and a chemical engineer – Jana Rush returned to music at the beginning of the 2010s. But by this time she had started mixing up the harder beats with a jazzier form of footwork. Between DJ sets she also released her debut album Pariah (2017), followed by the e ­ xperimental “listening music” on Planet Mu, (2021). Time to put your best dancing foot ­forward for Jana Rush.

Alogte Oho Jonas grew up in northern Ghana where the sounds of frafra gospel choirs bellow out from many a church. Later, in his twenties, he found himself in the capital Accra, where he struggled to get his singing career off the ground.

A violent car crash nearly put an end to all his ambitions, and while he slowly recovered he felt grateful just to be alive. This feeling he poured into what was to become his breakthrough hit: Mam Yinne Wa, which combined his childhood gospel roots with reggae ­inflections.

When the German record label agent Max Weissenfeldt visited Ghana he was immedi-

ately drawn to the satin tenor of Alogte Oho, backed by the choir The Sounds of Joy. He signed them to his label Philophon, and when time came to hit the ­studio the group had been further a ­ ugmented by a funky rhythm section and tight horns.

Mixing in elements of dubby reggae and horn-heavy funk, Alogte Oho & his Sounds of Joy started recording what would became the internationally praised debut album Mam Yinne Wa, followed up by a number of EPs, all turned collector’s items – and the most danceable ­gospel we’ve heard so far.

Nancy Mounir Artist in residence SUNDAY 11 JUNE SKEPPET GBG As a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, c ­ omposer and arranger, Nancy Mounir plays a central role in the alternative music scene of Cairo. Her music can be heard accompanying theatre plays, ­movies and art exhibitions, and since many years back she also plays the violin in the Egyptian metal band Massive Scar Era. Visiting Clandestino Festival, Nancy Mounir brings her very special project Nozhet El Nofous (“Promenade of the Souls”), a back-to-the-­futurelike music history that breathes new life into Egyptian recordings from the 1920s. For example the voice of theatre diva Mounira El Mahdiyya, or the gender-fluent singers Abdellatif El Banna and Saleh Abdelhay.

Around these vocal fragments, she constructs new compositions that call for a nine-­ person ­setting, including piano, theremin, wood­­ winds – and a local string quartet featuring Amelie Evmark, Josefin Runsteen, Alma Möller and Samuel Runsteen. The instruments move delicat­ely around the recorded voices, creating a ­contemporary framework without super­seding the sorrow and drama in these transmissions from the past.

This concert is part of an artist in residence program in collaboration with the Västra ­Götaland region.

Dareyn Contemporary kemenche SUNDAY 11 JUNE SKEPPET GBG

Emine Bostanci has a passion for string instruments that goes beyond just playing. Growing up in Istanbul she started out on the kemenche – an instrument that shows up in a variety of guises in East Mediterranean countries. While already studying Turkish classical music and musicology at the university she also took up an apprenticeship with the foremost luthier in town; all to gain an even deeper understanding of her ­chosen medium. Later in life she expanded to study the Cretan lyra under Ross Daly, and today she maintains an academic career, researching and ­teaching music in Amsterdam. Her project ­Dareyn

is a conversation between several tonal languages and rhythmic dialects: Ottoman makam and ­taksim; interjections in sufi music; and millennia-­ old melodic responses from the Silk Road. In this dialogue, contemporary ­classical finds itself transformed by modal shifts in perspective.

These aural worlds beyond the horizon of classification are explored by Bostanci together with virtuosic friends: cellist and vocalist Maya Fridman with a background in Western ­classical music as well as improvisation; and Jacobus Thiele, a percussionist who picks out rhythms from hand drums as readily as chimes and bells.

Ghosted Transcending jazz SUNDAY 11 JUNE SKEPPET GBG

Ustad Noor Bakhsh Balochistani soundscape SUNDAY 11 JUNE BERGSJÖN KULTURHUS He is a living legend within the folk music community of Balochistan, a region stretching across state borders into Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

Ustad Noor Bakhsh is a master of the instrument benju. And with the help of a solar panel and a car battery he runs a small amplifier, thus rejuvenating the tone of this zither – o ­ riginally imported from Japan a century ago, but now completely integrated into the music of Balochistan.

The j­oyous melodies Bakhsh teases out of his ­instrument might remind one of either a sitar or a high life guitar.

