Hello,
Last week I attended together with
Danny Kilbride, on behalf of the
European Folk Network, the conference
“Nufolk Global Connections, an audience development plan for folk music (festivals) in Europe” organized in Catania (Sicily, IT) by
Darshan at the Department of Human Studies – University of Catania.
It was an interesting meeting where the Department presented the results of their research, stressing the need for further cooperation between artists, music agencies, research institutions, and festivals and venues to develop audience development strategies based on scientific data.
To hear how impressed the research workers were by the vivacity, richness, and diversity of the world/folk music community was very surprising. Most of them did not know thesector beforthe researchstarted. They concluded saying it was an almost invisible world moving up on the grassroots and receiving little attention from the media despite the numbers of players and “consumers” which proved to be very large compared to other music sectors.
I also spent some time listening to the new solo album “Ἐρημία/Eremìa” (Alfa Music/EGEA) of my old friend Ettore Castagna.
Ettore was the founder of the historical Calabrian band
Re Niliu and the main contributor to the
Calabrian lira revival– one of those forgotten traditional and fascinating instruments that belong to the musical heritage of this southern Italian region.
You could say it was a coincidence. While listening to the album, which received an excellent review in
Blogfoolk, Greek artist, composer, and trumpet player
Vasilis Nalbantis of the project
“Ellipsis Quintet” contacted me. He had sent me some tracks from his upcoming album. In one of them, he is using the same (or similar) lira in his effort to mix world and jazz music.
However, thinking of what is happening next door in Ukraine,
Luca Bassanese released today his
new video clip against the war. It amazes me. Luca is constantly releasing new material to feed and grow his online presence (more than 100 000 followers on FB in only two years, more than 1200 fans in his private group, more than 1,2 M views on YouTube, etc.). Since the beginning of the pandemic, he is building fantastic
storytelling and producing one new album every year – with no label and very little media to back him, thanks to the support of his superfans and a wonderful team.
Take part in Luca’s new
crowdfunding campaign! Spread the word about this new grassroots hero of the world music landscape!
Talk to you soon!
Eric
