{"id":3974,"date":"2026-06-21T14:18:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T12:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/?p=3974"},"modified":"2026-06-21T15:04:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T13:04:33","slug":"june-26-in-depth-with-ian-brennan-talk-with-ola-kovalevska-ai-and-music-and-the-usual-sections-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/newsletter\/june-26-in-depth-with-ian-brennan-talk-with-ola-kovalevska-ai-and-music-and-the-usual-sections-96\/","title":{"rendered":"June \u201926 \u2014 In depth with Ian Brennan, talk with Ola Kovalevska, AI and music and the usual sections (#96)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month\ud83d\udc47<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u27a1\ufe0f<\/span><\/span>Editorial
\n\ud83d\udd38Music Used to Train AI, After Ruth Koleva\u2019s Claim
\n\ud83d\udd38Mapamundi M\u00fasica sync catalogue<\/p>\n

\u27a1\ufe0f<\/span><\/span>In Depth with Ian Brennan<\/p>\n

\u27a1\ufe0f<\/span><\/span>Talk with Ola Kovalevska – Urban Lys<\/p>\n

\u27a1\ufe0f<\/span><\/span>Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects<\/p>\n

\u27a1\ufe0f <\/span><\/span>Open calls and professional events:
\n\ud83d\udd38Babel Music XP
\n\ud83d\udd38PIN Conference
\n\ud83d\udd38Afro Pepites<\/p>\n

\u27a1\ufe0f<\/span><\/span>Meet me at\u00a0\u2708\ufe0f<\/p>\n

\n

Special format:<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nThis issue is closer to a magazine than to a standard newsletter. So… <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

download the PDF version here.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\u27a1\ufe0f This is the link for subscription<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Hello, <\/strong>how are you?\u00a0<\/strong>I hope you’re doing well.\u00a0This month I managed to finish the newsletter earlier than the previous month, even though it is one of the longest ones. I have two extremely interesting interviews, so once again I am giving voice to other professionals. My proposal remains open: anyone who has something interesting to share, taking into account the profile of the community I address, is welcome to contact me and we can talk about it. Remember: if your work is artistic, visit\u00a0www.mundofonias.com<\/a>. If you produce records, visit\u00a0www.transglobalwmc.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The image accompanying these words today was taken at Ethno Port in Pozna\u0144, Poland, with three members of Vig\u00fcela and our guide at the festival, Zuzanna, a very young and highly competent professional who helped make our presence there very smooth. Vig\u00fcela took part in the opening press conference, a concert, a workshop and a podcast in which I had the pleasure of contributing some ideas in response to the very interesting questions asked by\u00a0\u0141ukasz Smoluch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This was my fifth time at this festival, and I can only reaffirm that it is a very enjoyable event, with an excellent programme in terms of both quality and variety. The band had an amazing time too.<\/p>\n

I wanted to highlight two topics here.<\/p>\n

1\ufe0f\u20e3\u00a0<\/strong>Music Used to Train AI, After Ruth Koleva\u2019s Claim<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yesterday, when I woke up,\u00a0this video by Ruth Koleva<\/a>\u00a0appeared on my Instagram:<\/p>\n

She explains that she has found out that 79 of her songs and one video have, in her words, been used illegally to train AI models. After seeing this, I checked and found that two videos from my own YouTube channel were also being used.<\/p>\n

Ruth is calling for regulation from the European Union. She says that she has spent hundreds of thousands of euros and devoted her physical and mental health to these productions, only for it now to be used by people who know nothing about music and have invested nothing, so that they can make music simply by writing a prompt.<\/p>\n

I fully sympathise with Ruth, who is absolutely right. Where is all this heading? Honestly, I do not know. I think we are going to face many more conversations about this.<\/p>\n

2\ufe0f\u20e3\u00a0Mapamundi M\u00fasica sync catalogue\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This week I have been taking part as a student in a training programme organised by UFI, with professionals from record labels. Not specifically world music labels, but independent labels and professionals working in related areas.\u00a0It has been very interesting, and\u00a0I came away with one clear conclusion: making money from recorded music today is very difficult.\u00a0Well, that could probably be said of almost any area of music, hehe.<\/p>\n

The point is that, of all these areas, the one where I think I can bring the most distinctive value is sync. I have prepared a catalogue specifically for that purpose, which I will continue to expand soon. You can find it\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Remember: if you have any news of interest for our community, let me know. Thank you very much for your attention.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi M\u00fasica\u00a0|\u00a0+34 676\u00a030 28 82\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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IN DEPTH WITH IAN BRENNAN<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n
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Ian himself includes this quote in the bio on his website:\u00a0\u201cHow can it be just that tens of thousands of \u2018artists\u2019 from cities like Los Angeles and London are given platforms, but entire countries are left voiceless globally? This mathematical absurdity of superiorness only mirrors society’s greater inequities.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0I am not sure whether he means this mainly as a mathematical absurdity, as a reflection of economic hierarchy or simply as Ian\u2019s own irony, but in any case, he is one of the people who is actually doing something about it.\u00a0This quote illustrates well what we will develop in the interview, which ranges from why he does what he does to how the current technological situation perpetuates these inequities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many readers of this newsletter may already know Ian\u2019s work in music. However, there is another part of his life which, at least for me, was unknown, and which might seem parallel, but which in many ways may reflect a humanistic view of the human being that is entirely coherent across both activities. On the website\u00a0ViolencePrevention.us<\/a>, there is a brief CV of Ian which explains: \u201cFor over thirty years\u2014 since 1993\u2014 Ian Brennan has successfully trained over one-hundred thousand people across the country (as well as Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East) in violence prevention, anger-management, and conflict resolution at shelters, schools, hospitals, clinics, jails, and drug-treatment programs\u2026<\/em>\u201d. It is important to know this side of Ian in order to understand his approach to the musical part of his work. This idea is developed further in the interview.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This portrait is by Marilena Delli Umuhoza. More about her below the picture.<\/strong><\/span>
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I also did not want to leave Marilena Delli Umuhoza out of this introduction. She is an Italian-Rwandan photographer, filmmaker and author, Ian\u2019s partner, and I wonder to what extent Ian\u2019s path would have been different without her. She is in charge of the photographs and works side by side with Ian on the productions. Visit\u00a0her website<\/a>\u00a0for more information about her.<\/span><\/span><\/span>You may also be interested\u00a0in this article<\/a>, which includes statements from both of them, in the context of the musical history of Mississippi\u2019s Parchman Farm prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout this\u00a0interview, I will include some music videos that you can listen to as you read. If you want to know more about Ian, visit\u00a0his website<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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While reading the first part of the interview, you may want to listen to\u00a0Sometimes It Just Takes That Long: 1987\u20132015<\/em>, a career-spanning compilation of Ian Brennan\u2019s own recordings. It is interesting as a piece of context: Ian himself has spoken critically about those early recordings, and that self-awareness helps frame the way he now approaches other people\u2019s music, voices and stories.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Araceli Tzigane: Regarding the relevance of music and art in general to bring comfort to the world, on your website I read: \u201cMusic and other forms of art are by far the most effective kind of social-work that exists. A single, nameless one-hit wonder brings more comfort to the world than almost any single psychologist can hope to in a lifetime.\u201d Can you tell me about a work of art that has had that kind of impact on you personally?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ian Brennan<\/strong>: Yeah, I think there are many. But certainly, growing up art was very important to my well-being, you know, to my survival, I would say. I think that art, especially music, because of the fact that it involves the voice and voice is such a personal instrument that\u2026 Music was a true lifeline for me. And most people, I think, in modern life, potentially get more intimacy from an artist they\u2019ve never met than from people they are acquainted with, and even, sadly in some cases, than from people who are family or with whom they have close relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for me, aside from just so many songs and people, Bruce Springsteen was very important to me as a child, simply because he wrote stories. Not always, but at his best, he would write stories in the music. And so bringing real storytelling together with music that was, in many cases, heartfelt was important to me, you know, in terms of just understanding the world and what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n

AT: Do you sing yourself or have you ever sung or have a band or something?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IB:\u00a0<\/strong>Yeah, that was the goal. The goal for me was to never have to do anything else. I was very obsessed to an unhealthy degree with practicing. So that when I became legal age and had to find a way to survive coming from a working-class background, I felt like I would have failed if I ever did anything other than music. But in fact, my life has been entirely that, you know, that I’ve had to find ways to make money aside from music. The goal was to be an artist and to have success. I didn’t want fame, but I wanted to have a platform and to make money. I had no material goals. I still don’t have, really. But my goal was to get to a point where I could then use that platform to help other people.<\/span><\/p>\n

So when that failed to happen, and I put out a bunch of records, I think 10 records that I put out, and they were horrible records, most of them. But that’s kind of how I learned to be a producer, it was by making bad records and being my own worst enemy because they could have been a lot better if I’d gotten out of my own way and been less fearful and less controlling. And so when none of that happened at a certain point, I just decided, well, I’ll just skip ahead and do the things that I wanted to do, on a smaller scale, the things that I hope to do if I had more success.<\/p>\n

So, organizing benefit shows to raise money for charities, you know, but instead of raising hopefully a lot of money, I’d thought, by playing a big concert, I’d be able to raise a thousand or $5,000 for something.<\/p>\n