While his music is so deeply rooted in the traditions of the region, like every great auteur Ustad Noor Bakhsh also soaks up influences from brand new directions, whether they be South Asian raga, Arabic ghazal or Bollywood soundtracks. In his original compositions he even turns to birdsong for inspiration.

It is not until very recently that Bakhsh has reached a wider audience even in ­Western ­countries, due in large part to the release of his debut Jingul. The album was recorded in one take, out of doors by the sunset, and invites the listener on a journey through the Balochistani soundscape; its shepherd’s songs and devotional qawwali. A subtle and spell­binding experience.

When these three musicians found themselves in a studio together some five years ago, improvised music began pulsing with energy lines from 70s jazz, North African gnawa and transcendental minimalism. Due to their many other commitments, the collaboration had to develop at a slow pace, but in 2022 it finally came to fruition in the form of Ghosted’s debut album.

The trio’s guitarist Oren Ambarchi has re­leased a string of acclaimed solo albums and transcended genre lines since the 90s: from unorthodox e ­ lectric guitar techniques to mini­ malism and deconstructed rock. He has perfor­ med with ­musicians such as Fennesz, Sunn 0)),

Keiji Haino, Alvin Lucier, Merzbow and countless others.

Johan ­Berthling, the bassist, is ­perhaps best known for his record label Häpna, and for having played with Fire! and Tape. But his double bass can be heard on recordings numbering in the ­hundreds, for ­artists like Mats Gustafsson, El Perro del Mar and Goran Kajfes.

The final third of Ghosted is drummer Andreas Werliin, a musician renowned for his finely ­calibrated balance between heavy grooves and intense improvisational attention. Werliin’s other projects include Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Fire! and Tonbruket.

clandestino & beyond 2023 Samba Touré Songhai blues WEDNESDAY 5 APRIL FOLKET HUS HAMMARKULLEN

Sahra Halgan Voice of Somaliland WEDNESDAY 12 APRIL OCEANEN

MEMORIAL FOR PETER EKWIRI WEDNESDAY 12 APRIL OCEANEN

The guitarist, singer and songwriter Samba Touré is currently one of the most celebrated musicians from the African continent. He grew up in a small village near where the Niger River winds its way through the Mali desert. At the time, his mother would sometimes perform as a singer with Ali Farka Touré. Although they share the same last name, they are not related – but the master of desert blues did become both idol and mentor for the young Samba Touré.

He soon built his first guitar from a sardine box and practiced on it until he was ready for the real thing, and was eventually invited to accompany his great idol on international tours.

He started developing his own shimmering take on the Mali blues sound, paying tribute to his mentor on his album Songhai Blues: Homage to Ali Farka Touré.

In 2021, he released Binga, a record that earned him the Songlines award for Best Artist – as well as receiving rave reviews in Dagens Nyheter, Lira and many other publications. The album title refers to the Binga region where he grew up, and Samba Touré sings in Songhai, one of the languages spoken in the area. Accompanied by ngoni, shekere and electric bass, he lets his voice and guitar speak of poverty and dreams of a better life.

When the Somali civil war broke out, Sahra ­Halgan was a teenager with dreams of being a singer. She soon found herself working as a ­singing nurse for the rebels fighting for Somaliland’s liberation. She also started Hiddo Dhowr, Somaliland’s first music venue, which would become a meeting place and cultural center.

In 1992, she arrived in Lyon, France as a poli­ tical refugee, working in a café and performing with the Sahra Halgan Trio, a group she started together with other refugees.

Today, she is back in Somaliland. For many in the region, her unique voice with its powerful

vibrato is synonymous with the freedom struggle. But instead of resting on her laurels, Sahra ­Halgan wants to use her music to spread the word about Somaliland—a self-proclaimed state not ­recognized internationally.

On her latest album Waa Dardaaran, her group is completed by Maël Saletes on guitar, Aymerik Krol on drums and Graham Mushnik on keyboard. Together they create a global Somali­ land music with seriously funky drums and ­hypnotic guitar. With both traditional songs and original compositions, Sahra Halgan aims to set both dance floor and inner worlds in motion.

To honor the memory of Peter Ekwiri whose ­fateful story has deeply affected us, we gather for a memorial where everyone is welcome to share their experiences, memories and thoughts about the continued fight against the injustices that he – along with so many other people – became a victim of.

It was a meeting with Peter Ekwiri in Ghana’s capital Accra in 2003 that led to the founding of the Clandestino Festival twenty years ago.

