Reviewed by Ray Smith, Friday 9th March 2018.
The 'welcome to country', the traditional Kaurna start to the
WOMADelaide Festival was conducted by Jamie Goldsmith, Uncle Brian Goldsmith, Jack Buckskin, and the Taikurtinna dancers and included a tribute to Jamie's father, Stephen Gadlabarti Goldsmith who unexpectedly passed away in July 2017. It was a sad and moving tribute but also heartening to see Jamie Goldsmith take up his father's mantle to continue this important ceremony.
The Foundation Stage was crowded by Brixiga 70 , a large group from Brazil. This 10 piece ensemble boasts percussion, brass and electric guitars and electronics and the sound is very, very big. Their opening piece was loud and rather dark and I wondered if 5.30 in the afternoon on a blazing hot day was a good programming choice for such a dance orientated group.
Certainly, no one was dancing as I walked away to catch some of the Soul Capoeira workshop on the Zoo Stage. This Adelaide based troupe practice and teach Capoeira, which combines Afro-Brazilian martial arts, dance, music, and acrobatics. The workshop was fun and inclusive. The music is quite simple but very engaging. Hand percussion, vocals in several languages and several berimbaus.
A seated performance at the Moreton Bay Stage by Scandinavian duo My Bubba was interesting, charming but not very inspiring. Guðbjörg, also known as Bubba, from Iceland, plays guitar and banjo and My, from Sweden, plays the Norwegian Cittra, a form of zither. Their sweet voices blended beautifully as they sang translations of Scandinavian folk songs and lullabies, and their instrumental backings were simple and gentle, but I found myself nodding off.
Anoushka Shankar and her ensemble comprising Manu Delago on percussion, Sanjeev Shankar on Shehnai and, I believe, Mitch Jones on piano and double bass took possession of the Foundation Stage for a performance few of us will ever forget.
They performed pieces from Shankar's 2016 album, Land of Gold. A highly experimental and innovate series of recordings that are far removed from the classical Indian music that the Shankar name evokes. The works on the album are Shankar's responses to the refugee crisis and include spoken word from Shankar herself, and from others including the actor,
Vanessa Redgrave.
Delago played electronic percussion, hand percussion, standard drums and three Hang set in a row. The extensive rig is capable of producing a wealth of sounds and Delago is perfectly capable of pushing it to its limits.
Sanjeev Shankar's Shehnai, an Indian oboe, wailed and called like a human voice as the threatening notes of the distorted double bass hammered away at the audience.
Anoushka Shankar's sitar riffed and soloed like the lead guitar in a rock band as vocal samples were triggered.
The familiar voice of
Vanessa Redgrave cut through the air as the sitar was sampled in real time and soloed against its own riffs. Solos from the bass, from the shenhai, from the percussion, doubling back to sitar, to spoken word. The first piece was breathtaking in its complexity. The piece,
Crossing the Rubicon, could have been inspired by Pink Floyd as the pitch bending sitar reminded me strongly of Dark Side of the Moon. A massive crowd stood almost reverently before the stage as they witnessed the reinvention of the most traditional and iconic of Indian instruments.
Gratte Ciel, which translates to skyscraper, took to the air, literally, on a web of wires hung high above the festival between large cranes for their performance of, Place des Anges, Place of Angels. The spectacular show involves aerial gymnasts in angel costumes cavorting together at a tremendous height and playfully dumping white feathers onto the audience below.
It was extraordinary to see drifts of descending feathers falling like snow on the Yorkshire Dales and the audience loved it. The feathers flew in the breeze as the acrobats twisted and turned, skating along wires at incredible speed or ponderously walking along them upside down all the while dropping feathers. The finale was yet more feathers. This time spewed skywards from enormous blowers on the ground, creating white fountains that glittered and tumbled in the spotlights, the feathers so thick that children lay on the ground making feather angels of their own.
It was truly spectacular.
If that was day 1, what will tomorrow bring?
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