Newsletter #6 December 2018

I am Araceli Tzigane. Welcome to Mapamundi Música’s December monthly newsletter. The next one will be in 2019 so it is the moment to wish to all you guys, the world music people,

a superb end of the year, strenght, wisdom and much success for 2019.

It is the time of the year where the charts and lists are published so we review a bunch of them. The results of the Transglobal WMC Festival Awards will be published at the very end of the year. I invite you to subscribe to its news lists. The activity of fairs and meetings continue soon and we’ll pay attention to some of those events to come. We continue the series of little interviews with festival directors and in this occasion we look at Japan, with Sukiyaki Meets the World, by Nicolas Ribalet.

If you have any suggestion of contents for the next editions, let us know. Thanks for your attention.

Araceli Tzigane – info@mundimapa.com +34 676 30 28 82

Summary: Charts time. Open calls. Meetings to come. Miniinterview with festival director: Nicolas Ribalet.

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CHARTS TIME

Of the thousands of charts published at this time of the year, we have to select a few ones. Some albums have had great success, for instance Soar, by Catrin Finch and Seckou Keita, that is probably the superwinner of the year. Also Fatoumata Diawara‘s Fenfo, Monsieur Doumani‘s Angathin and the compilation of Dur-Dur Band have got much success. Congratulations to them, to all the artists and record labels for the amazing and devoted work one year more! And congratulations also to Maria Kalaniemi for her State Prize for Music.

· Transglobal World Music Chart. The chart is composed nowadays by 58 disseminators from the 5 continents. I am proudly founder and administrator together with Juan Antonio Vázquez and Ángel Romero. Our top 10 is:

1. Monsieur Doumani – Angathin – Monsieur Doumani
2. Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita – Soar – Bendigedig
3. Fatoumata Diawara – Fenfo – Montuno / Shanachie / Wagram
4. El Naán – La Danza de las Semillas – El Naán

5. Ammar 808 – Maghreb United – Glitterbeat
6. Gabacho Maroc – Tawassol – 10h10 / Cristal
7. The Turbans – The Turbans – Six Degrees
8. SANS – Kulku – Cloud Valley
9. Vigüela – A Tiempo Real – ARC Music
10. Samba Touré – Wande – Glitterbeat

Check the complete list HERE.

· World Music Charts Europe. The panel is composed by more than 40 radio DJs from European public radios. Their top 10 is:

1. Fatoumata Diawara – Fenfo – 3eme Bureau / Wagram
2. 3MA / Rajery, Driss El Maloumi, Ballaké Sissoko – Anarouz – Mad Minute Music
3. Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita – Soar – Bendigedig
4. Marta Gómez – La alegría y el canto – Aluna
5. Dirtmusic – Bu Bir Ruya – Glitterbeat
6. Samba Touré – Wande – Glitterbeat

7. Djénéba & Fousco – Kayeba Khasso – Lusafrica
8. Dur-Dur Band – Dur-Dur of Somalia: Volume 1, Volume 2 & Previously Unreleased Tracks – Analog Africa
9. Monsieur Doumani – Angathin – Monsieur Doumani
10. Calypso Rose – So Calypso! – Because Music

Check the complete list HERE.

· fRoots Best of 2018 by the Critics Pool. The selection is made by many critics from the world. I am proudly one of them. How many are we? The last years it is not public. Check the analysis of the 33rd edition of the annual Critics Pool made by fRoots staff HERE.

Album of the year:
1. Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita – Soar – Bendigedig
2. Anna + Elizabeth – The Invisible Comes to Us – Smithsonian Folkways
3. Fatoumata Diawara – Fenfo – Montuno
4. The Rheingans Sisters – Bright Field – Root Beat
5. Lisa O’Neil – Heard A Long Gone Song – River Lea

Reissue/ Compilation Albums Of 2018:
1. Dur-Dur Band – Dur-Dur of Somalia: Volume 1, Volume 2 & Previously Unreleased Tracks – Analog Africa
2. V.A. – Listen All Around: 1950s Popular Music From The Congo, Tanganyika, Zanzibar And Kenya – Dust-To-Digital
3. Bob Dylan – More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 – Sony Music

Check the complete list HERE.