And similarly, now, producing and trying to provide platforms for people in whatever way we can, but it’s always a bit painful because, obviously if things had gone the way I’d hoped, we’d have a lot better ability to bring these voices to more people. But whatever we can do, we’re going to do. But it all comes from being a writer and being a songwriter and that base is very important to the records, in terms of understanding musicians, but also what works and what doesn’t work and what they’re doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Ghosts of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, Himba Hymn<\/em> is Ian Brennan\u2019s most recent album, and it is truly a very particular work. Some pieces are almost eerie, with voices and textures that seem to come from a place outside the usual logic of songs, arrangements or polished production.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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AT: So you don’t come from a privileged class. You say you come from a working-class family, also like me. So how do you finance these projects? Because you say you are not getting money from these kinds of things. For instance, this \u201cGhosts of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, Himba Hymn\u201d, so far I understand there are 500 vinyl copies to be sold. The rest is only digital. So the rest of income will be streaming and digital sales. Maybe you will get some money from synchronization but you never know about this, if this may happen or not. So I think you won’t even recover the cost of this production. How do you manage to make this?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IB:\u00a0<\/strong>These are money-losing labors of love. I mean, they’re self-financed always and I admire people that have the patience to get grants and to do the paperwork, but that’s very antithetical to my goals and what I want to do with my time. Doing paperwork and bureaucracy gives me a headache. I’ve had to do a lot of it now helping people come to the UK and to Australia and sometimes Europe or America. So, I’ve gotten better at it, meaning my patience level is greater. Before, I just couldn’t do it almost. So I admire people that can do that. I struggle with it sometimes because I see people sometimes that get a lot of money for things that I don’t think are that valuable. And that’s very frustrating when I see people we work with struggling to feed their families and struggling to be able to send their kids to school and things like this. So, we self-finance them. They don’t make money usually at all. I mean, not only do they not recoup, they usually don’t make any real money, with rare exceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n

So we’ve been lucky to continue, but we always say we don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to do this. Every year it’s kind of like, well, let’s see. Can we keep going? We have many records now. Ever since around COVID time, we started really trying to get ahead of ourselves, so to speak. And so, we have a backlog of records. But as far as new records, it’s always each year like, well, I don’t know if we can keep doing this. It’s expensive, but I feel like it’s worthwhile.<\/p>\n

But we’ve been able to do that in two ways, because I teach violence prevention and I can make fairly good money with that. So that income goes towards this and, you know, a lot of that income also goes towards paying rent and surviving in a very expensive world. We don’t have a car, we don’t own a house. We rent. That sort of thing. But we put the money towards that.<\/p>\n

And I also have worked with a comedian in America since 2001 and that was something that I started doing for charity, meaning I organized a charitable event and he did it. But then he wanted to continue and so I realized, well, okay, maybe I should do this for profit. And it became just kind of an extra thing. It wasn’t the core but it’s become a very significant part of the income and that helps as well. But he’s 80 years old so this will not go on forever.<\/p>\n

So I don’t know what the future holds. But we’ll keep doing it for as long as we can in whatever form we can. We certainly are committed to maintaining relationships with everybody we’ve worked with whenever possible. And that’s almost all of them in some form. We still have contact, whether once a year or whatever but, you know, we still have some thread. Usually these are collective projects so it’s maybe one person out of the collective, the person who might speak English or the person who has internet access at all, or more easily. With The Good Ones we’ve been working with since 2009 and the Malawi Mouse Boys who we’ve been working with since 2011, I think it is. It’s ongoing and we do what we can to try to help them even though there’s no income from the records. You know, we did five albums with The Good Ones and we did four albums with Malawi Mouse Boys and the last album was in 2018. And the label that the first three of their albums were on isn’t in business anymore even. So, there’s, literally I mean, not even a penny of income. But we’re committed to doing what we can to try to continue to help and also, hoping that maybe there’ll be opportunities for them to perform again. And that’s where they can make some money, where they can maybe come and make a few thousand dollars, which has a lot of utility in their case. It can last years if they’re careful with managing money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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You can also listen to The Good Ones\u2019 album Rwanda, You Should Be Loved<\/em>, a powerful example of the kind of work discussed in this interview.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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AT: There are so many steps that have to be taken for them finally to be able to go abroad, perform a concert and earn some money. You need to be really resilient, because you have to deal with their visas, maybe visas for some of the places where you go too, you have to buy the flights, handle all the production, so it\u2019s really a huge amount of work. I will go to a question I have for later but I think this is the moment. Sometimes I would like to ask the world music industry to do more of this kind of thing, but you know perfectly well how much this costs, and how much personal devotion it takes to make it happen. I also feel like this: sometimes I do things that don\u2019t bring me any money, and I put a lot of work into them. I can\u2019t really ask other institutions, companies or people like me to make this investment, because they are businesses. Some years ago, I thought everybody involved in this industry had some kind of ethical and philosophical approach to this kind of music. But I realized: no.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But do you think that the world music industry is not really contributing to the democratization that you pursue in the music? Because I feel that in most of the festivals and showcases I see highly polished productions and safe choices. If you agree with this, what would you ask to the world music sector to change or to reflect on? What would you change in the way it operates to increase the democratization you are searching for?<\/p>\n

IB:\u00a0<\/strong>Well, I think I’m not against anything. I believe in freedom and so I’m not judging anyone else. I\u2019m speaking pragmatically, I try to be a pragmatist. I understand that, when people are doing it for profit, it’s difficult. In any instance, with any kind of music and even more with music that’s in languages that don’t have many speakers like English does and Spanish does and Hindi, Mandarin or Cantonese.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I understand the challenges and I think it’s just a different set of objectives. And I think a lot of people do probably go in with more of an idealistic vision, but then, they’re dealing in the nuts and bolts of what can work and not work. So, in general, I don’t like genres. So, I don’t really like world music. I don’t like bluegrass. I don’t like any genre really. I like artists within genres. And I think most of the music I like shares a certain honesty. So even though, superficially, on the surface, they may seem different, to me they’re not. Chavela Vargas and anyone else that I listen to, Nick Drake, the early Sex Pistols, to me, they’re all the same in a sense. As a genre, I don’t like most of that slick, polished stuff, but I understand that other people do.<\/p>\n

So, when we go to record, which we’re going to record twice this summer, a lot of times there are people that I realize, \u201cWow, this is something that probably more people would like, but it’s not something that I believe in and that I want to support\u201d. It’s just a different aesthetic essentially. But it is certainly easier, understandably, bureaucratically, just convenience, economically, to have people that are not really from a place, so to speak, that they’re from the diaspora or they’re second or third generation. I think all those things are great. I’m not against any of that. It’s just it shouldn’t be confused with somebody who’s actually from a village in Malawi. That should not be confused with someone who was born to a Malawian parent or parents in Toronto. These are two very different things.<\/p>\n

And what happens a lot with global festivals is you’re getting people that live in Europe. You’re getting people that live in America. You’re getting people that have power passports where they don’t need the visas or they can get the visas. But it’s nearly impossible for some people to get visas. And almost every artist we work with, when we’ve applied for them, even with WOMAD, because WOMAD is really the basis of all this for us, they almost every single one of them, I think except in one case, have been turned down and so we have to then reapply, it can’t be appealed, and you have to do it within 90 days. So you can’t do it in advance so that you got time and then so it’s really dependent on how soon they come to a decision to say no. And the \u201cno\u201d has oftentimes been entirely incorrect. One time they rejected the visa for, I think, Khmer Rouge Survivors. They rejected the visas because they said they weren’t listed on the WOMAD lineup, but they were, but there was nothing we could do. We had to start all over again.<\/p>\n

It’s very, very, very challenging, very, very expensive. And what a lot of people I think don’t realize is that it’s even more difficult than they might imagine. So, in the case of Comoros, in the case of South Sudan, a lot of the really small, more isolated nations, meaning globally isolated politically, to get a visa you have to go to another country. So just to go and try to get a visa, they’ve got to go to another nation. And a lot of times these are artists that have never been outside of their nation, and they’ve got to go to another nation just to apply. And then they get rejected. It costs huge amounts of money. There is huge risk.<\/p>\n

With the Acholi Machon, who we produced two records for, and they ultimately were able to come to WOMAD in 2015, they had to go to Kenya and they lived near the border of Kenya. South Sudan is large but they live near the border but they’d never been into Kenya. Going there was very dangerous for them. They were extorted for large sums of money by border authorities. Then they got to Nairobi and got completely ripped off by the guesthouse they stayed at. They were charged European prices for really horrible conditions, paying hundreds of dollars for a place that was actually pretty awful. So it was dangerous for them physically and financially.<\/p>\n

