Artist Statement:

Singing and songwriting has become an extension of my dreamtime, a way to distil spirit and set free my pain, passions, confusion, solitude, vanity and love.

Bio:

Louise began singing in Chœur Maha in 1991 and then became a founding members of Ensemble Rubia. There she discovered her passion for song-writing and in 2005 performed solo at spoken word events, poetry readings such as Poetry Plus, and other social events.

Louise composes in both English and French, the English compositions are in the folk-roots genre, emerging from her Irish and Scottish heritage and her French chanson style is influenced by both Quebecois and French composers. With the help of guitarist Rodrigo Salazar and percussionist André Martin, she has put several songs to Son, Samba and Tango rhythms. She finds inspiration in nature, stories, small wonders and the foibles of everyday life.

For a taste of her music: www.myspace.com/louisedessertine

Bio:  Rodrigo Salazar, guitar

Rodrigo Salazar

Rodrigo Salazar a étudié la basse acoustique et l’enseignement de la musique au Conservatoire de l’ Université de Concepcion au Chili. Il s’est établi en Argentine, où il a travaillé avec plusieurs formations de Jazz. Il s’est ensuite installé au Brésil où il a pu se consacrer à la musique populaire brésilienne, plus particulièrement la guitare, la basse et la voix. Il vit à Montréal depuis maintenant 18 ans où il a participé à de nombreux évenements culturels comme le Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, le Festival Nuits d’Afrique et plusieurs d’autres.

rodysalazar@hotmail.com

www.myspace.com/rodysalazar

Song Lyrics:

Gaïa

Gaïa, Gaïa, la Rainha, la Linda, Gaïa, Gaïa, apaixonada do sol (a cappella)

Gaïa, Gaïa, la Rainha, la Linda

Gaïa, Gaïa, apaixonada do sol (X2)

De tes cheveux neigent des pétales de toute les couleurs

De tes yeux tombent des averses en féconces pleurs

De ta bouche  jaillit le cri du flamboyant péroquet

De tes oreilles nait le silence de la brousse aux aguets

Gaïa, Gaïa, la Rainha, la Linda

Gaïa, Gaïa, apaixonada do sol (X2)

Ton souffle éveille les quatres vents,

Ton coeur, le pouls de l’Amazonie

De ta gorge gronde le jaguar

De tes seins, les fleuves coulent à l’infini

Le torrent longe ta nuque,  et fait vibrer ta peau               

Se forme en jolie cascade, qui ruiselle dans ton dos

Tes doigts sèment les graines, tes paumes marquent le temps

Tes belles mains se promènent, et unissent tout les amants

Gaïa, Gaïa, la Rainha, la Linda

Gaïa, Gaïa, apaixonada do sol (X2)

Ton ventre enfante la terre noire

Tes cuisses, toutes créatures

Tes jambes, des troncs solides

Tes pieds les rythmes du tambour

Tambour -Solo

Le torrent……

Gaïa, Gaïa, la Rainha, la Linda

Gaïa, Gaïa, apaixonada do sol

© Louise Dessertine, Avril, 2003

Montreal Serai Editor Rana Bose interviewed Catherine Potter, leader of the Catherine Potter-Duniya Project, after her show at the MAI in Montreal.

MS : The show La Convergence des Continents at the Montreal Arts Interculturels on 23rd January, 2009 was very tight and innovative with an interesting visual backdrop provided by VJs jocool and Liberty. North Indian classical flute as played by you fused with the Senegalese Kora played by Montreal Kora player Zal Idrissa Sissokho, and Quebecois Jazz guitarist Jean-Marc Hebert. Resulting in some very interesting improvisations. Let me ask you right away, what was driving the pulse of this show, meaning what beats were you improvising around, the tabla of Subir Dev, or the drums of Tom Gossage. I ask this because both of them are so tight and volatile and yet set an interesting dual pace?

CP:  What you refer to as “the driving pulse” of this new repertoire is not so much the percussion instruments, as it was with my last album, but rather the rhythmic and harmonic force of the kora, the West African harp. I had worked with different kora players over the years and, in fact, my first Duniya group in 1985 was with kora player Nathalie Dussault. I had been waiting for an opportunity to integrate the kora into Duniya Project because it is such a beautiful palette to play off of; like a wonderfully complex and rhythmic tanpura around which the drum and tabla grooves were also created. I worked a lot with Zal while writing these new compositions in order to tune his instrument, quite exceptionally, to the modes of the North Indian ragas. This allowed me to write original material for the kora with the other five instruments and to find ways to use the traditional Mandingue kora accompaniments with these new tunings. 

MS:  I know that you trained under Hariprasad Chaurasia and you have played live with him in concerts. Who in the Jazz flute world has had an influence on you? I heard Yuseef Lateef and Rahsaan Roland Kirk in some segments. Am I right?

