Tag Archives: Mediterranean Music Festival

Newsletter #17 November 2019

Mini-interview with Park Jechun, from Sori Festival, congratulations, resurrections and much +

I am Araceli Tzigane. Welcome to Mapamundi Música‘s November’s newsletter, with exciting news for us, the community of world / folk / traditional music all over the world.

I write you from the office. A few days after a enjoyable edition of WOMEX, after the trip to Portugal for the Harmonia Polska magic concert at Acordeões do Mundo Festival, by Janusz Prusinowski Kompania (check here and here) and before leaving to Folkelarm in Oslo next Thursday.

Some relevant dates for our community, before the Christmas break, that I am missing and that take place this month are Visa for Music 6th edition and Mundial Montreal 9th edition. And the last days it took place the first edition of Musafir Ethnic music forum in Ufa, Russia. Wishing all of them fruitful results, I invite you to check the contents below. Ah, what is the resurrection of the subject? Discover it, below. 😉

And, remember: if you have any suggestion of contents for the next editions, let us know. And if you like it, share it!

Thanks for your attention.

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

Subscription is available here.

Summary:

· Mini interview with festival manager: Park Jechun from Jeonju Int’l Sori Festival (South Korea)
· Signing announced for Cosmopolis Festival direction: Alkis Zopoglou
· Welcome to a new magazine: Berlin Bazzar, by Robert Rigney
· Resurrection of what? Yes! Babel Med. Viva!
· News of our signings after WOMEX.
· Find me at…

**** Do you have a world music festival and you want to be included in our mini interviews? Contact us. ****
This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.

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) – Luis Lles (Pirineos Sur, ES) – Amitava Bhattacharya (Sur Jahan, IN) – Nicolas Ribalet (Sukiyaki Meets the World, JP) – Sergio Zaera (Poborina Folk, ES) – Per Idar Almås (Førdefestivalen, NO) – Bożena Szota (EthnoPort, PL) – Ken Day (Urkult, SE) – Mads Olesen (5 Continents, CH) – Karolina Waszczuk & Bartek Drozd(Jagiellonian Fair, PL) – Alkis Zopoglou (Mediterranean Music Festival, GR/CH) – Tom Frouge(Globalquerque, US) – Braulio Pérez (Música en el Parque, ES) – Bojan Djordjevic (Todo Mundo, RS)
MINI INTERVIEW WITH PARK JECHUN FROM JEONJU INT’L SORI FESTIVAL

Park Jechun is the artistic director of the festival since 2014. He is also percussionist and he has a duo with his wife, the pianist Miyeon. This interview was possible thanks to other of the hearts of the festival, Ji-Young Han, known by many people of our community of world music around the world, as she is usually the one present in the fairs and other professional meetings.

The festival combines perfectly in its program the ancestral and unique Sori repertoire, performed by old and by young artists, the new trends from Korean music and a bunch of high quality international proposals, including also activities for kids. Apart of hosting the festival, Jeonju is the paradigm city about Korean traditional cooking. If you still don´t find reasons enough to wish to visit the festival, Park will give you one more at the end of the interview.

Thank you, Park and Ji-Young!

MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme? 

PJ: In externally way, we have set the subject (the topic) of the year in order of drum, dance, wind instrument, string instrument and vocal music. It was wind instrumentS this year and string instrument Snext year. It will be vocal music in 2021, the 20th anniversary of the festival. And, on the other side, we see the “attitude” of an artist doing his/her art. It is very important whether they are young musicians or masters.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?

PJ: I’ve never thought of the word ‘global goal’. Our goal is the happiness of artists and audiences who participate in the festival through a legacy given to us in the areas leading to the world – Asia – Korea – Jeonju. I am grateful for this cultural environment.

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival? 

PJ: It is difficult to distinguish between tradition and modern, classic and contemporary. Is it really tradition that is being passed down from the past? Is evolution novel? It is difficult to judge such a thing.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?

PJ: As we prepare for the big festival, there are growing concerns about the environment every year. I tried to run an environment-friendly festival this year, but it was not easy. We will make continuous efforts.
And with the changing tendency of leisure life and culture, I always think about what the role of festival is in this era.
We consider the consideration and cultural heritage for the next generation a priority.

MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival. 

PJ: If you want to see how the old customs of East Asia exist in modern society, come to the Sori Festival!