It’s just I think understandably hard for most people that live in Europe or Japan or in the United States or Canada and a few other nations to understand that you can’t just book a flight. It would be so nice, it would be so great if somebody said \u201cyeah, we want to have this artist come\u201d and all we had to do was make the arrangements but it’s not that, you know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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In the interview, Ian speaks about countries that many people could not even place on a map, and recordings such as For Those Left Behind<\/em> by Famo Mountain, from Lesotho (in the video), or Afar Ways<\/em> by Yanna Momina, from Djibouti, bring that idea into sound.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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AT: At least it’s good that these kinds of reflections are said openly for the people working in this because, as you said, we can’t request people to do these kinds of things, they have their own personal struggles for their survival. Indeed, this is a, let’s say, economically a very weak \u201cindustry\u201d, with very small companies. But I think we have to keep this situation in mind.
\nSo how do you choose the topic for an album? What is the process behind it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IB:<\/strong>\u00a0We always have a lot of things going on, ideas in the background, and sometimes they come together very quickly. In a sense, fate plays a role, where it’s like, \u201cokay, this is something that’s easier to do on practical levels\u201d, you know. Maybe getting there is easier, maybe it’s cheaper, maybe\u2026 all of the above. So we have all these ideas that we brainstormed and that we work on. But usually it takes years. You have the idea and then there are obviously things that can interfere, COVID interfered, death and illness of musicians have interfered before, sadly. But eventually then it comes to be realized. And then when we go, in almost all the cases, we don’t know what we’re going to find or what’s going to be there. So, there’s no guarantee. And then the story kind of emerges on its own, based on what we experience and what we find. But we’re interested in mostly trying to go to populations that are underrepresented or, it could be argued, not represented at all in international media.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, in other words, there is, you know\u2026 Mali has great music and is, understandably, hugely represented compared to other nations where there’s not been a single artist in the media. So, the stories often just start with that, with the fact that so many of these nations are nations that people don’t have any real familiarity with, if they even know that they exist. You know, Trump mispronounced the name of Namibia. With Lesotho, where we did a record, he disparaged the country and said that it’s a place no one’s ever heard about, no one cares about. So, it’s quite literal in that sense. Many people we talk to will say, \u201cWhat is that?\u201d \u00a0When you name a country, they’ll say, “What is Djibouti?” We did a record from there. A lot of people weren’t aware. With the Oman record that’s coming out, most people might or might not know Oman. They might have a vague idea. They probably know it’s in the Middle East. But they certainly have never heard music from there.<\/p>\n

These are massive omissions when you consider what digital music has done, digital distribution. Prior to digital distribution, there wasn’t really that much music out there in the world. I mean, there was still a lot, more than people could really listen to or buy on record, but it was finite, for sure. But now, with over 100,000 songs uploaded a day, even if it’s out there, even if someone who lives in a capital city rather than a rural area has an internet connection and a laptop, they can produce music and upload something to Spotify. Twenty percent of the things on Spotify aren’t listened to by anybody, ever.<\/p>\n

It’s a start but it’s an illusion largely. There is music from \u201cplace X\u201d on the internet. But it’s not really being heard and not really given a fair chance. It’s hugely imbalanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Later in the interview, Ian speaks about the Zomba Prison Project, recorded inside Malawi\u2019s maximum-security Zomba Prison. Their first album, I Have No Everything Here,<\/em> brought the project international attention and was even featured on the front page of The New York Times.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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AT: Related to this in your book \u201cField recording and the battle for democracy in the arts\u201d, you argue that recording people outside the music industry is a way of democratizing who has the right to be heard. But once these recordings have been made and are available to anyone with internet access \u2014 as you are saying, they are out there \u2014 is that enough? Because if this is the work of democratization, doesn\u2019t it also require actively increasing the visibility of those recordings and of the people behind them? Democratization also needs one more step, not just recording.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IB:\u00a0<\/strong>Oh, yeah. I think that, again, now with the technologies\u2026 Technologies are good and bad. So, with digital technologies, essentially everybody now is a photographer, everyone has a camera and they can create an image that looks good. But it’s an illusion because actually the photos on cameras are absent a lot of the material, just like the digital music is absent a lot of the frequencies. But they can do that. So the danger is that it just increases this volume of information that people are competing against. I really strongly feel, you know, when people want to go and film or want to go and record something, it’s like, \u201cplease don’t, don’t do this unless you really are committed to trying to support it\u201d. Just don’t throw it up online. And even if it gets lots of views, it doesn’t have any real substance, it’s just something that people look at on the train on their phone while they’re scrolling for 5 seconds. And I think that\u2019s not what’s needed. I think what’s needed is a deeper attention for everyone for their own well-being, to attend to the music for a period of time, to listen to it truly with attention. And that’s the beauty of a live concert, historically at least, especially a seated live concert: for 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, whatever, people are giving their attention. And that’s rare nowadays. It’s almost impossible for most people to do that. They’re used to being able to stop and to pause and to rewind and to not have to do things at a scheduled time and all of that.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, we are very committed to trying to support these artists as best we can, meaning to try to find promotion for them and to try to spread the word. And it’s gotten harder. It has not gotten easier. It was never easy, but it’s become much much much more difficult. And it was becoming more difficult prior to COVID. And then during COVID there was kind of an openness where people really, I think genuinely, were more in touch with their fellow man and were more interested in balance and equality. So there was this window where suddenly a lot of opportunities happened that never would have happened at any other time. But following COVID it’s really been worse than ever and a lot of it is because of what’s happening again with the technologies, with the closing of magazine after magazine after magazine and reductions in staff and the newer generation who have been raised in this idea of views dictating content and so. If that’s what you’re chasing, then what you are going to focus on is celebrity. Now it’s not only that they’re not covering what’s really out there or a diverse range of what’s out there. It’s they’re repetitively covering certain people because they know, if I post a story about Taylor Swift, it’s going to get a lot of views. And if I mention this person who’s the daughter or son of so-and-so, it will get attention.<\/p>\n

So it’s very lazy ultimately but it’s driven by this system. The system itself has become very flawed because previously if you were writing for the New York Times you didn’t know how many people read your article and your bosses didn’t care how many people read your article. You were entrusted because of your skill and your experience to write in an ethical way and to present information that is valuable and they knew, \u201cokay, 100,000 people buy this paper every day\u201d, but you know, they don’t know who reads what and certainly they know less people read what’s 20 pages into the paper than what was on the front page. But nobody thought if you write about the Velvet Underground that you’ve got to get a certain number of readers. It’s just that a writer would choose to write about the Velvet Underground because they knew this is an important record even though it only sold a few thousand copies when it was released. So that’s kind of the crisis and the conundrum now: getting support for artists has never been harder than it is right now.<\/p>\n

AT: About The Zomba Prison Project and \u201cI Have No Everything Here\u201d, the project was featured on the front page of The New York Times.\u00a0It sometimes seems that non-mainstream music is not enough by itself to attract the attention of major media. The story is what sells sometimes, not the music itself. The storytelling seems to be more important than the music.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IB:\u00a0<\/strong>I think also, as I was saying that I really think people shouldn’t go out and record unless they’re really committed to it. It shouldn’t be something casual. And I abhor this idea of looking at people as content, because it objectifies your fellow man. It’s great if there’s a story but I don’t think a story should be generated. I think the music ultimately has to stand on its own. The thing with the Zomba Prison Project was that the music did stand on its own, meaning there are some very strong songs on that album, melodies, craft. That’s always been a factor for me. And going back to what you asked earlier about world music. I think that’s what’s absent from so much world music is that it’s more based on mood and feel, you know, kind of, sometimes, party music. All that’s great. It works very well in a live environment. You know, let’s say, the old cliche that dance bands don’t make good albums usually, and that’s usually true. Yet you could go see that band live and it could be one of the best concerts you ever saw. It’s hard to capture that on a record. So, my focus has always been on songs, songs, songs, songs, like people that really can write strong songs and most of these albums feature some if not many of those, from individuals.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Zomba Prison, there were two albums, and on each of them there were a few really stunning songs. I once spoke with a famous figure in world music about Zomba Prison, and they were very dismissive of them, very disparaging. I bit my tongue, I held my tongue, but I remember thinking: this person has never written a song as strong as some of those songs, and never will. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re capable of it, spiritually capable.<\/p>\n

So I think, yes, the story is important but the music has to be there too. The ideal is that you have both but the music has to stand on its own. For me, the hope is always \u2014 the vision is always \u2014 that somebody hears it, whether it\u2019s now or in 10 or 20 years. They overhear it in a caf\u00e9, or in a bookstore, or, let\u2019s say, on the radio, or in a record store, and it impacts them. And they don\u2019t know what it is, and maybe they\u2019ll never find out what it is. They\u2019ll never know what language it was in, who sang it, what country it was from. They won\u2019t know any of that stuff, or when it was recorded. But I still think it has value.
\nI think some of the most valuable moments are the ones that are accidental, not created by an algorithm and not something that somebody feels like they have to listen to be cool, but just something that impacts them. And I think we’ve all had those experiences, where you hear something and it strikes you and you’ll probably never know what it was.<\/p>\n

AT: Now we have Shazam, hehe.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IB:\u00a0<\/strong>Yeah, hehe, you can try, but sometimes, you know, you\u2019re not in a position to find out, and then you just have to try to piece it together. But sometimes you never can piece together what it was.<\/span><\/p>\n

