WOMEX - The World's Music Comes to Wales

The best of Welsh music, the best of world music. WOMEX is here.

Every year the world music industry gets together in one place. The

cream of world music from 100 countries has a chance to showcase

its talents. It is happening here in Wales. It's like the Olympics of the

world music world. It's a really good opportunity just to show to an

international audience what Wales has to offer musically. I thought it

was like a festival for women. I went on the computer and had a look,

I was impressed. I didn't know it was a worldwide thing. I'm really

glad to be able to shout from the hilltops, come and listen to our

music because it is very, very special. Across Millennium Centre to

Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena, the best of world music performers get a

chance to shine in a series of showcases. They perform before

influential figures in the international music scene. On the

menu at WOMEX is a feast. It's been described as a kind of musical

tapas. With over 60 showcases in three days we are in for a treat.

All corners of the globe are presented in Cardiff this week. All

bringing their traditional style, culture and humour.

This amazing festival started on Wednesday night with a special

opening concert devised by Cerys Matthews. It takes as its tion a

journey tloo through Welsh history, culture a music celebrating the Land

of Song. A traditional Welsh trument featured

at the beginning of the open concert.

The opening concert showcased not just Welsh music, but also dance.

For many of the international audience it was their first

introduction to the Welsh stepping and clogging tradition.

APPLAUSE More from Cerys's opening concert

later in the programme. Here, at the Motorpoint Arena is where all the

artists, agents and promoters come together to network. It's a huge

trade fair where all the deals are done. It is incredible to have WOMEX

here at last. It has been a long time. We have been dreaming about it

for years. We have been working actively on it for three years. It's

going swimmingly well. We are so happy. I had never heard about WOMEX

before the announced two years ago that it was coming to Wales, what do

you feel, now seeing it, is WOMEX? WOMEX is the variety of things. The

centre, the core if you like is this, the conversations that goes on

between the music industry with the artists, with venge sues -- venues,

festivals, people book rtists. Artists can get two years worth of

work out of one WOMEX. On the night it turns into a showcase, the best

music in the world, which is open to the public. Do you the artists get

picked to be play? They are asked to submit a press kit. 900 artists

applied, 58 came to Wales. They were particularly good. People come for

music from all over the world. You have to balance out your desires to

have everybody listen to what you've got with the desire to actually

introduce the world into Wales and encourage people in Wales to listen

out as well. The group Kan made a huge impression. It's a platform to

showcase the best UK and Irish performers.

Tell us about the band, Kan then. You are not based in the same city,

are you, how does that work? Well, it make it is difficult to rehearse,

but actually we always meet a day early and rehearse before. That is

when we make new music. We are based in Newcastle, Edinburgh and

ArArmagh, so quite far apart. People have described it as sort of

contemporary traditional music with jazz and world influences. We take

our influences from all over the place really.

What does being at WOMEX mean for you? We are a young band, we have

been playing together for three years. It's a brilliant place to

come and a great city to visit. Not your advice first visit to Cardiff?

Last time I got a speeding ticket and a summons to court because of

the speeding fine. Better luck this time!

APPLAUSE I'm here with the band Voiasa from

Budapest. It took a while to get here? We crossed the French and

English border three or four times. We didn't know how to buy the

tickets. Now we are here. This is gypsy music. This is the

kind of music that normally people don't imagine on gypsy music. It's

based on the singing and on the dance and rhythm. The musicians come

from different backgrounds. They come from a traditional background,

others come from more pop and more hard rock or jazz also. It's a very

good mix. Hello, Cerys Matthews,

congratulations on a wonderful opening concert. I wanted to ask you

about the concept really, Land of Song. Where did the idea come from?

We have been known as the land of song for over 100 years now. We sort

of think, gosh, that old cliche, sort of thing, I thought, no, I will

run with this. We have a lot of visiting delegates, 2,500 of them,

coming from all over the world. They are all mad music fans, they work in

the industry. I thought it would be a great opportunity to collect

together the most distinctive tradition that is we have in Wales,

in the old traditions and make a great show of them so we could stamp

a brilliant Welsh mark on these delegates.