Pictures’ credits:
  • Logo of the festival at their Facebook
  • Mr. Park playing, from the website of the festival
  • Ms. Ji-Young Han and Mr. Park with Juan Antonio Vázquez (from Juan Antonio’s archive)

CONGRATULATIONS TO… 

Alkis Zopoglou! He is the new director of Cosmopolis Festival, in his home town, Kavala, in Greece. His achievement was a super happy news for me, as it is the result of a life working with devotion and wisdom by a friend and collaborator that I admire.We had an interview with him in a previous issue of the newsletter, about the Mediterranean Music Festival he directs in Zurich. Check it here.

Apart of all this, he is musician at Rodopi Ensemble and teacher of traditional dances.

 

 

WELCOME TO… 

Berlin Bazzar. I knew about this surprising initiative by Yuri, flautist of Hudaki Village Band. What he explained seemed a bit weird so I requested the man, Robert Rigney, as friend at Facebook (this picture is his profile picture), in order to ask him a few questions.So, what is Berlin Bazzar? It is a paper magazine, exclusively in paper, focused on music from Eastern Europe, Turkey and the Middle East, distributed in bars in Berlin. The cover of the first edition is here at the right. It will be sold for 3€ in alternative bookshops and record shops in Berlin.

According to Robert, some of the objectives are:

  • to reflect multicultural reality of Berlin and other cities like it,
  • to provide a forum and a platform for so-called “world music”,
  • to publish stories about world music that wouldn’t have a chance of being realized in the mainstream media.

Robert searchs for writers who can write about these kinds music, concert reviews and profiles. At the moment the project can’t afford to pay contributors.

I wanted to share this initiative, as we are losing presence in the media for our music and this quixotic project that starts now is, in all senses, contrary to the trends 🙂

AND WELCOME BACK, BABEL MED  

After checking with Sami Sadak, we are allowed to announce that Babel Med will return in 2020! Congratulations, Sami and team, for gathering of supports that allow you to come back with the fair.

Great news indeed. We’ll keep an eye on this waiting for more news to share.

 

MAPAMUNDI’S NEW ARTISTS SIGNINGS AND SERVICES

After some conversations at WOMEX, we have included some outstanding artists in our catalogue, with which we will work for different terrories, like Hudaki Village Band or Svetlana Spajic Group, and with the collaboration of colleagues from many places. We are thrilled of the tons of talent we have available.

Apart of these, we are making occasional bookings for specific programs.Clic the picture to learn more.

And as we have so many artists, we can´t take more stable commitments but we can be of help for many unsigned artists who needs to deal with their self management. Check Araceli Tzigane’s website and feel free to address your friend artists there.

 

 

FIND ME AT…

Some interesting dates for the community (and where you can find me if you happened to be there, just let me know):

Oslo (Norway). 14th-17th November, for Folkelarm. Check the list of delegates here. On Saturday I will participate in a seminar about exporting the Nordic folk music, with a bunch of experts, starting with the master Birgit Ellinghaus from albaKultur, Germany. Check the program of the seminar, here.

 

Israel Showcase for Jazz and Worldwide Music. 20th-23th November. I will be in Tel Aviv and available for meetings on days 18-20, before the festival. The other time I was there I started to collaborate with Gulaza and we are still. Check the program here. Check the list of delegates, here and click Jazz & World.

 


Brussels (Belgium). 28th-29th November, for the first meeting of the European Folk Network. Check the interview with Nod Knowles, administrator of the network, in the previous issue of this newsletter.

 

Mediterranean Music Festival (Zurich, Switzerland). 18th January. After the Christmas break, I will travel again: to the festival lead by Alkis Zopoglou, who is mentioned below. I will travel there with Josep Aparicio “Apa”, the Valencian superb singer of cant d’estil, and with his musicians Eduard Navarro and Toni Porcar.

This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.

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. 

Newsletter #13 July 2019

I am Araceli Tzigane. Welcome to Mapamundi Música‘s July’s monthly newsletter. I hope it will be a pleasant reading for you in an awesome Summer ⛱ . The insights of the collaborators are really worth of it.

These are the main topics:

· July is the month with more festivals in many countries in Europe. I am sending this newsletter from Ostrava, where I am attending the Czech Music Crossroads, before leaving to Germany for Horizonte Festival. Nice events list, below.