AT: Yes. Exactly. And regular radio, FM radio is almost disappearing. It was a way for people to discover things they were not searching for, or being guided towards. And now everything is online and on demand. So yes, we are losing many opportunities for these situations to happen. And it\u2019s really sad. But what I mean is that sometimes you need to find a way to make the storytelling interesting enough for journalists, because it feels almost more important than the music itself. I feel that, and I feel like you: music itself should be enough. For me, music is an aesthetic experience. It\u2019s like a message. Sometimes you don\u2019t understand what the message is, but you feel there is something there. So I totally agree with you but I feel I have to shape everything with some story, background, history\u2026 whatever else, to bring attention to the music.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IB:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. Yeah. It\u2019s frustrating, but that is something that increasingly is shared by even commercial products and commercial artists and movie stars and all these young pop stars now. They never, ever, ever \u2014 I mean, I saw this beginning to happen in the 90s and then escalating more and more \u2014 they never come out and are just like, \u201cOh yeah, I\u2019m normal.\u201d They never\u2026 They\u2019ve always got this trauma and this and that, and, you know, it\u2019s just so clear in many of their cases that this is all manipulation.
\nYou know, it\u2019s meaning that these are commercial products, part of a corporate system, and there\u2019s been a bunch of people gathered in a room who are like, \u201cOkay, how are we going to spin this?\u201d Basically, we need to come up with something. You\u2019ve got to claim some identity thing that makes you different. And you can see that they\u2019re just grasping at straws. It\u2019s not genuine.
\nIt\u2019s very different than before, where maybe the story really came from a place where it was formative for somebody, as opposed to somebody reaching and trying to create a narrative that doesn\u2019t really exist.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This playlist comes from Stop the Violence (Put Those Guns Down)<\/em>, a recording that expands the idea of a music album beyond songs: here, voices, spoken word and lived experience become sound, giving space to people who are too often heard only through the frame of violence, survival or victimhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

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AT: Yes. And in courses or talks for artists, this is always present. You have to find how to identify and define yourself as something different: what makes you particular, what makes you different from other people, and so on\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I have another question that I’m very curious about. In the album \u201cStop the Violence (Put Those Guns Down)\u201d, some of the participants are not artists, and some of the tracks are spoken-word rather than songs. Why do you use the format of a music release to address an issue like this? But now, after this conversation, I understand that you are not really trying to address the topic itself. You are searching for the sounds behind it, and for the sounds that these people \u2014 who are often not heard, or are heard only through the lens of being survivors, people who could have been victims and survived \u2014 are producing in the world. Sometimes it is not music; sometimes it is spoken word. Is that right?<\/p>\n

IB:\u00a0<\/strong>It is right. This is the ability I have, to try to raise awareness or provide outlets or platforms for people\u2019s recordings. We’ve got a lot of stuff we’ve not released. A lot of stuff, because we don’t believe in it. And sometimes, again, that’s the stuff that maybe would sell, like stuff that would be more slick or mainstream. But a lot of the favorite projects that we’ve done are with non-musicians, meaning people that have never sung publicly before, people that have never written songs before, maybe never written poetry before, all of the above. And you never know in those situations what’s going to happen. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but oftentimes it works incredibly well.
\nYou know, if nothing else, the impact \u2014 the vocal impact \u2014 can be very strong. Sometimes there\u2019s no affectation. And I did a talk for some neuroscientists a few years ago, and they told me that \u2014 because I was talking about liking to work with amateur musicians, but also liking to work with virtuosos, like Ustad Saami. I mean, I love working with master musicians as well. We\u2019ve worked with a lot of master musicians from Vietnam, and some in Cambodia and with Ustad Saami, and others. That\u2019s great also. But they said that, neurologically, when somebody is a novice and when somebody is an expert, their brain activity is nearly identical when they\u2019re creating. It\u2019s in between the novice and the expert that things kind of shut down and become less balanced and less integrated.
\nWhat\u2019s similar about the novice and the master is that instead of using just, you know, certain concentrated parts of their brain, they\u2019re using all of their brain. There\u2019s all this interconnectivity and this freedom, essentially.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so, you know, a lot of those projects we\u2019ve done \u2014 with the Chicago gunfire survivors, with the War Women of Kosovo, with the women in the witch camps in Ghana, with a lot of the people at Zomba Prison as well, a lot of the people who were involved, and with many of the people in the Taa community, where we did a record in Botswana \u2014 I think those are some of the most amazing and strong recordings we\u2019ve ever done. Because, for me, I try not to be judgmental. It\u2019s not whether I like it or don\u2019t like it. It\u2019s whether it sounds like something I\u2019ve never heard before.<\/p>\n

And number one, if you do it in languages that are not represented, there\u2019s musicality within language, you know. And so I think it\u2019s already a given that there are going to be elements there that are very different than people singing English over and over and over and over and over again, and even the same English words, and rhyming them the same, and all that stuff.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s already this musicality. But additionally, because the people are coming from a very clean place \u2014 meaning they\u2019re starting from what they feel in the moment, and they\u2019re not up in their heads, and they\u2019re really guided by intuition and impulse \u2014 some incredibly unique sounds are oftentimes created.<\/p>\n

And so the record you\u2019re talking about, the Chicago Gunfire Survivors, that one\u2026 Tanzania Albinism Collective is another one, with people who had not sung before or played before. Some of the vocals on there are as touching and as emotionally wrenching as I think is possible in a recorded environment. I mean, there are exact moments. There\u2019s a moment, 58 seconds into a song, where Amadu from the Tanzania Albinism Collective \u2014 who was one of the four people who were able to come to WOMAD; there were almost 20 people involved in the actual recording, but four of them came to WOMAD \u2014 there\u2019s a moment 58 seconds into a song where you can hear him get in touch with his anger for the first time, towards all the abuse that he\u2019d suffered and the danger.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s just such an incredible moment, so courageous, and something that I think it would be impossible not to be touched by if you\u2019re listening to it, if you\u2019re paying attention to it.<\/p>\n

So, yeah, I actually, in general, prefer working with people who are not \u201cmusicians,\u201d quote-unquote, because they tend to have a lot of judgment, a lot of baggage, and they usually aren\u2019t very free. And also, they tend to be very insecure.
\nThe masters are not insecure, you know, so they\u2019re very free. But it\u2019s the in-between. So, on a lot of these projects, there\u2019s usually one musician \u2014 like the person who already knows how to play guitar, or another instrument, or has performed \u2014 and we always record them. But oftentimes they\u2019re not on the record, because they\u2019re usually just not that compelling. You know, they\u2019re fine, they\u2019re not bad. But I think mediocrity is really the ultimate enemy to art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This next playlist comes from Afar Ways<\/em> by Yanna Momina, the Djiboutian singer from the Afar people whose voice Ian Brennan helped bring to a wider audience, and whose music gives sound to one of those places that too often remain almost invisible on the global musical map.<\/span><\/p>\n

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AT: So when you go to some group of people like this, they are aware that you are going to record. Can they prepare themselves? Do you give them some time to think what they are going to record or to say or is it more immediate?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IB:\u00a0<\/strong>It depends. Every situation is a little different. If we\u2019re fortunate, we have time to prepare in advance. We\u2019ve got somebody that we can talk to in the community and so on. With the Tanzania Albinism Collective, we were working with Standing Voice, which is a great organization from the UK that helps the community. They were able to prepare people, and to go to the community first and foremost and say, \u201cWho wants to do this?\u201d So not everybody did, obviously. There was a core group of people who were interested.\u00a0And then I sent them music in advance and said, \u201cHere\u2019s stuff to listen to. Weird stuff from all over the world. Just check this out and see what you think of any of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But the basic instruction is: write about whatever you want to write about. You don\u2019t have to sing. You can talk, you can do poetry, you can do rap. It doesn\u2019t have to be a song. Meaning, there\u2019s no pressure. It can be 20 seconds long, it can be 30 seconds long.
\nI mean, a lot of the stuff we do is very short, and I think a lot of it is better that way, which kind of comes from the punk rock background, where a lot of great hardcore albums from the early 80s are 15, 20 minutes long \u2014 a whole album \u2014 and a lot of the songs are one minute long each.<\/p>\n

Or\u00a0Guided by Voices<\/em>, where the main writer, the only writer essentially, the songs are just the hooks. He plays the hook and it\u2019s over. He doesn\u2019t make it three minutes. It\u2019s usually a minute or two, and yet he\u2019s super prolific. He\u2019s got hook after hook after hook after hook, without belaboring it.<\/p>\n

And so, that\u2019s all. The encouragement is just to try, and that there\u2019s no judgment. And the only direction I ever give people \u2014 and I mean it \u2014 is to play bad. Try to be bad. Don\u2019t try to be good. Just don\u2019t worry about being good or bad. Just play as bad as you possibly can. And that usually frees people up quite a bit.<\/p>\n

AT: Okay. I would like to go back to an idea that we talked about before: that music is being produced daily, and hundreds of thousands of songs are uploaded to Spotify. So I feel that it is very easy for musicians to begin a career now. Let\u2019s say I just record something and put it on the internet. So my career is starting; I\u2019ve taken the first step. But the following steps are more difficult than ever. The same applies to promotion and everything around it. I think this is increasing frustration in the world. Do you agree?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IB:<\/strong>\u00a0Well, yeah. I think in general that I\u2019m not sure people should make a living from music, meaning most artists. I think the best music is music that\u2019s made for its own sake.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what we\u2019ve lost in most places in the world \u2014 not everywhere, but in most places in the world \u2014 is people making music just to make music, to entertain themselves.<\/p>\n

And one of the beautiful things when we were in Djibouti with the late Yanna Momina, who sadly passed away just prior to being scheduled to come to WOMAD, a few months prior, is that it was really important to them. Djibouti is a relatively small nation, but they don\u2019t even come from the capital. They come from quite far away, in the desert, and without electricity \u2014 which a lot of the artists we work with live without, electricity and running water.<\/p>\n