CP:  My approach to cross-over music is not only in my way of composing and in bringing musicians from different traditions together, but also in my own improvisational flute vocabulary.  I have a background in jazz flute, having completed a jazz studies degree at Concordia, and I’ve probably been influenced by those jazz flutists whom I like such as Yuseef Latif (who himself was influenced by Indian music.)  However, I’ve think I’ve also been influenced by many other jazz and world musicians including Wayne Shorter, John McClaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Pat Metheny, Paul McCandless and Jan Garbarek.

MS: This is a world music ensemble you have put together Catherine Potter-Duniya Project .  How did you put this band together and what were your inclinations towards this fusion? Is this where you are settling into? Or would you tour also playing exclusively North Indian classical? Also tell us something about the musicians and your interaction with them. How did it develop? They are all such individual stars, especially the Kora playing of Sissokho, guitarist Jean-Marc Hebert and contre-bassist Nicholas Caloia.

CP:   I founded this ensemble in 2001 as a performance platform for my original compositions. Since the early 1980′s, it was something I knew I would eventually do but I had to wait until I felt that I had certain mastery over North Indian classical music first. I needed to feel that I was using the knowledge and art which has been passed on to me with respect and was able retain the depth of this music rather than simply borrowing from it, as do many musicians trying to create world music would do. I was shuttling back and forth between Mumbai and Montreal to study with Pt. Chaurasia Between 1990 and 2001 and I released my first album of ragas, Bansuri,– in 1997. As much as I love North Indian classical music, my original work better reflects who I am artistically and culturally. It is also great to practice and perform as a group. Here in North America where Indian classical concert opportunities are few and far between, one can spend a lot of time practicing alone and it becomes quite isolating. I feel privileged to have such amazing collaborators such as Thom Gossage on drums, Nicolas Caloia, Subir Dev; they all contribute their creativity to the project and they are all excellent improvisers. Zal Sissokho is an excellent traditional kora player who is in the process of opening up to new ways of using his instrument and Jean Marc Hébert was an excellent choice for these new pieces because his eclectic playing is like a bridge between our different musical cultures.   

MS:  It is great to see a woman composer from Quebec, highly accomplished in North Indian classical music, lead this world music band and put it together. This issue of Montreal Serai has a theme Women: Changing the World! You are unique in that sense. Over the years I have seen you perform, there has been a consciousness about the rights of women and the relationship to your music. Comments?

CP:  On the eve of International Women’s day, I must admit this is a difficult question to answer.  Unfortunately, I don’t  feel things have changed much and many of the challenges faced by women musicians remain the same.  If I have made any contribution in changing things, it would simply be in the choice to persist in a extremely male-dominated musical milieu, where even my guru-bhais would often tell me I was wasting my time because i was a woman and certain male musicians I’ve collaborated with have told me “no woman musician could ever kill like men” (?!) What to say to that, besides the fact that I’m not interested in killing?

MS : Tell us something about the India tour you did in 2008. What were the venues and how was it received? Who accompanied you? Give us some highlights.

CP:  We had a fantastic tour Europe and in India where the Duniya Project album was released by Music Today under the title “Following in the Footsteps of Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia”.  We performed in Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, London, Dublin, Paris and Brussels, including some prestigious venues like the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai, Congo Square Jazz Festival in Kolkata, the East-West Encounter Festival in Bangalore and the Pavilion Theater in Dublin.  What I found most touching was doing 3 cd launches in large music stores in India.  Ordinary people just showed up not knowing what they were about to hear and were very visibly touched by the music. There was a question period with a microphone for individuals to express their impressions or ask questions. I was really touched to learn how they were moved by my music and my playing, more so than some of the feedback from “elite” audiences.   We also got a very good response from the Indian press.  I understood that it is easier to be acknowledged as a musician doing what they call in India, “fusion” and which I prefer to call original cross-over music, than as a full-out Hindustani classical flutist.  While here in the West, we have gotten beyond the need to have Caucasians Europeans perform Western opera in order for it to be considered “authentic”, there is still a widely held belief in India that you have to be ethnically “Indian” to be able to play Indian classical music “authentically”.  This attitude has had an effect on how the Western world perceives those like myself who have chosen this path.

 MS: What is the look ahead? What plans do you have? What are you working on?

CP:  I’m presently in pre-production of my third album, which will include most of the pieces from La Convergence des continents.  We are also promoting this new show to eventually tour both in Canada and again internationally and will hopefully show-case it at CINARS 2010. I was brought to Morocco a couple of months ago where my career is being promoted and had some wonderful opportunities to collaborate with Moroccan musicians. I will return later this year for more collaboration and to continue working on building a festival tour there for Duniya Project in 2011. I also plan to return to Indian next winter for a few months with a Shastri fellowship to continue to study ragas with Hariprasad Chaurasia, to seek inspiration in the wealth of South Asian musical traditions and to work on new original material.