· So, planes and airlines are once more a day-to-day issue… I have to thank Juan Antonio Vázquez (whose radio show The Spice Road is featured below) for the scale model. It will be sufficient until I save enough for my red Bombardier Challenger…

· My dear Sherezade will stay in the office until August, when she will travel to Calabria to eat much pizza and pasta to gather strenghts ? for Autumn challenges: we have showcases at the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa (Vigüela + the Valencian artists Apa and Eduard Navarro) and WOMEX (Monsieur Doumani). Yeah!

· On the other hand, a festival that takes place, not in Summer, but at the end of Winter, is the Mediterranean Music Festival in Switzerland, whose director, Alkis Zopoglou, is in this issue the interviewed in the series about challenges for festivals. By the way, he is a member of the Rodopi Ensemble, that will have their Spanish debut on day 18th of July in Palma de Mallorca! Interview, below.

· A brief mention to Mapamundi concert’s calendar is included. We have one more debut in Spain, by a Polish band. Guess which? Check below!

· And, in the previous issue you already met Carlos Gomes, from Transiberia Productions. We announced recently the concerts programme Transiberia Mundi, that we have developed together, with the fundings of the city council of Evora. Learn more about Carlos and about our Transiberia Mundi, here below.

Feel free to resend this newsletter to your friends if you like it. Subscription is available here.
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:
· Mini interview with festival manager: Alkis Zopoglou from Mediterranean Music Festival (Switzerland) 
· In depth: Carlos Gomes & inspirations for Transiberia Mundi
· Find me at…
· Mapamundi Música concerts calendar
· Mapamundi Música introduces: La Ruta de las Especias (The Spice Road) by Juan Antonio Vázquez

**** 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) – Luis Lles (Pirineos Sur, ES) – Amitava Bhattacharya (Sur Jahan, IN) – Nicolas Ribalet (Sukiyaki Meets the World, JP) – Sergio Zaera (Poborina Folk, ES) – Per Idar Almås (Førdefestivalen, NO) – Bożena Szota (EthnoPort, PL) – Ken Day (Urkult, SE) – Mads Olesen (5 Continents, CH) – Karolina Waszczuk & Bartek Drozd (Jagiellonian Fair, PL)

MINI INTERVIEW WITH ALKIS ZOPOGLOU FROM MEDITERRANEAN MUSIC FESTIVAL 

There are several connections between Alkis and Mapamundi Música and it is a pleasure to collaborate with him in all senses. I first knew about him thanks to Antonis Antoniou, from Monsieur Doumani, who is a generous links creator, and introduced my band Vigüela to Alkis for the festival. They played in 2017. In 2018 it was the Portuguese quartet À Porta do Cante which was included in Alkis’s program. In 2019 it was the premiere of Rebetiko Meet Fado and Cante Alentejano.

The Mediterranean Music Festival in Switzerland takes place in February and/or March in Zurich and Bern. Its name is quite explicit about the topic. The focus is acoustic music, the performances are mostly in little venues, with the public very close to the artists, and with no amplification. Check the details at the website.

In the meantime, Alkis introduced me his band in which he plays kanun, Rodopi Ensemble, traditional acoustic music from the Greek Thrace, of which I felt in love inmediatly and started to work together about it and about the Greek-Portuguese project Rebetiko meets Fado & Cante Alentejano.

Rodopi will play for the first time in Spain next July 18th in Cançons de la Mediterrània, in Palma de Mallorca. They will also play at the Jagiellonian Fair, of which we talked in the previous issue, on 17th August.

So, grateful to Alkis for the kind answers. Without further ado, here you are the interview:

MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme? 

AZ: The most crucial issue in my opinion is to find a special and innovative musical idiom in each music ensemble, which will also be interesting for the audience of my festival.

Each music ensemble should have a clear cultural stance as a Mediterranean country and those next to them but at the same time it should present a spectacle in an authentic and honest way. And I’d like to emphasize this last issue particularly, as on the altar of spectacle and competition in the music market, many misinterpretations and exaggerations are being made, firstly from the artists themselves, while at the same time there is the pressure from the organizers to overcome the spectacle presented at their festivals.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?

AZ: My first and most important concern is to highlight the musical idioms of the traditions of the population around the Mediterranean, which are truly many and very beautiful each, with their similarities and differences.

Another important point, as I am a musician myself and know very well how difficult it is for an artist to enter a market, is to give space to very special requests made especially from young artists.