Through the festival, we wanted to draw attention to how he fell victim to S ­ wedish refugee dumping that violates human rights. Ekwiri, who at the end of the 90s fled war in the border areas between Uganda and Sudan, was classi-

fied with “unknown identity”, until he had to undergo a bizarre language analysis, which led to his deportation to Ghana – a country he had never previously set foot in, and where he soon came to be silenced in a cruel prison existence lasting several years.

Over the years, we have drawn attention to Peter Ekwiri’s case in various ways – public talks, The Peter Ekwiri Case Museum, the essay film Thaumazein – and most recently last year, we celebrated the festival’s twentieth anniversary in his company. Peter Ekwiri described his own struggle at one point by analogy with something he read about Japanese architecture, both flexible and impossible to break down.

Susana Baca Afro-Peruvian icon THURSDAY 18 MAY SKEPPET GBG

Staples Jr. Singers Gospel trailblazers THURSDAY 6 JULY TOSSENE KYRKA

Sara Parkman What is love?

FRIDAY 7 JULY TOSSENE KYRKA

She grew up in Chorrillos, a fishing village just outside Lima, where descendants of slaves have lived since the days of the Spanish Empire. As a ­student, Susana Baca began to perform as a singer and poet. Later, she combined music with work for the survival of the Afro-Peruvian cultural heri­ tage through the Instituto Negrocontinua – an association which she co-founded. She continued this struggle as Minister of Culture in Peru in 2011, and in Organization of American States (OAS).

Susana Baca’s breakthrough as an artist came in 1995 with Maria Lando, an emotional lament about the life of a hard working woman at the

bottom of society. The song was included on a compilation released by the label Luaka Bop, thus helping Susana Baca to also reach l­ isteners in the USA. Since then, she has released 16 albums and received three Latin Grammys.

Over the years, Susana Baca has created a sound where contemporary and traditional threads are interwoven. Indigenous instruments such as cajón, udu and quijada are combined with guitar, bass and drumkit. The Peruvian landós and waltzes make for cornerstones in her music, but Cuban and Brazilian music also clearly still have a place in Ms. Baca’s heart.

In the deep American South, a group of t­ eenage siblings recorded their first album back in 1975.

Like most gospel musicians of the time, they lacked the backing of a record company, and instead self-released 500 copies of When Do We Get Paid, to be sold at performances and from the family’s yard in Aberdeen, Mississippi.

Accompanied by drums, bass and ­guitar, they sang with a unique soulfulness about hard work, suffering and salvation. They took the name ­Staples Jr. Singers as a tribute to their ­forerunners in The Staple Singers and the ­message of Mavis Staples’ songs. The group hit the road, playing their groundbreakingly groovy gospel music to church­goers along the American Bible Belt.

Although the South was no longer segregated by law, black musicians could not expect to be warmly ­welcomed in restaurants and hotels. The experiences came to characterize the siblings’ songs in this and their other projects.

Now, more than fifty years after the group formed, their music is embraced by audiences all over the world. This unexpected chapter in ­Staples Jr. Singer’s career began with David Byrne’s label Luaka Bop reissuing the ­unpolished soul-­diamond that is When Do We Get Payed.

Playing their first concerts outside the US, ­original members Edward Brown, A.R.C. Brown and Annie Brown Caldwell perform with their children as backing band.

In the music of Sara P ­ arkman, traditional ­melodies meet heavy beats, Hildegard of Bingen, and raw violin ­playing. Christianity merges with ­antifascism while tradition and ­revolution join hands in her work.

Sara P ­ arkman’s albums have all been met with rave reviews and she has received accolades at the Swedish gala for Folk and World Music, as well as Dagens Nyheter’s culture award in 2020.

That same year she co-­curated the Clandestino ­Festival. On her new album Eros Agape Philia,

Sara Parkman takes as her starting point the three different words for love found in Ancient Greek. Eros, the romantic or erotic; Agape, the divine; and Philia, the friendly or familial love. A collection of songs that ask the listener: What is it, to love; to be loved? Influenced by Sara Parkman’s studies of theology and bible texts on love, and thinkers such as the mystic Gunnel Vallquist – intertwined with truths found in comic books and TV series, good advice given by mothers as well as personal experiences.