And they wanted us to know: this is what we do. This is what we do at night. This is what we do after dark. This is the way we entertain ourselves.<\/p>\n

And I think that\u2019s been lost to a large degree. And so, you know, the onus that\u2019s been put on artists \u2014 whether it\u2019s authors or musicians or otherwise \u2014 has become, again, the views, the fact that you can see the number of views.\u00a0And with authors, the publisher wants the author to do all the work, and it becomes a chicken-and-egg situation.\u00a0Like, they don’t want to put out a book unless somebody’s got tons of followers already. And something is lost in that, because what gets rewarded is ambition and not talent. And I think so many of the most talented people are introverted, and they\u2019re shy, and maybe insecure, and maybe they\u2019re battling depression, or even psychosis and addiction.<\/p>\n

And so what gets lost, I think, is that it\u2019s not a meritocracy. Somebody could say it is, but it\u2019s this battle of the numbers. And so I think what is lacking for most people \u2014 what I\u2019ve seen over the years, because I\u2019ve been doing this for so long, for so many decades \u2014 is stamina. People don\u2019t have stamina. So I\u2019m always reassured by that. It\u2019s like, somebody comes on strong, and they\u2019re kind of pushy and aggressive, and it\u2019s like: yeah, but they don\u2019t have the stamina for this. They didn\u2019t have the stamina for this in the 80s and 90s, when I started, and they certainly don\u2019t have the stamina for it today.<\/p>\n

But the corporate structures \u2014 because these are products, you know, these people are products \u2014 once they have a product and they have a brand, they\u2019re going to milk it for all it\u2019s worth. Meaning, they already have planned obsolescence. This person is not going to be on top forever, but they know that there\u2019s going to be a second and a third wave where they can make money off this person eventually. But to the artist, it\u2019s very degrading, because their art, or whatever artistry they\u2019re involved in, is not being supported.<\/p>\n

But unfortunately, with the corporations consolidating \u2014 the recording companies shrinking down to fewer and fewer companies, all interrelated \u2014 and also with the agencies and the deregulations, you\u2019ve got agencies owning venues and owning festivals, it\u2019s just a more and more closed system, where the person who owns the festival and owns the venue also basically owns the artist, and is plugging those artists into this system, and not reaching beyond that pool because they don\u2019t really have the patience to do it anyway. It\u2019s coming to them. The competition is so severe that they\u2019re not out searching for talent. They don\u2019t have time to, and they probably don\u2019t even have interest in it, because they\u2019ve got a thousand candidates who are willing to do almost anything for attention.<\/p>\n

I think it doesn\u2019t reward… I think the listeners and the viewers are the ones who ultimately suffer as a result of this, because the content is not going to be as strong. It\u2019s not going to be as diverse and strong.<\/p>\n

AT: You are from the United States and you have been living in Italy for 17 years. So, you know, how things work in the United States and how things work in Europe. You said something before, that you don’t think everybody has to make their living from music. Music can also be played just for fun or for expression. I agree with you. But you see how people in the cultural sector are always calling for more public funding for music. What do you think?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

IB:<\/strong>\u00a0Well, there\u2019s always cause and effect. So, certainly, the investment in the arts is greater in Europe than it is in America. In America, it\u2019s been stripped, you know, forever. It never really was heavily invested in.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was in public school in America, at my high school, which had almost 2,000 people, they cut every single art class except one \u2014 or they had two. They had ceramics and they had art, and they put them at the same time, so you couldn\u2019t take both. You could only take one. They had only one vocal class, and they had only one music class for the whole school. So there\u2019s that cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting, and that lack of investment.<\/p>\n

Now, that same lack of investment, in many ways, was a stimulus to the birth of rap in New York City, because there weren\u2019t instruments like there had been historically in the post-World War II era, where schools would have trumpets around for kids, and saxophones, and maybe a drum kit, and things for them to play and learn.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s largely what rap was born out of: the impulse to make music is still going to be there. And so, again, a lot of the favorite music we\u2019ve done has been with people who build their own instruments, who make instruments out of found objects and recycled things, who use percussion especially, that tends to be found in the environment.<\/p>\n

But ultimately, the pursuit of an external goal is not a good way, to me, to make music in general. I mean, good things can come from it accidentally, so to speak. But whether it\u2019s somebody wanting to be famous, or wanting to make millions of dollars, or whether it\u2019s so many of the people I grew up playing music with, who are still playing music, and they have this idea that they\u2019re going to be like Nick Drake, or they\u2019re going to be like the Modern Lovers, or they\u2019re going to be like Big Star, or they\u2019re going to be like Rodriguez.\u00a0Now they\u2019re thinking posthumously, you know, like: \u201cOkay, when I die\u2026\u201d I mean, they don\u2019t say it out loud, but when they die, somebody\u2019s going to discover them and they\u2019re going to become beloved.\u00a0And it\u2019s like: no, it\u2019s not going to happen. You\u2019re not Nick Drake. You\u2019re not that good. You\u2019re okay. You\u2019re mediocre. And again, it\u2019s that thing of mediocrity.<\/p>\n

So I think just playing music to play music is always going to be the best. And even in recording, so many of the best songs come when somebody\u2019s done recording. Even when we record naturally, outdoors and live, and all that stuff, still, the mi nute you tear down the microphones, somebody starts playing a song, and it\u2019s like: \u201cWhat is that? What? You played 20 songs. What is that song?\u201d
\nAnd that is oftentimes, by far, the strongest song, because they\u2019re free. They\u2019re free at that point.And so, even in that context, it\u2019s hard to get to that point where people are really, truly playing music for relational reasons that are not transactional, or even just for themselves.<\/p>\n

When we discovered The Good Ones, we\u2019d been looking for two weeks in Rwanda for music, and we\u2019d found a lot of music, and a lot of it was fine, but nothing super compelling. And we overheard someone playing music who was not playing it for anybody. He was just practicing.\u00a0And that\u2019s what led us to The Good Ones. We were like: \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve been looking for.\u201d And he said, \u201cWell, if you like this, you\u2019ve got to hear my teacher, who taught me to play music.\u201d And that\u2019s what led us to The Good Ones.\u00a0So, you know, it was not performative at all. I mean, he was embarrassed to be heard. He was hiding, essentially.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Ian!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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At a time when the war in Ukraine continues to shape daily life in ways that many of us outside the country can hardly imagine, it is important not to look away from the resilience of Ukrainian cultural workers: artists, journalists, photographers, producers, festival organisers and all those who keep creating, connecting and working under such difficult circumstances. In this same spirit, Hudaki Village Band, from Transcarpathia, will release a new album in the coming weeks, a reminder that Ukrainian culture is not only surviving, but continuing to speak, move and create.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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TALK WITH OLA KOVALEVSKA<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n
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In previous issues, I mentioned the interview I did with Aly Ke\u00efta for the European Folk Network newsletter. You can find it\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0It was made possible thanks to the coordination of Ola Kovaleska, director of the\u00a0Urban Lys<\/a>\u00a0initiative, music journalist, photographer and producer, originally from Ukraine and based in Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

We have been in touch since then and will soon meet in person at the A to Jazz showcase and festival in Sofia, Bulgaria. I wanted to know more about her, and I think this will be of interest to the readers of this newsletter in general and, given the direction the conversation took, especially to artists.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ola’s portrait is from\u00a0her website<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span>
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While you read you can listen to the album that set the beginning of my contact with Ola: Aly Ke\u00efta Trio’s Balafon Evolution<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
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Araceli Tzigane: I would like you to explain a bit what you mean by Ukrainian-German. How is this? You were born in Ukraine, but you are living in Germany. Why are you living in Germany?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ola Kovalevska:\u00a0<\/strong>Yes. Of course, I\u2019m Ukrainian, 100%. And normally I would not live in Germany if it wasn\u2019t for the war. Unfortunately, it\u2019s the only way I can continue my activities right now.<\/span><\/p>\n

I continue, of course, working with Ukrainian musicians, with Ukrainian venues and festivals. We collaborate, and we bring musicians to Europe from Ukraine, and from Europe to Ukraine. Even now, musicians are coming from Europe to some cities in Ukraine.
\nSo this was completely connected to the full-scale invasion, but also to the fact that the festival where I was working at that moment stopped because of the full-scale invasion. So I lost, how to say, the possibility to survive. And it was not likely that I would find other similar jobs anytime soon in that situation. It was really difficult.<\/p>\n

And at that moment we were also preparing the first official stand of Ukraine at jazzahead!, together with the Ukrainian Institute. So Mariana Bondarenko, who is head of music at the Ukrainian Institute, told me: \u201cI think you should just come to Germany.\u201d And that\u2019s how it happened, actually.<\/p>\n

When I had an offer, I had to decide really quickly. I had one hour to collect everything I could take, and my daughter, and that\u2019s how we got to Germany.<\/p>\n

And on the way, Viktoria Lel\u00e9ka, from the band Lel\u00e9ka \u2014 she is really famous now, I mean, she has won the Ukrainian selection for Eurovision and she will represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest \u2014 helped me. But I have known her since 2018 as the leader of the ethno-jazz band Lel\u00e9ka. She lives in Berlin, and she helped me to find a place to stay. We moved two times, and both times it was musicians who helped us. The first time, we had a very nice, warm welcome at the house of a professor from the Dresden conservatory. He is a jazz vocalist, and now he has a beautiful festival in his house, in a village, on his land, in his yard.<\/p>\n