Furthermore, especially at the Mediterranean Music Festival, which takes place in small venues during the winter, I aim to keep the sound authentic, to reach the audience’s ears as it is produced by the human voice or the musical instruments. That’s why I avoid making use of sound amplifiers during the concerts and this has been appreciated a lot by our audience so far. It’s like having a group of musicians in your home.

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival? 

AZ:  Unfortunately the most difficult issues initially always have to do with the funding of such musical events.  There is a great difficulty in finding the financial resources but in any case I believe that the Swiss authorities are still supportive towards culture and whatever notable appears.

On a second level I believe that a great problem is the possibility, especially of small projects, to attract a sufficient number of listeners in order to have both happy, artists and organizers. It is a global phenomenon that the world is directed more and more by the brands, slowly losing its sense of personal judgement but also the wish to discover new things. We’re getting more and more used to find everything ready and this is stultifying us without even being conscious of it. I hope once we’ll wake up.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?AZ: Along with the issue I stressed before it’s a great challenge for me personally, using the festival as a vehicle, to awaken people who love music and make them get out of their homes, where they have almost everything available on a screen, getting them to know the great feelings that live music provides you and let them live in a world of interaction, that arises from the exchange of feelings between artists and audience.

MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival. 
AZ: The “square”, which includes the creators in their real dimension together with the audience, ready to evaluate participating live in this process, is the basic principle of our culture, as it was born and started in Ancient Greece and travelled to the ancient theatres of all Mediterranean countries, which are still preserved up to this day and continue hosting similar activities after thousands of years.

As a Greek, I think I am totally involved with this cultural dimension of the phenomenon.

Our festival is a small cradle of culture and forms in its own way and by the forces it has, a healthy cultural view among the people visiting it. We are very glad that our audience speaks about the festival with enthusiasm and that’s why they‘ve all become warm supporters of it. There is certainly room for even more people who are always welcome.

Pictures’ credits:

  • Alkis portrait from his Facebook pictures
  • Stok theatre, in Zurich, one of the usual venues for the Mediterranean Music Festival. From the festival’s Facebook page.
  • Alkis dancing at the premiere of Rebetiko Meets Fado & Cante Alentejano, took from his website

Do you like our newsletter? Tell us! To sign up, click HERE.

IN DEPTH: CARLOS GOMES AND INSPIRATIONS FOR TRANSIBERIA MUNDI

In June’s issue we presented Carlos Gomes, the founder and director of Transiberia Productions, cultural management company, settled in Lisbon. And the previous week I sent the mailing about Transiberia Mundi, the concert programme we have developed together and that will take place in the city of Evora from 1st to 4th of August, funded by the city council and part of the program Artes À Rua.

Carlos is an entrepreneur with a strong, inspiring and thrilling vision that I want to share with the community of world music. In the picture it is linked a little video (in Portuguese) with his statements about Transiberia Mundi, made after the presentation in Lisbon last 4th of July. And here below you’ll find his answers to this special questionnaire.

MM: In few words, what is Transiberia Productions?

CG: Transiberia is a cultural production company, created in 2015, focused on Ibero-American music and market, on a non-exclusive basis and open to other music and cultures of the world. Its activity includes the conception and production of shows, the organization, production and programming of festivals, music events and thematic parties, the cultural programming for other institutions, both public and privates, and the booking and management of artists.

MM: Which were your objectives when you created it? 

CG: Transiberia’s mission was always and continues to be to strengthen the relationship between Ibero-American producers, agents and artists, starting with our neighbouring country, Spain, and pursuing to enlarge its field of action to the countries from South and Central America, from a cosmovision that is Portuguese, inclusive, open to the other and to the world. 

MM: If is is not too secret, let us know your vision. 

CG: My vision and what I am most interested in working is based mainly on the awesome book by the Portuguese writer José Saramago, named “The Stone Raft”, that captures the human nature, especially the nature of the people from Iberian Peninsula after an extraordinary event: the segregation of the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe and its Atlantic drift. I understood it as a metaphor of the liberation of the Iberian Peninsula from that kind of political constraint that is to be considered as peripheral territory from the center of Europe. I think that the nature of Iberian people is close to the South American nature and I also believe that, if we overcome that hierarchical political organization of the world, especially of the navel-gazing of Europe, the relationship between cultures, mediated by the freshness of the Atlantic, it will be one of the centers of the future world. 