APPLAUSE It's a mild autumn day and we have

10 acres to plough. You have line upon line of soil to work on. You

might find it a bit lonely and start imagining your girlfriend. You must

never forget that you are behind your ox, home land, move them

forward through the soil. Move them forward through the soil much you

might hear the birds, you might hear them and you might feel the need to

join them in a little bit. OK, don't fight the urge. OK, I think we're

ready for work. APPLAUSE

The magical voice of Georgia Ruth. We will will have more from the

opening concert later. A little flavour of mandolin man,

how did this band come together? My father was celebrating his 70th

birthday. He was collector of ancient melodies, as a surprise for

his birthday I always wanted to do something for mandolins, here they

are. How long have you been playing? We

now exist about three years. We just went this summer to Brazil. So our

first disk with traditional Belgium music, from the centre of the

country. We wanted to do something else and we made the Bosnova disk.

There is a bit of a Latin American feel to their next number.

From inside the Centre for Social Justice to -- Millennium Centre and

the flavour from the Cumbia All Stars.

The opening concert wouldn't be complete without one of these, the

traditional Welsh instrument, the harp. Not any old harp. This is the

authentic Welsh triple harp. It has three rows of strings. On Wednesday

night we saw two of these instruments duelling. They are world

authorities on the triple harp and are part of a tradition passed down

from player to player. Next, an example of a song, a

mixture of Welsh and English. It features a traditional Welsh

instrument. Watch out for the contemporary twist from Ballet

Cymru. APPLAUSE

You have worked with Ballet Cymru before? I have been on tour with

them twice already, I'm a huge fan of their work. They are visionaries

and are a real asset to Wales. At the festival I met the Chief

Executive of the Welsh Music Foundation who hook developing the

Welsh music industry. We are here in Wales, the whole of the world music

scene is here with us. We are talking to all of the world right

here, right now in Wales. It might be strange to some people to think

of such a creative thing as music, all those business aspects to it?

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Some people pick up a guitar or play a

harp, they think that is all there is to it. There is so much more. You

know, you can record records, you can license those records in

different territories. Someone did a licensing deal with a record in

Greece. You can play live. A Welsh band got a deal to tour Canada.

Publish your music, have it synced with films and on TV. You just think

about playing the harp or the guitar. How far off are we in terms

of professionalising the Welsh industry? It's a constant thing. A

few years ago those bands wouldn't have had a record label to sign to.

Now you can sign and get to a certain level. That is exciting. We

knew we were bringing woe max in a couple of years ago. We have been

training artist managers for a year now in anticipation for this, to be

ready on the floor, here, so if somebody offers you a contract, or

starts talking about heads or terms you know what they are talking

about. You might do those deals in one country or five or 10. It is a

Lottery of work. Everything will be different each time. It takes a long

time and a lot of experience to build up that. Next year WOMEX moves

to Spain, it's fitting that their country took to the stage here in

Cardiff. There are strong connections between

musicians and music from Wales and from our area. Musicians from the

last 20 years and because this is the same language, it's easy to play

with them. I love the Wales music. APPLAUSE

We are travelling south to Algeria in Africa. And we join

FANFARE FANFARE, Fanfara. Tell me about your

name and music? It means something like brass band who plays right

music. It's based on the brass band. We take out all the electric stuff

and we make a band and we try to make connection with the North

African music. We like to make a bridge between them.

You play a wonderful instrument, tell me about that? It does the

bass. It's very heavy. It's like a human trumpet, actually. -- huge

trumpet, actually. One group that stood out for me at

this world music festival was especially commissioned cultural

exchange between Gwyneth Glyn and Ghazalaw.

When I heard his voice on YouTube I knew I wanted to work with him. It

blossomed from there. Can you explain to me the music you two do?

I sing poetry based with expressionive tunes. -- expressive

tunes. Apparently, when we started the

project, we thought it would be some kind of a fusion or something. It

ended up being a new genre in itself. As you know, Welsh language

and the language I sing in, they go back to an Indian language. Wen we

started jamming together, it was normal fusion, it was just like

separated cousins meeting one another again.

You got to have an exchange as well. You went to Mumbai, how was that? It

was incredible. I've always felt drawn to India. To the music and to

the culture, the food and spiritualality. The people are so

warm and open. The musicians, especially, it's an honour to play

with such professional and outstanding musicians of that

calibre. How did you enjoy the opening concert? I would just say

that I was mesmerised last night listening to the complete show. My

forum to the Welsh music was through Gwyneth Glyn. There are now

different variations and forms of the Celtic music and the Welsh music

on the whole, it's overwhelming. Ghazalaw were among the artists

choosen by Cerys Matthews for the opening concert.