And another musician, in whose family we lived at first, is also programming a festival in Potsdam, a jazz festival, and he is an amazing musician, a pianist and double bass player.\u00a0So these were our first private connections here. And then we found the possibility to have a separate apartment, and that\u2019s how it started.<\/p>\n

So actually, on one hand, it was a professional decision, and on the other hand it was also because of the war. There were many people helping. But I think I was really privileged to have this kind of help. There are so many unfortunate examples, and very sad stories, of people fleeing from the war and not having this kind of quick help as we had.\u00a0I think in our sphere, in jazz music and in folk music as well, I guess, people who are in culture are more open to help. They are more, how to say, soft-hearted and open-minded. And that\u2019s why it all worked well for me.<\/p>\n

And now my agency is, together with me, based in Germany. I live in Potsdam, but it\u2019s near Berlin, so it\u2019s kind of Berlin-Potsdam. But we have some members of my organization, of my NGO, in Ukraine. One of them is the co-founder of my agency. He is a photographer, videographer and an amazing person, and he serves in the army.<\/p>\n

So, you know, we can speak about music and art, but we can\u2019t forget about the reality in which we live. And this world, unfortunately, is so complicated. It is not only about music, unfortunately, not only about art. But I guess art without dramatic pages of history, without difficulties, would not be art.<\/p>\n

Araceli Tzigane: Yes, when we are working with these kinds of things that somehow concentrate the history of peoples from the world, I think we face all this, because we are not working with aseptic music. We are working with music that comes from all this history. All the fights, all the wars, all the complications, at the end. You know, I work with artists from the Middle East also, so their music is very influenced by all this. So you this was in 2022 when you came to Germany, right?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes. Shortly after the beginning of the war. Around one month, yes. Before that, we also managed to help other people where we were staying in Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n

But at that moment it was clear that, you know, there would be no good solution for me really quickly there. And I also had this presentation to prepare. So I was really doing my best without any budget, because, because of the war, the Ukrainian Institute cancelled all the budgets for this project.<\/p>\n

And we had all kinds of help from the jazzahead! team, and all kinds of support from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute from Poland. And we also contributed pro bono for this kind of proud presentation of Ukraine, because Ukraine needed this very much at that moment.
\nEven at jazzahead!, let\u2019s say, it\u2019s not the United Nations, for example, but even at jazzahead! we wanted to look really proud, really strong, really inspiring for other people, and to look brave. And not to show our fear or, I don\u2019t know, whatever we could really show, because we had the right to show it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

AT: So, Urban Lys is your NGO, or is this different?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:\u00a0<\/strong>Urban Lys\u2026 first it was a cultural initiative, a workshop of creative ideas, Urban Lys. And then I registered it as an NGO. It still exists in Ukraine, it\u2019s registered in Ukraine.\u00a0But during the period of COVID, we had challenges with live events, which we were mostly busy with. We were making different concerts, workshops, painting murals, making some sketches, urban sketching meetings, whatever we could imagine. And also we had a souvenir project, like art souvenirs, made with artists.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was living in the city of Sumy. Sumy is 20 kilometres from Russia. Now it\u2019s really difficult there. At that moment, we were making a lot of stuff. When COVID started, it was difficult to continue, and that\u2019s why we focused on the representation of musicians. We focused on services. We focused on making EPKs for Ukrainian musicians, also together with the Ukrainian Institute.<\/p>\n

Actually, this first EPK case for the export of our Ukrainian jazz musicians was based on my website, because of the limited budgets and all that stuff. And then later we made a catalogue. And that was already more serious, of course.\u00a0So I kind of started going into services because of this situation, and going more into promotion, into marketing, branding and this kind of direction.\u00a0And now, here in Germany, I think I\u2019m having this comeback to the first idea. It\u2019s more like curating a platform, a cultural platform, a hub of different cross-sectoral projects, where, of course, there is a place for musicians, there is a place for some services, but also there is a place \u2014 and this is the most important \u2014 for curating, creating and producing music projects.<\/p>\n

For example now, I mean, it\u2019s not\u2026 We just applied for a grant, so I don\u2019t know if it will happen or not, and I will not name the musicians. But I will say that now we are making a very interesting project with the Ukrainian instrument bandura and the West African kora.<\/p>\n

And that was a very unexpected fact: that their sound is very close in timbre. They look totally different, they are made of different materials, and they even have a different technique, a little bit. But the sound\u2026 When I was listening to kora, I was like:\u00a0\u201cOh my God, this is like bandura. This is exactly like bandura.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>And so that was our idea with Aly Ke\u00efta, really, to make this project with kora and bandura and balafon. And the fourth instrument will be a secret, because I don\u2019t know if we will get this grant, and I don\u2019t want to make a spoiler.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s just an example of what we are developing. And we plan, of course, to make workshops within this residency, and to try to get really important and good partners for this presentation. So we will see what happens. I don\u2019t want to get too far ahead of events, but we are developing.\u00a0And I\u2019m very proud and thankful, grateful, for this possibility to continue my professional activities.<\/p>\n

What I wanted to say is that it\u2019s really a privilege to be supported by the German music export office, Initiative Musik, and to be part of the German delegation to WOMEX two times, two years in a row, and to get financial support for travelling.<\/p>\n

And I hope this year we will also be there at WOMEX. I\u2019m really looking forward to the showcase and conference. And especially I love the conference because of all the printed materials. I love them. I love branding and marketing. This is my passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

Taras Kompanichenko is one of Ukraine\u2019s most respected contemporary kobzars and bandura players. I think this is a good moment to take a little time to listen to one of Ukraine\u2019s most emblematic instruments.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT: Related to that, well, I have many questions. One is about cultural diplomacy, because you mentioned that you work between journalism, artist development and cultural diplomacy.\u00a0So, about artist development, I have been in touch with you mainly because of your work with Aly Ke\u00efta. With him, I understand that you do all these things you were talking about: you make the EPKs, you work with him on communication and all these things. What more do you do for artist development? What kind of activities are included in your work?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:\u00a0<\/strong>Artist development starts from branding. And what is branding? It\u2019s not just a marketing word. It\u2019s finding out, or figuring out, what it is that makes this artist special compared to others.
\nIt can be a very special instrument, it can be a very special stage look, it can be something very special about the music or about the combination of instruments in the band, or it can be a very special way to make something very traditional. I don\u2019t know. It depends on the musician. Of course, every musician has their own vision. I help to find this vision and to figure out what they want from their career, what they expect to have in the future, and help them to get to this point in their career where they will think that they have what they need.<\/span>And of course, we make priorities. For example, with Aly, the main priority, as he told me, was to release this album with Aly Ke\u00efta Trio. And so we are there now. It took me long, of course, because I\u2019m a totally new person in Europe, and it was not easy.\u00a0I\u2019m so happy to have been able to find One World Records and Carolina Vallejo. She\u2019s an amazing producer and publisher, and I can say that she really helped with this release. She gave us her heart, and we really feel it every moment.<\/p>\n

We are dealing with all the processes, with all the support we receive from the distributors, from the label and from the agency we are working with, and again with the support of Initiative Musik, because they also supported this album release.<\/p>\n

So yes, this is one direction. What else can I do? We can also develop projects starting from the idea and finishing with the press. I am this kind of PR person who believes that a true PR event doesn\u2019t need to be paid. You don\u2019t need to pay journalists so that they write about it. True PR is for free, and it should be an honest thing, without any staging. And what else? Of course, it goes down to these smaller parts like photography, videography, websites, EPKs, all kinds of social media presence and copywriting. But all these are much smaller than my expertise. They are more like tools that I use.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what we are helping to make: a strategy, to find out where it is that the artist wants to go, and also to correct a little bit when the artist wants all of it, which is unfortunately not possible to have.
\nSo, yeah, I think it can be quite helpful. I mean, for me personally, I also used services, and I also learned a lot from business schools, from mentors who helped me to develop, and from teachers who were teaching in these different creative business enterprise programmes, for example from House of Europe.
\nSo I think it\u2019s always good to have a second thought from outside. Especially when you are deep into the music, you can\u2019t have any idea how to pack this and how to bring this to the customer. And by customer, I mean the first customer of the musician, which is, of course, the promoter, not even the audience.<\/p>\n

And this is the most difficult thing: how do you get to the promoter? So I\u2019m not really doing too much booking, but I try to help Aly with this. And I see how difficult this is. It is really difficult work, and ungrateful, and very challenging.<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019m talking too long, but I think I have answered the question in general, about what it is that I can do. Yeah. I also try to do booking so much.<\/p>\n

AT: So you have mentioned journalists. How is the situation of journalism for this kind of music nowadays in Germany, compared with some time before? And probably you also have an idea about this not only in Germany, but in Europe in general. How have you seen the development of music journalism for this non-commercial kind of music?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes. It\u2019s a very interesting question for me, because I can start from Ukraine. When I was studying at the Institute of Journalism, at university, there were several music magazines in Ukraine that were writing about this kind of music, and also about jazz music. It was called music that was not written about in other media \u2014 not pop music, not commercial music, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