MM: What is your personal relationship with music? 

CG: My personal relationship with music comes mainly from an inner vibe and from the dance. For me good music doesn’t have to make me dance but must be able to make me vibrate. If it makes me dance, even better. I think that the union of music and dance is one of the happiest expressions of human beings. I think that a human being who likes to dance and can´t hold the vibration of music in his/her body is probably a good human being. 

MM: Tell us one or two of Transiberia’s main achievements.

CG: Two of the main achievements by Transiberia have been so far the creation of the Festival Emergente in Lisbon and the program Transiberia Mundi, in collaboration with Mapamundi Música.

The first one, because it emerged from a raising awareness of the responsibility of supporting and contributing to an unbelievable moment of creativity, production and expression that the Portuguese music is currently experiencing.

In the second case means the realization of an old ambition of having a Transiberian and transnational partnership that was born as Iberian and that would lead the way to something with an undefined scope, enhancing the name of the company and undertaking Samarago’s vision.

I’d like also to mention that it is of much and special joy to co-produce with EGEAC (cultural institution of Lisbon’s city council) the program “Dançar a Cidade” in Lisbon (to dance the city) which calls its citizens to dance several dance styles of the world in the public spaces. I love to dance and to provide the others the joy of dance is extremely rewarding.

MM: Which is your next dream to be fullfilled? 

CG: I can´t unveil my next dream yet. But I can say that it will be a transnational project out of Lisbon.
—
Thank you, obrigado, gracias, Carlos. 

 

FIND ME AT…
I take advantage of my next weeks calendar to share some nice events with the community. By the way, we can meet there, drop me a line:
  • Ostrava (Czech Republic). Czech Music Crossroads + Colors of Ostrava. 15th to 18th July. As speaker. I will be part of the listening and comment session and of the panel Touring Guide for Germany, Austria, Spain and Israel.
  • Koblenz (Germany). Horizonte Festival. 19th July. What a pleasure to attend this festival for which I will travel with Vigüela! Also other of our collaborators, Monsieur Doumani and Don Kipper, are programmed in this festival. Yeah!
  • Bled (Slovenia). Okarina Festival, 23th July. My first time at the country and it will be also with Vigüela.
  • Bielsk Podlaski & Białystok (Poland). Festival Podlaska Oktawa Kultur. 27th and 28 July, also with Vigüela and thanks to the agency Wodzirej PL.
  • Evora (Portugal). 1st to 4th August. Series Transiberia Mundi, programmed by Transiberia Productions and Mapamundi Música, and part of the program Artes À Rua by the municipality of the city. I will be honoured by making a conference too.
  • Lublin (Poland… my second country). 16th August, Warsaw, 17th August Lublin for theJagellonian Fair. How could I miss the concert by Rodopi Ensemble and the night of dance directed by Janusz Prusinowski Kompania in the same city the same day. Top masters of their traditional music! ?
  • Spain, but I must include it as it will be the premiere of Wowakin Trio in Spain 🙂 23rd August.
  • Samarkand (Uzbekistan). Last week of August. Yes, I wanna cry of joy. More, soon.
  • Perth (Scotland). 16th – 20th September. The Visit (event produced for Showcase Scothland Expo by Active Events). Really looking forward it!
More dates, in the next issue.
MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA INTRODUCES… THE SPICE ROAD, AT RADIO CLÁSICA, SPAIN’S NATIONAL RADIO. BY JUAN ANTONIO VÁZQUEZ

For the second year, this Summer Juan Antonio Vázquez is doing the radio show La Ruta de las Especias (the spice road) for Radio Clásica, of Spain’s National Radio. As the name indicates, it is focused on music of Orient, or, as he likes to say, “the many Orients”. Click the picture to listen 2018’s editions and also the new ones, in August and September:

As you probably know, with Juan Antonio I make the radio show Mundofonías, our own production, broadcasted in 17 countries in 46 radio stations.

MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA CONCERT CALENDAR

Very brieftly: our concerts calendar is here at our website and also at our Facebook events. And, apart of Rodopi Ensemble’s, I want to highlight the debut of a Polish band in Spain. It will be on 23rd of August and they are WoWaKin Trio, known for many of our community as they performed in WOMEX Katowice 2017.

Do you like our newsletter? Tell us! To sign up, click HERE.

This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.

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. 

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.
Do you like our newsletter? To sign up, click HERE.

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.