date

venue

program

WEDNESDAY 5 APRIL

FOLKET HUS HAMMARKULLEN

Samba Touré

WEDNESDAY 12 APRIL

OCEANEN

Memorial for Peter Ekwiri Sahra Halgan

THURSDAY 18 MAY

SKEPPET GBG

Susana Baca

WEDNESDAY 7 JUNE

OCEANEN

Clandestino Talks: Temporality of Segregation

21 ST CLANDESTINO FESTIVAL IN GOTHENBURG 8–11 JUNE

THURSDAY 8 JUNE

OCEANEN

Blanco Teta Irreversible Entanglements uKanDanZ

FRIDAY 9 JUNE

PUSTERVIK

Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek Al Bilali Soudan Mulatu Astatke TootArd Addis-Dakkar

WEST PRIDE

Artist Talk: Blanco Teta and TootArd

GOTHENBURG FILM STUDIOS

Langendorf United Hatis Noit Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy Zoë Mc Pherson (live) BCUC Kin’gongolo Kiniata Jana Rush Eric Magassa West Pride official afterparty

SATURDAY 10 JUNE

Catch our party bus from Kungsportsavenyen!

BERGSJÖN KULTURHUS

Ustad Noor Bakhsh

SKEPPET GBG

Dareyn Nancy Mounir Ghosted

THURSDAY 6 JULY

TOSSENE KYRKA

Staples Jr. Singers

FRIDAY 7 JULY

TOSSENE KYRKA

Sara Parkman

SUNDAY 11 JUNE

LATEST UPDATED PROGRAM AT WWW.CLANDESTINOFESTIVAL.ORG

TICKETS & BUS Ticket information and party bus itinerary can be found online at www.clandestinofestival.org.

VENUES Oceanen: Stigbergstorget 8, 414 63 Göteborg. Pustervik: Järntorgsgatan 12, 413 01 Göteborg. Gothenburg Film Studios: Polstjärnegatan 19, 417 56 Göteborg. Skeppet Gbg: Amerikagatan 2, 414 63 Göteborg. Folkets Hus Hammarkullen: Hammarkulletorget 62 B, 42437 Angered. Kulturhuset Bergsjön: Kulturhusväg 4C, 415 66 Göteborg.

CLANDESTINO PODCAST Our interview series is available through major streaming services ­including iTunes, Spotify and Soundcloud.

BACKSTAGE Clandestino Festival has been organized by the non-profit Clandestino Institut since 2003. This event is made possible with support from Västra Götalandsregionens Kulturnämnd, Statens Kulturråd, Göteborgs Stad Kulturnämnd. Artistic director: Aleksander Motturi. Production Manager & Text Editor: Markus Görsch. Graphic design: Milena Karlsson. Translation: Petter Yxell. Production Assistent: Hannah Alvå. Tech coordinator: Mikael Werliin. Financial administration: Kjell Aronsson & Anna Hedin, Baker Tilly, EMK. Web: Jesper Lind, Nodestar. Board of trustees, Clandestino Institut: Catharina Bergil, Erling Björgvinsson, Nathalie Bödtker-Lund, Stefan Jonsson, Anja Hellström, José Lagunas Vargas, Mariam Wallentin & Julia Willén. Previous co-curators: Dave Watts, Sara Parkman, Goran Kajfeš, José Gonzáléz, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, El Perro del Mar, Mariam The Believer. Academic council: Majsa Allelin, Michael Azar, Erling Björgvinsson, Mattias Gardell, Edda Manga.

PHOTO CREDITS Irreversible Entanglements: Bob Sweeney. uKanDanZ: Bertrand Gaud­ illere. Blanco Teta: Nadia Guzman. Mulatu Astatke: Alexis Maryon.

TootArd: Jenan Shkeer. Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek: Allegra Kortlang.

Al Bilali Soudan: Eric von Nuewland. BCUC: Pierre Mérimée. Kin’gongolo Kiniata: Nizar Saleh. Eric Magassa: Peter Claesson, Stenastiftelsen.

Langendorf United: Johan Bergmark. Hatis Noit: Özge Cöne. BCUC: Pierre Mérimée. Alogte Oho & his Sounds of Joy: Max Weissenfeldt.

Jana Rush: Jeff Ramone. Nancy Mounir: Eslam Abd El Salam. Dareyn: Winterman Photography. Ghosted: Thobias Fäldt. Samba Touré: Philippe Sanmiguel. Sahra Halgan: Marion Bornaz. Peter Ekwiri: Cecilia Parsberg.

Susana Baca: Javier Falcon. ­Staples Jr. Singers: Eliza Grace Martin. Sara Parkman: Fredrika Eriksson.

KULTURHUSET BERGSJÖN