So, yeah, there were several magazines, but then they disappeared because of economic difficulties, and because they were mostly without any support. And now there are only online media which support themselves with the audience. They sell some subscriptions, and that\u2019s how they survive. But there are only a few of them.<\/p>\n

And the rest of what we get is this general press, general political and social press, where they have a small page for culture. There, we try to get there. And of course there are journalists who see this music, who respect and appreciate this kind of art very much, and they write about these kinds of events. So we get some press from the general media.\u00a0There is also, of course, Radio Kultura in Kyiv, which covers the whole of Ukraine. And now, with the development of the internet and applications, everybody can listen from their own phone. They don\u2019t even need cables anymore. Anyone can listen around the world.\u00a0And Radio Promin, which has such a great history with jazz programmes by Oleksii Kogan, our acknowledged and very famous person in Ukraine. I mean, the most important person for jazz in Ukraine, I would say.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd17\u00a0Radio Kultura –\u00a0<\/span>\u0420\u0430\u0434\u0456\u043e \u041a\u0443\u043b\u044c\u0442\u0443\u0440\u0430 | \u0420\u0430\u0434\u0456\u043e \u041a\u0443\u043b\u044c\u0442\u0443\u0440\u0430<\/a><\/span>
\n\ud83d\udd17\u00a0Radio Promin\u00a0–\u00a0<\/span>\u0420\u0430\u0434\u0456\u043e \u041f\u0440\u043e\u043c\u0456\u043d\u044c | \u0420\u0430\u0434\u0456\u043e \u041f\u0440\u043e\u043c\u0456\u043d\u044c<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And regarding Europe, I have this kind of experience with very interesting journalists who write about music, who write books, who also write for local media, like magazines or local press, and also online media. There are also all kinds of formats, for example your newsletter, or other kinds of newsletters or podcasts, or different formats that are developing right now.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I was a little bit surprised that in the magazines, for example, you can\u2019t get a feature there. Sometimes you don\u2019t even get a review of a fresh release if you don\u2019t pay for it. On one hand, I understand that they have to survive, and this is the only reason they exist until now, because they are paid for what they are writing about. But on the other hand, it means that all kinds of worthy music, without this special payment, stay overlooked. And only big labels, only big names, who have big teams and big commercial support, can be featured in these magazines.<\/p>\n

So, on one hand, I understand this kind of business from a realistic point of view. And on the other hand, from my idealistic point of view, and from the things I learned at university, journalism has to be, how to say, unprejudiced. It has to be free, independent and true, and all kinds of good things and values.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t see this, unfortunately, right now in these beautiful magazines where everybody wants to be printed. So I mean, maybe I\u2019m wrong. I hope that they can prove me wrong, and I will be banned from them forever for my words. I hope it will not happen, of course. But I would like to write about music for these kinds of magazines, and to be able to write about those who don\u2019t pay, because there are so many worthy projects that are surviving, as well as the media, of course, and they just deserve to be known and to be shown. And, yeah, not everything in this world is about money, right?<\/p>\n

AT: Do you think storytelling about artists is more important recently than it was some years ago?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:\u00a0<\/strong>Storytelling\u2026 I guess it\u2019s not only about storytelling. I think it all goes into branding together. Now everybody speaks about storytelling \u2014 maybe even less now, but several years ago there was a huge direction in marketing about storytelling.<\/span><\/p>\n

I guess what we are talking about is more about staying human, and letting other people know about your background, or, I mean, in the frame of music, what we are talking about. So I guess it\u2019s important when there is an interesting background. People should, of course, know it, and you can, how to say, frame your music into it. But sometimes I think storytelling is just making things more complicated. Sometimes it\u2019s just music, and you don\u2019t want to know the stories around this music. You just want to have this music as an artifact, and not to know the musicians personally, or not to know what is behind it. It makes things more grounded and realistic, and sometimes you just want to dream and listen to the music.<\/p>\n

So I guess it depends on the music exactly, which album we are talking about, or which music we are talking about. Some artists really need storytelling.<\/p>\n

AT: Yeah, I asked you this because I have the impression that music itself is not enough for selling. It\u2019s not enough. For me, music is, first of all, an aesthetic experience that can give me some pleasure or can make me dream, as you said. But I feel that\u2019s not enough to sell. That\u2019s why I am asking you if you feel storytelling is more important than before.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:<\/strong>\u00a0I was writing in print magazines years ago, in magazines like the ones in Ukraine that don\u2019t exist anymore now. At that time, I think music itself was enough. If the music was good, if it was beautiful, it was enough. Yes, you could want to know: \u201cOh, where did you come from?\u201d or whatever. But now it is like all the environment around the music, all the background, and all the political, social things around it\u2026 I feel they are sometimes more important than the music itself. Yeah, I also have this impression. You\u2019re right. I guess now we have come to the point where concepts are ruling this world, and concepts, and curating, and the reputation of those people who are curating. And I think it\u2019s not enough just to make a funny album \u2014 I\u2019m saying funny in a good way, because I know that somebody doesn\u2019t like this word \u2014 good music. Yeah, somebody can just record good music.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I mean, I think we were talking also about this on Facebook, somewhere in the comments: that the market is so overloaded with good music, because the entry to the market is so easy now that anyone can record an album sitting at home with a laptop. I mean, a different kind of album, but anyway, many musicians have studios at home now. They can just sit with their guitar, or bandura, or whatever they have, and record. It\u2019s not so expensive right now.<\/p>\n

And then they go to digital platforms and just drop these releases, you know, and that stuff gets lost.\u00a0But also what exists is this marketing about marketing. I don\u2019t know how to express this, but what makes marketing look plastic is this idea that you have to sell everything, and that everything should be over-branded, or I don\u2019t know what else, how to express this.<\/p>\n

There are so many offers, so many releases and so much good music that to stand out from all this amount of music we get\u2026 How many emails do you get every day? I can imagine hundreds of offers for booking: \u201cBook me\u201d or \u201cCan you take us into your booking agency? Can you take us into your roster?\u201d These can be great musicians, but you can\u2019t physically afford to listen to all of this and to get into the details.<\/p>\n

So I guess what we are facing now is that people are trying to use all kinds of marketing things they have ever heard about to stand out, to look different, to be visible, to be seen. And sometimes it gets funny, and sometimes it gets dramatic, and sometimes they just give up.<\/p>\n

But some people succeed, and they learn how to do DIY as artists, how to deal with all kinds of issues, challenges and tasks on the way to being seen. Maybe this is also one of the ways, I mean, to make it yourself, if you have enough time and somebody else is also helping you with other things, like with booking, or\u2026 It depends on people, of course.<\/p>\n

But, yeah, that\u2019s what I learned: music is not enough. Without all kinds of services around it, all kinds of work to promote it, this music will stay even sometimes unreleased. I know several great albums which were recorded and not released due to different situations in musicians\u2019 lives, right? And if they had had this management, this support, this storytelling and this marketing around them, this ecosystem around them, these albums would have been released.<\/p>\n

AT: So do you often receive contacts from artists who want to work with you, or who want you to work for them?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, quite often.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

AT: It happens to me, of course, too. What do you tell them? Imagine it makes sense, imagine it is something good, a good artist. What do you tell them?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:\u00a0<\/strong>Right now I have changed my approach, and I have created packages of services for musicians. I offer them artist development support, or strategic development, as paid services. So they can book me for a year or two, and we will have some kind of strategic sessions. And of course, many things they will have to do themselves, or they will pay extra for these services. This is one way to deal with this.\u00a0Of course, it\u2019s not possible to answer everyone, of course. But there are some people who are more, how to say, in the close circle, and I try to explain that I am one person. Their music is great, and I will help them with what I can do, but I can\u2019t just take them, because then they will expect something from me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, several years ago it was not even possible to take anyone, because I didn\u2019t know too many people. It is now, after I have visited several WOMEX and several jazzahead! editions, that I can say that I know somebody, I can help with something. But without these networks, it\u2019s just not possible to give people hope. Hope for what exactly?<\/p>\n

And then also, not all kinds of music are in my taste. I mean, I am a curating platform, and I would not prefer to have some kinds of music which I don\u2019t think fit my vision. So that\u2019s why, obviously, I tell them that I can\u2019t work with them. I mean, I can give some advice, and I am open to it, but, yeah.<\/p>\n

AT: And do the artists generally understand when you make them a paid offer? I ask you this because the approach, I think it happens probably to you, is that I feel they want you to start working for them, to find them bookings, to find them gigs, and most of the time they are not expecting that you will ask anything from them. I mean, they want you to work for free.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes. Most of the time, yes. This is what I experience. Yes. This is how it is. And even some musicians say: \u201cI don\u2019t need any marketing. I don\u2019t need any promotion. My music is enough. And if the music is cool, somebody will find me anyway.\u201d So I guess this is how I came to this kind of services approach. I started as a music manager when I was 16, very early, and I did all kinds of work. And then, in the end, it was only about gigs for them. And they don\u2019t even imagine how much work has been done to make a website, photo shootings, to write, to make press releases, to imagine something for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

So musicians are developing also, and there are so many different lectures for them, educational programmes for musicians, where specialists explain to them how to make this or that, how to get gigs, how to get to the digital platforms or to the radio, what they want. And they learn, they start to understand how much work stands behind every result, and that nobody is booking them because they are so brilliant. They are booked because there is a very hard job behind it.<\/p>\n

