By this time tomorrow, we will be pitched and taking in the early musical offerings at this year’s WOMAD (26-29th July). Anyone who has been before will know that it is impossible to see all WOMAD has on offer so some careful planning of your weekend is in order or you can just leave it to fate…Personally, I like a mix of both. They do have a fantastic phone app for scheduling events while you are there…a must.
Some of the biggest crowd pullers will be Leftfield, Amadou & Miriam, Django Django, Dobet Gnahoré and Thievery Corporation so I’ve not included any of the top names in the selection below. I’ve also only covered the music…as there is also a great spoken word lineup as well as cookery, workshops and heaps more. I have a lot longer list of acts and events that I want see but my Top 10 music acts, in no particular order are:
Top 10 WOMAD Highlights for 2018
KoKoKo!
Hailing from the Congolese capital Kinshasa, KoKoKo! may bear some resemblance to their fellow Konono No 1 in that they recycle everyday scrap waste into instruments but in sound they differ. As they declare in the video above, they are huge fans of electronic music, they fashion discarded junk into musical instruments; a typewriter repurposed as a drum machine is just one example. It’s revolutionary and lively and is sure to draw a large crowd at this year’s WOMAD.
Erland Cooper
Erland Cooper is the man behind the brilliant Erland and the Carnival as well as The Magnetic North whose album Prospect Of Skelmersdale we reviewed on Folk Radio with Thomas Blake concluding: “It is a rare album that manages to be socially aware without being preachy, sonically vibrant without being derivative, but this one ticks all the right boxes. A superbly refreshing listen.” For his latest solo project ‘Solan Goose’ he explores his Scottish origins, a homage to Orkney.
Talisk
Yes, the Scottish folk trio are at WOMAD this year. Neil McFadyen saw them at Celtic Connections in 2016 and remarked how they “Talisk clearly enjoy, indeed thrive on, injecting some fire into their sets, every bit as much as the audience enjoy hearing it. Although they’re also very capable of taking their music along a more sedate route, that pace is quite remarkable.”
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh
Although Caoimhín may be a well-known face to many from his membership of the Irish-American supergroup The Gloaming it was a film by Myles O”Reilly from 9 years ago that I was first introduced to his solo fiddle work which led me to discover his brilliant solo album Where the One-Eyed Man is King (2007) which straddled tradition and experimentation – a rare thing back then. His earlier work with Mick O’Brien (uilleann pipes, flute, whistle) on Kittly Lie (2003) and their 2011 follow-up Over Deadly Buzz | Aoibhinn Crónán is equally enchanting.
LADAMA
I featured LADAMA recently as a Song of the Day. The group features Lara Klaus, Daniela Serna, Mafer Bandola and Sara Lucas—each from a different country and culture of the Americas, who are sisters in song, rhythm and spirit. They use traditional and non-traditional instruments from across the Americas, but with a modern twist, to produce Latin Alternative music.
Mari Kalkun
Mari’s music has featured in a couple of our recent mixes (most recently here). Much of the music of northern Europe – whether Scandinavia or the Baltic states – has a particular atmosphere about it, an undeniable connection to the landscape from whence it came. There seems to be an unhurried sense of both time and space, of music that’s been afforded the proper period of gestation. Mari Kalkun’s music abides by this creed too, fully-formed but deliciously weightless creations that float around in their own world. It’s folk, but it’s beyond folk too. Her songs twinkle and shimmer but also lead you into darker corners too, with plenty of mystery lurking at the edges. They can be bravely intimate, but also widescreen and panoramic. And that’s the beauty of Mari’s art: contrasts and contradictions that, in less careful hands, might be awkwardly presented. Instead, these are perfectly weighted acoustic sounds from a distant land.
Jiggy
In Neil’s words… “Since percussionist Robbie Harris (Afro Celt Sound System, Pólca 4) brought together Jiggy in 2014, they’ve provided music lovers with a regular diet of memorable live performances, and a string of thoroughly well-received studio tracks.” Last year they dropped their debut album Translate before which we have been hugely entertained by their viral videos. As Neil explained in his album review… “What Jiggy do most successfully is prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that music is the heart and soul of the thriving, all-embracing multi-cultural arts scene in the Irish Republic. Translate is an exceptional and intoxicating album that will find its way into the heart and soul of an ever-increasing audience.” There is no doubt in my mind that this set at WOMAD will be an all-out dance party!
Vishtèn
Canada’s flagbearers for the Acadian sound which they blend with a mass of other influences. Vishtèn are redefining the limits of French-Canadian folk. Their live show combines song-writing elegance with the dynamism of three experienced and truly passionate performers.
Calan
Neil McFadyen reviewed their last studio album Solomon…to quote “Solomon is an amazing album. At its core there’s a warm, rich sound; so heavily populated it can be a task to pick out the different components. Picking out those components is a thoroughly rewarding task though, and one music fans will happily return to again and again. Even more impressive, however, is the perfectly unified sound – how easy it is to rise above those individual performances and lose yourself in the whole, glorious event. Calan are an exciting, confident and highly accomplished band, I’m sorry to have missed the Scottish date of their current tour, it would have been an incredible experience… Solomon sounds wonderful, fresh and exciting from the very first listen and continues to enthral on every subsequent visit.” That’s reason enough to want to see them!
Camille
You never know what to expect with this Parisian singer…she plays with music with an almost childlike innocence unblemished by commercialism yet with a definite pop-appeal…never a dull moment. Her last album OUÏ was recorded over a year in La Chartreuse, a 14th-century monastery-turned-artist’s residence in Avignon, France. The album was a cornucopia overflowing with folk, hymns, ballads, pop, lullabies and breathtaking a cappella.