APPLAUSE The rising start Georgia Ruth won

the Welsh Music Prize last week and played at Hyde Park this summer and

has found new fans on Radio 2 and Radio 6. Here she is in her

showcase. # And it came on slowly

# Slower than water # Under your bridges

# Bridges we've built, babe # Bridges of fire

# Bridges of fire to ride upon # Bridges of fire

We talked about how long she had been working on her debut album the

Week of Pines? Just the six years. I mean, I always say, I really mean

this, I'm so glad I waited, because I listen back and we've always

spoken about how much my style has changed over the years. I think I

wouldn't have been pleased to put anything but this record out first,

if that makes sense. Although there has been EPs they have been building

up to the sound that you get on Week of Pines. I knew I had to feel

ready. # The distances between us

# We are travellers, maybe we can find our way back to the week of

pines # To the week of pines... Da, da,

da, da, da # Oh

APPLAUSE Thank you very much. Thank you.

We bango 3, thank you very much, lads. Fantastic. Tell me about the

band? How did you get together? We are from Galway in the west of

Ireland. We are two sets of brothers. We started out as a three

piece with myself, Martin and David, who were brothers. What happened we

realised we were three ban Joes we needed a real musician in the band.

My mum ran me up and said, will you give Fergal a gig. He is a lonely.

We want to bring the ban Joe back to Europe. Once people hear it they are

addicted. We hope to have that effect here in Europe. Years did it

take you to learn to play? I still don't know how to play it. I have

been playing 15 years. I was taught when I was a young lad. I used to

look up to him, I now look down at him as I'm slightly taller. Thank

you very much. APPLAUSE

Also performing on the Horizon Stage and in advance of the fierce

Atlantic storms, Family Atlantica. It's a real collaboration across

different cultures with members drawn from North Africa and London

and Venezuela. It's what WOMEX is all about.

Courted recently as an intriguing collaborations by the press as being

one that really works. They really work together because we

compliment each other. I play rhythmically, we support each other.

I'm a Welsh musician. Primarily classical. If you think, in a way,

that is a really strange collaborations, like the opposite

spectrum of music. You have had amazing reviews in the

papers? It's a beautiful album. A couple who spent all day together.

In the evening they sleep separately. They call each other to

find each other to spend the day together again.

APPLAUSE Back to our opening concert on

Wednesday night. I wonder whether our international visitors can get

their teeth into a unique and particular tradition. My friend, we

are going to sing you (inaudible) my friend will play an air on the harp.

I will join him half way through. The song he is playing and the song

that we are singing is the same song, but is a different song. And

the object of the exercise is for us both to finish together. So it's

every man for himself in the middle and God help us all at the end.

APPLAUSE Fusion has been a big word here this

week. At the opening concert, a playful duet between traditional and

modern dancing styles gave it a new twist.

APPLAUSE Next, a group from Mali, a country

that has been at the forefront of music. We welcome Sidi Toure.

APPLAUSE. Also from Mali here are Debademba

with their totally different funky disco-like style.

Tell me a little of the history of the band?

TRANSLATION: Debademba means big family. It's a family of different

musicians coming from different countries. A big family from all the

world. The music is African music, but with

a lot of influences, blues, flamenco, African guitars. Thank you

very much. Thank you very much. Merci.

APPLAUSE Back to the opening concert. I

thought it would be good to finish where we began. -- here in Cardiff

Bay. I thought it would be local to invite a local schoolgirl to sing,

please give her a warm welcome. What a week it has been for music in

Wales. I have heard there is a big news announcement this week as well?

Yes, there is. The band 9 Bach have signed to Peter Gabriel's label.

They will be releasing their next record with him in 2014. It's

exciting for them. They will reach a whole new market across the world.

Why isn't there an equivalent of Real World in Wales. Many years ago

there wouldn't have been any record label for them to sign to. They

developed their career well in Wales. We are missing that next

level. Good luck to them, great, we are very excited. The thing we will

go away to work on is develop a label that is at that level. We

won't know what the effect of WOMEX is for at least five years. One of

the main reasons for getting WOMEX was the effect on the music industry

in Wales. That will be a long-term effect. The majority of artist we

have here have never been to WOMEX before. It's their opportunity to

understand what they need to do. When they do come with us next year

they will be prepared and we do have artists showcasing in WOMEX without

it having to be in Wales. That is when we will start to feel the

effect of WOMEX. You want to catch some of the WOMEX vibe look out for

the Horizons Tour, some of the Welsh and international acts are playing

at venues across Wales. That is it from Cardiff. Next year WOMEX goes

to Spain. We are looking forward to it already.