world music

Sunday Synth Jam: Amza Tairov plays a Korg Triton, using what appears to be a Casio CZ-101 to modulate it. Tairov makes extensive use of the pitch-bend wheel, giving his playing a string-like quality.

It’s not clear from this video if Tairov is synth-syncing (miming to a prerecorded track) or if the video editing is just a little iffy on this.

If you know more about Amzo Tairov, leave a comment below! Read more…

TribalNeed (Riccardo Moretti) performs live at Bal Harbour (Sardegna).

The performance features a really cool location and Moretti’s unique ambient techno world improvisations.

Big Fish Audio has released a new world percussion sound library, Earth Tone.

The library retails for $99.95.  Audio demos are available at the Big Fish site.

Description:

Soak up the flavors of world percussion with Earth Tone: World Percussion. Big Fish Audio brings you the latest addition to their World/Ethnic section with this warm, enthusiastic library full of diverse and classic ethnic percussion instruments, including the bata drum, frame drum, hydraulic triangle, steel slip drum, talking drum, timbau, hadjini, large ocean drum and many, many more. Add a splash of the Middle East to your hip hop tracks, or a hint of South America to your jazz tunes. Earth Tone is a gateway to all things ethnic percussion. With 12 enormous kits and over 7 GB full of the most dynamic tones you can find in a library, this product will draw you back time and time again.

Contents:

• 6.1 GB on Disc (2.47 GB of 24-bit WAV files)
• 922 WAV loops on disc
• There are 12 loop performance folders in tempos ranging from 72BPM to 200BPM.

For more information, visit their web site at www.bigfishaudio.com.

At the 2009 Winter NAMM Show, Garritan announced the Garritan World Instrument, which features a comprehensive collection of instruments from around the world:

• The Garritan World Instrument collection offers a large variety of flutes — Native American flutes, bamboo flues, Irish flutes, Chinese and Japanese flutes, Indian flutes, clay flutes, pan flutes, nose flutes and many other exotic winds from around the globe.
• Also included is an array of pitched and un-pitched percussion instruments — Taiko drums, Gamelan ensemble, Log drums, tablas, ewe drums, balaphon, Udu drum, talking drum, steel drums, an array of Latin percussion, and more.
• There are also numerous types of plucked and bowed strings, including: Indian Sitars, Japanese koto and shamisen, African kora, Middle Eastern oud and santoor, and erhu.
• Other instruments include didgeridoo, Middle Eastern reed instruments, accordions, Tibetan bowls, and harmonium.

The Garritan World Instruments Library features controls for dynamics, vibrato, tongue/slur techniques, airflow, auto legato, auto-variability, auto-portamento, trills and more — to make these samples musical, realistic and expressive. There is even support for wind controllers (like the Akai EWI).

Garritan World Instruments is expected to be released first quarter 2009. Pricing will be announced upon release. Read more…

If you want to hear some music that’s really original, you could do a lot worse than checking out Ojos De Brujo’s wonderfully syncopated, flamenco-influenced Techarí.

Ojos De Brujo (Eyes of the Wizard) is a Barcelona-based world fusion group, with eight members that play everything from flamenco guitar to tablas to turntables. Guest on the release include Faada Freddy from the Senegalese hip-hop collective Daara J, Indian fusioneers Prithpal Rajput and Nitin Sawhney, Cuban pianist Roberto Carcàsses, flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela and Spanish vocalist Martirio.

My Spanish isn’t good enough to follow along with the lyrics, but Marina Abad’s vocals are striking and powerful. She’s equally at home singing melodically, with punk intensity or rhythmically chanting. The instrumentalists are equally amazing – tight and unpredictable.

Best of all, you never know where the songs are going. Ojos De Brujo stop on a dime, shift gears and get their freak on without getting self-indulgent with their fusion. No matter what they do, it keeps your attention. Read more…