So with booking, of course, I think it\u2019s a very, very ungrateful thing when it stands alone, without any other income for managers. And by managers, I mean promoters of culture. Not promoters who book the venue. I mean promoters who promote music and culture, and who work hard to get this grant, to get this funding, to get this sponsor, to get this label, to get this media. It\u2019s an unfair situation if they are not paid from every concert the musician gets after all this kind of work, for example.<\/p>\n

By the way, I have been to a conference in Berlin,\u00a0Most Wanted: Music<\/em>. It\u2019s more in the pop music direction, but more like general music. And there was some discussion, like one panel \u2014 I don\u2019t remember the name \u2014 but there was a manager from Great Britain, and he was talking about his experience of working with musicians. He told us that he has this contract system where musicians are very emerging, very beginning. He takes them, and he works a lot for them. And he gets paid 50%, or something like that, from each gig they get during this. But his task is not only just to book gigs. He also makes all kinds of promotion activities and organizes everything for them.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd17\u00a0Most Wanted: Music<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

And there is also something I had never heard about. I mean, maybe you know this, and maybe others will say: \u201cAh, nothing new for us.\u201d But for me it was new. We don\u2019t have this in Ukraine. This \u201csunset agreement\u201d \u2014 beautiful, romantic words about a shitty situation in the end, when you say goodbye to your manager because now you are so great, or you find another manager who you think is better, and you leave him in one day. Yesterday you played the gig, and today you tell him: \u201cNow I work with another agency,\u201d or something like that.\u00a0And so for these situations there is a sunset agreement, which regulates that two years after the collaboration stops, the manager still receives a percentage from all your next gigs, because he already invested a lot of time in you, and you are using \u2014 or another agency is using right now \u2014 his results of work.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I guess it\u2019s really fair. And we should make some kind of union of music managers to protect ourselves, you know, like railway station workers, or doctors, teachers. We also have to have this kind of organization, which protects our labour rights and regulates something in this difficult, complicated and so unregulated profession.<\/p>\n

AT: Yes, I was thinking that, of course, I totally agree with this. Sometimes I feel that artists come to me and they feel this is super easy. It\u2019s like I have a magic wand, and I can say: \u201cAh, you go to this festival, you go to this other festival,\u201d something like that. So easy.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And also about what you are saying, for this booking to take place, you have to build trust in yourself first. I mean, sometimes the same artist, with the same dossier, with the same album, will go to a festival and they will not book this artist. And with another person they know and they trust, they will book this artist, of course. So we are in a very little world. Also, people who buy these kinds of acts, they are very expensive. They are thousands of euros. When you book an artist for a festival, it is thousands of euros. So they really need to trust the artist and trust you as the seller. I think to build this takes years. You mentioned before that you came as a new person in Europe. You have to build everything, your reputation also.<\/p>\n

And also, of course, you have to create conversation about the artist. You said there are wonderful albums that are never released. And if they were released, you would need to create all the conversation with journalists, with promoters, with everybody. All this is hidden, unseen work. This is not visible, because at the end, what the artist sees is: \u201cYes, I have a booking, I have so much money from this booking.\u201d But to make this, all those hidden works have to be done.<\/p>\n

OK:\u00a0<\/strong>Yes, you are right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

AT: I like to be very didactic, because I know musicians will read this, and I try to make them understand this. All this is a very, very important part of it. And as you were explaining, with this manager who has this sunset contract\u2026 Sometimes I\u2019ve made investments. I have sent bands to WOMEX, for instance, I have made paper brochures, everything, and they start to get agencies in several regions of Europe. Okay. And then you are restricting the part of Europe where I can work, so then it is not interesting for me at all. So this sunset contract is very reasonable. Thank you for explaining it.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:\u00a0<\/strong>Yeah. Yeah. This really makes things look better for the manager, and protects a little bit. Because I have heard so many stories: a manager or producer gets these musicians from somewhere in Africa, really deep into the tradition, they bring them out to the world, bring them to Europe \u2014 I mean, not only from Africa, but let\u2019s say, for example, from Africa, right? \u2014 and give them everything and pay for everything. And then they demand to be paid for showcases, or to get money from the promoter just for existing, just because they think that the promoter is a millionaire, or without any respect. And then, as soon as they get another offer, they just go there.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how can you protect yourself? I mean, maybe even a contract can\u2019t protect you from this kind of thing if people just don\u2019t care. But on the big level, on the high level, you can still at least go and, I mean, again invest in this kind of situation and hire a lawyer, and sue them, or whatever. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

AT: Yeah, you can imagine if you do that. You go to court with a musician who is living in Ivory Coast…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:\u00a0<\/strong>For example…<\/span><\/p>\n

AT: So I think the most important thing here is to respect the others, to measure the investment, in all senses, that the other part made, and just be a fair person. This should be enough, let\u2019s say, and many times I think this is enough.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, a very famous senior folk musician in Spain, Eliseo Parra, said he will retire, he will stop working with his band, only some collaborations, little things. And in the farewell concert, he thanked his manager, his agency, and he said something that I liked. He said that after 30 years they had been working together without any contract.<\/p>\n

He felt they didn\u2019t need any contract. They just trusted each other, and they trusted that she was doing the best she could for them. So I thought it was very meaningful. I really liked that, because also I have known them for many years, his agency also. It was very nice.<\/p>\n

OK:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. Yeah. This kind of devotion and loyalty is also very often the situation. And I know also agencies which started working with musicians from the very beginning of their career and until the very end. This is very beautiful and I guess it teaches all of us that there can be different situations. It depends very much on people.<\/span><\/p>\n

AT: Yes. Okay. Ola, we have been talking for almost one hour.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

OK:<\/strong>\u00a0My God. Are you all right?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

AT: We could talk much more\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And we will. See you Sofia, Ola!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n
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\ud83d\udd38#1\u00a0for\u00a0Transglobal World Music Chart in June of\u00a02026<\/a>\u00a0has been: \u00a0Seu Jorge’s\u00a0The Other Side<\/em>\u00a0(Amor in Sound)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\ud83d\udd38Mundofon\u00edas<\/a>: the favourites of June have been Simona Di Gregorio’s\u00a0Volu volu<\/em>,\u00a0Apt\u00e8re’s\u00a0Apt\u00e8ro\u00efdes\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Hans Kjorstad’s\u00a0<\/span>D\u00e5l\u00e5gjel.<\/em><\/span>
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OPEN CALLS & PROFESSIONAL EVENTS<\/strong><\/h1>\n

This section is open for news. It is free of charge. You can let me know if you have any open call\u00a0of relevance to the community.<\/p>\n

THESE CALLS ARE NEW IN THE NEWSLETTER:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd38Babel Music XP<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Showcase call open until July 19th. The application is for free. The event will take place in Marseille from March 11 to 13, 2027.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the fifth edition of the event, which follows in the footsteps of Babel Med. It includes showcases, conferences and speed meetings with industry professionals.\u00a0The\u00a0terms and conditions<\/strong>\u00a0are available\u00a0here<\/a>.
\nWho can apply?<\/strong>\u00a0There are no restrictions regarding nationality or location. However, note that if you do not have video and audio materials produced within the last two years, you will not be able to complete the application form as requested.
\nWhat does it cover?<\/strong>\u00a0This showcase covers certain aspects, such as transfers from\/to the airport or station to the accommodation and the venue, accommodation, dinner on the night of the concert, and a fixed payment per artist and technician. Full details are available in the terms and conditions link.
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\ud83d\udd38PIN Conference<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Showcase call open until June 30th. The application just be done via Amplead and it is for free. The 12th edition of this event will take place in Skopje, Macedonia, from November 26 to 28, 2026.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>“As Macedonia\u2019s first and only international music conference and showcase festival, PIN has been connecting the Balkan and European music scenes since 2012 through collaboration, discovery and a shared love for music<\/em>.”
\nI have attended twice as a delegate and I really enjoyed it. It is well organised, the showcase programme is very diverse and I met professionals there who, for example, do not usually attend WOMEX.
\nI am not completely sure what they cover for artists. I would say they cover a small fee and accommodation, at least, but I cannot confirm this. I have not been able to find any terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

THIS CALL WAS ALREADY INCLUDED IN THE PREVIOUS MONTH:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd38Afro Pepites Show #16<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Open to artists from Africa, the Caribbean, South America or any other artists inspired by Africa. Free for artists & labels from Africa and Southern America. A membership fee of \u20ac20 for other cases.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Applications are open until 30 September 2026. According to their call: “At a time when many talented creatives struggle to access communication and visibility tools, the Afro Pepites Show reaffirms its mission: to support, promote and give visibility to African, Afro-descendant and Afro-inspired artistic talents, regardless of their country of origin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u2728 Selected projects will benefit from:
\n1) Free and targeted visibility within our network
\n2) Exclusive promotion of your project
\n3) Privileged access to the\u00a0Motherland Show<\/a>\u00a0to expand your network, explore new opportunities and build your skills.<\/p>\n

Opened to: Musicians, dancers, humorists, storytellers, poets, writers, painters, sculptors, street artists, stylists, photographers, film directors, and inventors (new).<\/p>\n

f you have any questions, please email: Mo.Show@lereveafricain.com”<\/p>\n

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MEET ME AT<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n