The Housewife’s Lament was written as a protest song, out of the experience of women in the not too distant past.  The song originated during the Civil War in the United States.  It was found in the diary of a 19th century Illinois pioneer woman, Mrs. Sara Price, who had seven children and outlived them all.  It is about the grit, the grim and the chores of everyday lived by those women.  Women have always worked although their work has been undervalued and underpaid, but they have always worked.

The Housewife’s Lament  (performed by Anne Dubrofsky)

One day I was walking, I heard a complaining,

And saw an old woman the picture of gloom.

She gazed at the mud on her doorstep (’twas raining)

And this was her song as she wielded her broom.

            Oh, life is a toil and love is a trouble,

            Beauty will fade and riches will flee.

            Pleasures they dwindle and prices they double,

            And nothing is as I would wish it to be.

There’s too much of worriment goes to a bonnet,

There’s too much of ironing goes to a shirt.

There’s nothing that pays for the time you waste on it,

There’s nothing that last us but trouble and dirt.

            Oh, life is a….

It’s sweeping at six and it’s dusting at seven,

It’s victuals at eight and it’s dishes at nine.

It’s potting and panning form ten to eleven,

We scarce break our fast till we plan how to dine.

With grease and with grime from corner to center,

Forever at war and forever alert.

No rest for a day lest the enemy enter,

I spend my whole life in struggle with dirt.

[extra verse by Marion Wade]

We’re still chasing dirt but we’re not just complaining.

We stand up for our rights and we ask men to share.

We fight with them sometimes, sometimes we’re “explaining”;

If we’d all stop to listen, someday we might dare

            To make life worth its toil and love worth its troubles,

            Though beauty and riches may stay or may flee,

            And pleasures they’ll triple or certainly double,

            When things will be as we would wish them to be.

Artist Biography:

Mike Wozniewski is a designer and developer of interactive software for the arts. As a freelance researcher, he maintains collaborations with several recognized institutions and works with many creative minds who likewise seek to push the boundaries of computer-mediated artistic expression.

Studying with the Centre for Intelligent Machines at McGill University, he developed the core technology for the Audioscape Project , which has been featured in several artistic installations, performances, and international conferences. At the Society for Arts and Technologies in Montreal, he continues to create open source tools that enable artists to make use of new technologies.

Mike’s previous work is centered mostly around the use of virtual reality technology, interactive systems, and immersive projection environments with 3D audio. However, recent projects involve more mobile and location-based technology. Examples include the Raw Materials project, that allows the public to use their cell phones to contribute images, sounds and videos during live events. The Mobile Audioscape project, on the other hand, uses GPS tracking and wireless connectivity to create mixed reality environments in outdoor spaces. Ultimately, he aims to create the tools that artists need to connect people with each other and with their surroundings, while allowing for creative expression.

See  http://www.mikewoz.com/ for more information.

Artist Statement:

My desire is to engage the public and to provide artists with the tools and technologies required to capitalize on user-generated content and social media.   All of the software I create is available for free with an open source license, meaning that anyone can take it, change it, and use it however they wish. I strongly advocate the open source movement, creative commons licensing for art and media, and the copyleft model in general. I think creativity is facilitated by one’s tools and will best flourish with unrestricted access to all utilities and media.

Mobile Audioscapes:

As computation becomes more mobile, we see the public engaging with digital information while on the move. New forms of artistic expression are thus possible, since the public has tools to connect and take part in events as they happen. Furthermore, with location-aware technologies such as GPS, artworks can be associated with real world locations, and virtual elements can be overlaid on the physical environment, creating a medium that operates on a potentially grand scale, shared by multiple distributed participants.

The SoundPark installation is a motivating example of this type of mobile arts application. It operates in a city park (in this case, Parc Jean-Mance in Montreal), and allows users to discover and rearrange sounds that have been scattered throughout the location. Participants need to actually walk around in order to experience and manipulate the material, but in doing so, they can create their own customized musical mix. In the video on our front page or the Table of Contents page, we see a game-like version of the system, where participants are challenged to recreate a particular mix.

Another example that encourages public involvement is the Raw Materials project, which provides the technology for cell phone users to contribute text messages, images and videos to public events in real time. It is thus possible for audience members to send comments or photos of themselves, which can be displayed on large screens during concerts, or mixed by a VJ to become part of the show.

The video below documents one such event, held on March 6th, 2009, which took place simultaneously in two locations: at the Society for Arts and Technology in Montreal and Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver. The audiences from both locations contributed images and videos of their surrounding neighborhoods, which was remixed by artists and displayed to the public:

 

Find more videos like this on W2: Community Media Arts Vancouver BC

Look forward to the premiere of Audio Graffiti this summer, which will allow mobile participants to leave audio tags and mix music in an urban environment. (Part of the International Computer Music Conference. August 21, 2009. Location to be announced.)