· Mundofonías’ Favis. This is the chart made exclusively by Juan Antonio Vázquez and me, the makers of Mundofonías radio show. It is a list of selected albums, not a ranking. The order is aleatory:

· Damily – Valimbilo – Les Disques Bongo Joe
· Vigüela – A tiempo real – ARC Music
· Malagasy Guitar Masters – Volo hazo – Buda Musique
· Sepideh Meshki & Mojtaba Asgari – Impatient of separation – PHM Records
· Gateiros de Lisboa – A história – Uguru
· WoWaKin – Kraj za miastem – WoWaKin
· Grupo Mono Blanco – ¡Fandango! Sones jarochos de Veracruz – Smithsonian Folkways
· El Naán – La danza de las semillas – El Naán
· The Turbans – The Turbans – Six Degrees
· Monsieur Doumani – Angathin – Monsieur Doumani
· Don Kipper – Seven sisters – Riverboat / World Music Network
· Domna Samiou – Music from Greece – Caprice Records
· Baro Bialo – Vagabondages – Collectif Çok Malko
· Amsterdam Klezmer Band & Söndörgő – Szikra – Vetnasj

Compilations:
· V.A. – Ocora: Le monde des musiques traditionnelles – Ocora-Radio France
· V.A. – Listen all around: The golden age of Central and East African music – Dust-to-Digital
· V.A. – Ragas Live retrospective – Brooklyn Raga Massive / Pioneer Works
· V.A. – Chikhates et Chioukhs de l’aïta: Anthologie – Atlas Azawan

· Grammy. Just to name a few world music artists nominated in several categories: Orquesta Akokán, Fatoumata Diawara, Bombino, Seun Kuti, Yiddish Glory or Opium Moon. Bravo!

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CALLS FOR APPLICATIONS

These two professional fairs have applications for showcases open right now:

· Atlantic Music Expo (Praia, Cabo Verde). Application open until December 31st!!!
· Mapas (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain). Application open until February 15th.

COMING EVENTS

· APAP World Music Pre-Conference, probably the most early rising proffesional event on the year, will take place on days 3rd and 4th of January in New York. It is produced by the team of Globalfest (that will take place on 6th of January) and rock paper scissors.
· Folk Alliance Conference 2019 will be in Montreal, Canada, from 13th to 17th. In this edition, the conference theme will explore the artistic process from inspiration to vocation.
· Mediterranean Music Festival. Switzerland. Of the festivals to take place in the following months, I am personally moved by this because it will hold the world premiere of Mediterranean Odyssey: Rebetiko meets Fado und Cante Alentejano, with artists of À Porta do Cante, the fado singer Maura and the superb artists ofRodopi Ensemble, with the music direction of Alkis Zopoglou and the advice of Prof. Lambros Liavas.

**** Do you have a world music festival and you want to be included in our mini interviews? Contact us. ****

CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS.

If you haven´t read them, you can find the previous interviews clicking on the names: Michal Schmidt (Folk Holidays, CZ), Jun-Lin Yeoh (Rainforest WMF, MY), Luís Lles (Pirineos Sur, ES), Amitava Bhattacharya (Sur Jahan, IN).

MINI INTERVIEW WITH NICOLAS RIBALET FROM SUKIYAKI MEETS THE WORLD

Sukiyaki Meets The World takes place in August in Nanto-city (Hokuriku region, Japan) every year since 1991. It is entirely organized by local citizens (250 persons). With 4 stages and 12,000 visitors every year, it is the oldest and biggest event in Japan completely dedicated to Word Music. With more than 150 workshop, residence program, all the generations of the city are involved, throughout the year.

MM – What do you search in an artist when you program?
NR – Quality, creativity, originality. Projects have to be solid enough to attract attention in the medias in Japan, and to sale tickets (high fares in Japan). They also have to be professional enough to adapt their working method to the Japanese market.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
NR – Development of the cultural activities in Nanto region, education of the local community, diffusion of the world music in Japan.

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
NR – The interest for foreign music is limited in Japan, and often restricted to (very) narrow niches. It is very complicated to gather those cores into a same event.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
NR – The Sukiyaki festival runs since 1991 (28th edition this year). It is fully organized by volunteers/citizens. Keeping the dynamic, educating new staff, adapting the structure are complex challenges.

MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
NR – Taking place in the small village of Nanto, surrounded by rice fields, it gathers the homemade taste of the local community and the highest artistic quality since 1991.

Picture: Nicolas’ Facebook profile picture

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WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS

Mapamundi Música is an agency of management and booking. Learn more here. Check our proposals at our website.

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 46 stations in 17 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.

Feel free to request info if you wish. For further information about us, get in touch by email, telephone (+34 676 30 28 82), our website or at our Facebook.