The final day of WOMADelaide 2016 started with cooler weather, much to everyone's delight after three days of the thermometer hovering around the low to mid 30s Celsius.
The Foundation Stage was occupied by English quartet, Spiro. Hailing from Bristol the acoustic group take traditional tunes from the English folk music repertoire and transform them into quasi-classical minimalist works via the piano accordion, violin, mandolin and guitar.
The repetitive nature of the pieces is anything but dull, and the effect is rather mesmerising, and strangely compelling and, although the original folk melody is all but lost in translation, there remains a strong sense of the folk tradition that inspired the pieces. Comparisons to elements of the compositions of Philip Glass and Steve Reich are all but inevitable, but there is such a freshness to this group's approach that it is not surprising that Peter Gabriel signed them to Real World Records.
Savina Yannatou and Primavera en Salonico performed intricate melodies and songs in Greek, Italian and Arabic on Stage 3. Savia Yannatou's voice is utterly beautiful and it seemed to flow effortlessly from the Athenian singer, washing over the audience like a warm breeze. I had rather expected an exclusively Greek experience but her backing musicians play instruments from both western and eastern cultures.
The guitar, bouzouki, double bass, violin and recorder from the west and quanun, oud and ney from the east and percussion from both, are all played with great precision and heart as the music defies borders crossing from one tradition to another without apology. The background of the music is from the ancient traditional music of the Mediterranean but the improvisations and experimental devices that this ensemble bring to the stage are thoroughly modern.
Savina Yannatou began to tell a story in a voice like a low growl that would suddenly soar octaves higher, into bird calls and clear extremely high notes that plummeted back to Earth to resume the tale, her backing musicians improvising with her in an emotive and dark sonic dance.
Absolutely mesmerising.
Legendary Indian slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya also brought the east and the west together on the Zoo Stage at a seated performance with award winning tabla player, and younger brother Subhasis Bhattacharjee.
The guitar that Debashish Bhattacharya played is known as as the Chaturangui, an instrument that he developed himself that is basically a modified acoustic guitar with added drone and sympathetic strings, similar to the Mohan Veena played by blues man Harry Manx. The sound is reminiscent of a sitar but retains the wailing portamento quality of Debashish Bhattacharya's first musical love as a child, the Hawaiian guitar.
The music itself is a complex fusion of contemporary western and classical Indian styles that is very difficult to define as it slips from almost recognisable blues riffs into classical raga scale runs without pause or hesitation.
Debashish Bhattacharya is a master of his art and his work goes well beyond the stage as the Bhattacharya's School of Universal Music has been working to support the teaching of classical and contemporary Indian music for over 10 years.
Regarded as one of the greatest slide players alive it is not surprising that his list of collaborators includes John McLaughlin, Derek Trucks and Australia's own Jeff Lang but had he been a contemporary of George Harrison in 1965, Rubber Soul would have been a very different album.
Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro brought their 'Godzilla Funk' to the main stage, much to the delight of an audience keen to dance.
I have to confess that I was becoming a little tired of all the retro '70s, jazz, funk, soul, r&b, and every other genre that involved a brass section, so I preferred the more forward looking harp expertise of Edmar Castenada and his trio. Castenada's approach to the harp is unique in that he often uses percussive techniques, complex chording and strumming that sounds like a blend of jazz pianist and steel drum orchestra and he does it all with incredible energy and skill. I have never seen anything quite like it.
While I was actively avoiding the louder, brasher acts that seemed to boast an apparently endless arsenal of brass players, others were seeking them out, for such is the nature of such a diverse festival as WOMADelaide.
I could sit all day under a shady tree listening to the beautiful voice of Savina Yannatou, the intelligent minimalism of Spiro, the unabashed politics of Kev Carmody, the gentle madness of the Spooky Men's Chorale, or the deep cultural harmonies of the APY choir and the Gyuto Monks and, at this festival, I could, and did.
For others the festival is about being excited and dancing, and dancing, and yet more dancing and, at this festival, they could, and they did.
WOMADelaide is over for another year and the weekend hippies can get back to their collars and ties, their blouses and slacks, after a great weekend of dancing and being 'blissed-out' under the trees of Adelaide's Botanic Park. In retrospect I just wish that I had had the foresight to run a stall at the festival selling products for cleaning and lubricating brass instruments. I would have made a fortune.