Credits:

 * SoundPark was developed at the Shared Reality Lab at McGill University, with funding from the NSERC/Canada Council for the Arts New Media Initiative.

 ** Raw Materials was developed in collaboration between the Society for Arts and Technology and Mobile Muse .

[There's increasing evidence that increasing wireless communication and cell phone usage in particular are linked to a concomitant increase in head and neck cancers.     Serai Editorial Staff]

I’ve known Jason Breckenridge for many years and over that time the two insights I’ve gained about what makes him tick are 1) He concocts the most ridiculously unattainable schemes in an effort to make his working life as enjoyable as possible; 2) He invariably succeeds in pulling off these “unattainable” schemes. So when Jason pitched the idea of a series of television documentaries to Al Jazeera on the topic of the “Music of Resistance” – a series that would have him flying all over the globe gaining access to the inner sanctum of the likes of Seun Kuti, youngest son of Jason’s absolute idol Fela Anikulapo Kuti, creator of Afrobeat and also the voice of the oppressed in Nigeria – a series that would have him recruit Steve Chandra Savale, London-based activist, desi guitarist extraordinaire, and lifeblood of the politically entrenched Asian Dub Foundation as interviewer and presenter – a series that would let him tell the stories of different musicians that matter, not only in the sounds they produce but in their messages and actions and direct effects on their respective communities…I was 1) Insanely jealous; 2) Knew he would pull it off.

Steve Chandra Savale

Music of Resistance follows the chronicles of musicians who use their craft to realize radical political change. Steve Chandra Savale travels to Nigeria, Mozambique, Brazil, East London, Cape Verde and the desert of the Southern Sahara in order to introduce us to the lives of these iconoclastic musicians. In this Montreal Serai issue on Canada and Militarism – there is much to be learned from movements in other countries to reverse the trend towards arms. For example – one of the broadcasts in the series focuses on musical group Tinariwen, formerly a group of rebel soldiers, exiled from Mali and training alongside Colonel Gadaffi in Libya. After years of violence and conflict in a civil war in Northern Mali as they tried to preserve Touareg cultural identity, they eventually decided to trade in their guns for musical instruments and effect change in a different way than the cycle of killing that had prevailed. These electric guitar wielding revolutionaries have been instrumental in promoting peace through community action, for example by participating in the recent (January 2009) congress for peace that took place in Ersane in Norhtern Mali with 1500 Touareg  representatives as well as government representatives both from Libya and Mali.

You can check out the an introduction to Music of Resistance:

Steve Chandra Savale: Presenter

Produced, Directed and Written by Jason Breckenridge for Al Jazeera

For more info:

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/

http://www.musicofresistance.com/

‘A Modest Proposal’ is from Norman Nawrocki’s anti-war, anti-Empire solo CD, ‘Duck Work’ released in 2004 on the Les Pages Noires label. 

Moe Clark: Back-Vocals Sage Reynolds: Upright Bass
Mark Nelson: Drums Matt Lipscombe: Vocals and Guitar

It was recorded by David Sturton at DNA Productions. It is already playing on CIBL in Montreal and CKRL in Quebec. I hope it can help my city in bringing about a positive change. Living by the Gun audio (mp3) It’s high time something gets done

The youth and the police are living by the gun
Late one night in Montreal

Freddy and his brother were having a ball

Playing dice in a public park

It was getting late

It was getting dark

Along come two officers of the law

They were intrigued by what they saw

They said to Freddy’s brother we want to talk to you

He resisted, so they drew

Four shots were fired from same gun

There was only one at the scene

The policeman said it was self defense

But what can that possibly mean?

It’s high time something gets done

The youth and the police are living by the gun

His mother set a white dove free

So there would be no more misery

No more tears on a sister’s cheek

No more tears gas canisters on the street

The people watched the evening news

Hoping justice would come of this abuse

But the cops involved in this altercation

Had a week to come up with some fabulation

Four shots were fired from same gun

There was only one at the scene

The policeman said it was self defense

But what can that possibly mean?

It’s high time something gets done

The youth and the police are living by the gun

I’m not saying it’s anybody’s fault

That the violence here is like some kind of cult

And I know that the cops were afraid for their lives

When they took that innocent boy’s life

When they took that innocent boy’s life

It’s high time something gets done

The youth and the police are living by the gun

Words and Music : Matthew Lipscombe Credits: Guitar/voice: Matt Lipscombe

Back Vocals: Moe Clark

Upright Bass: Sage Reynolds

Drums: Mark Nelson

Recorded at studio DNA, Montreal by David Sturton

©Matthew Lipscombe 2008. All rights reserved
For more information please contact:
Matt Lipscombe: (514) 678-4222

Email: matt.lipscombe@gmail.comwww.myspace.com/mattlipscombe