Sigordo

On the first weekend of July, I was on my way to Kuching from Kuala Lumpur with newspapers being my only companion for my 1 hour 45 minute journey. The newspapers were filled with articles having their fair share of arguments and debates on why Spain and the Netherlands were in the final and not England, Brazil, Argentina or the defending champions Italy. Some were claiming that some football stars are overpaid and no longer had passion to play for their country, which translated into a lethargic and a half hearted performance in the World Cup.

Fortunately for me, I was on my to Kuching for the 13^th Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) where passion, superstars, fun, good music and a vuvuzela was there at the Sarawak Cultural Village in Santubong.

Set adjacent to the sea, at the foot of a mountain and with a forest as backdrop, the three day festival was a manifestation of cultural mélange as well as a musical one.

We saw the Marranzano from Italy played by I Beddi and we had the Musafir Gypsies of Rajasthan from India play their Murchang. Although both are from the other ends of the world, the Marranzano and the Murchang are respective jaw harps from Italy and India;  where the sound is generated by a vibrating air column, the frame is held against the performer’s teeth, using the jaw and mouth as a resonator which greatly increasing the volume of the instrument.

I guess that’s the beauty of the festival when we are able to witness numerous similar instruments with similar sounds but to each have its own story and significance.

Apart from the jaw harps, there were other similar instruments which sound alike like the two-stringed dombra, a pear shaped long necked lute of the Kazakh people of Central Asia brought to the festival by Yerboli Ahmethan of Yerboli and the sound of the oud (also a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in Middle Eastern music) which was played by Mustafa Daood of Debu from Indonesia. Looking and listening to the two closely, both the dombra and the oud also has a resembling sound to the gambus which is the most common lute found in a variety of styles in Malay folk music.

This year’s festival also seemed to be featuring an array of bagpipes. From Italy to Portugal to Iran to Bulgaria to Russia; all had their own form of bagpipes. Saeid Shanbehzadeh from the Shanbehzadeh Ensemble even joked about his bagpipe. “The bagpipes are made of goat skin, what’s the point of killing the goat to make an instrument that sounds like a goat?” he said during his performance, second day’s opening of the festival.

Although the World Cup had glittering footwork displays of the Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Kaka and other stars, in RWMF, we had another kind of footwork. It was not side stepping the ball or fancy trickery that we’re used to in the World Cup but what we had was thousands of people having their own fancy footwork; moving their feet to the beats of the awesome sounds of world music.

Oh, speaking of Cristiano Ronaldo, who is often called a cheat for his dubious diving; diving at the festival was cheered as the rain made the Cultural Village a mud fest.

I was also fortunate enough to mingle with the stars of the festival. At times, I get goose-bumps not because i’m star struck but when I see and listen to the performers at the workshop jamming together and even at the hotel, which brought my music appreciation to another level.

However, these talented musicians have remained grounded as Leila Negrou from Reunion Island said, “There are no superstars here, no one is up there, and we all mingle and hang out together.”

With that, I learned that RWMF to be a  unique festival that brings informative workshops, ethno-musical lectures, jamming sessions and renowned world musicians from all continents and indigenous musicians from the interiors of the mythical island of Borneo together.

Well after all the rain, the dancing, the great music, inevitably, the festival had to end. However, some continued celebrating as soon as the festival ended, we watched the Spain winning the World Cup 2010 for the first time in their history.

Here are some photos I was able to take before my camera went bonkers.

Reelroad'b from Russia

Oscar Jimenez of Watussi

An animated Davide Urso of IBeddi from Italy