In 2016, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto invited musicians, mainly immigrant musicians, to audition for a new global orchestra.
The idea was to reflect the diversity of the city by bringing together different musical traditions. More than 100 musicians applied and 12 were selected. The ensemble they created was named Kune, which means together in Esperanto.
Kune's musicians hail from many parts of the world including Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Peru, Burkino-Faso and China and they play a wide range of instruments, such as the tar, the dizi, the cajon and the ngoni. According to the ensemble's website, the project was intended as a short-term deal but after the band's debut, invitations arrived for festivals and gigs, so the musicians began to practice and compose new music.
In 2018, Kune's debut was released, Kune – Canada's Global Orchestra (Universal Music, Canada) and in 2019, Kune took the album on the road over the border to the US. At the same time, a new suite of four compositions called Universal Echoes was developed and presented along with visual art from indigenous artists Jason Baerg and Santee Smith, which led to the formation of Kune as an independent collective and a new record deal with LulaWorld Records. Earlier this year, the collective's Universal Echoes was released as a 12-track album.
The new release brings together not only the unique traditional skills each musician possesses but also their sad stories of migration, displacement, and hope and despair. The liner notes note that "climate change and resource extraction are among the most powerful forces driving displacement, conflict and migration today. Some of us have experienced these consequences first hand".
The overriding theme of the album is one of concern for our shared planet's future, and the musicians have done this by naming the tracks after the planet's four elements -- water, fire, wind and earth. These elemental songs are bookended by two tracks, Sarena, the opener, and Zendeghi, the final track. Sarena narrates the pain of having to flee to another country in both Arabic and Portuguese. This track segues into three "agua" (water-themed songs) songs, the first of which sees Aline Morales celebrate the "pure joy" of water. The fire element follows on and singer/lyricist Ahmed Moneka says that it refers to the fire ignited by the pain of racism.
Other outstanding tracks include the beautiful lyrical song about mourning, Earth T, and how that relates to a catastrophic oil spill in the Peruvian Amazon, and the joyous Earth III Zikr, a style created by Muslim Sufis. The final track, Zendeghi, was written by Iranian poet Sohrab Sepehri and is an exhortation for us all to take better care of our shared planet, and that the fate of the planet "is our own fate as well".
Kune Universal Echoes.
These masters have created music that all of us can relate to, created by instruments that are not often played in an ensemble together. I found the music and the words on this album truly inspiring. As the final stanza of Zendeghi says, "Life is not for living in the past or the future / The future is a vision and the past is a lesson / Life is happiness but sometimes we forget / Life is understanding and being in the moment". Highly recommended.
Legendary jazz and keyboard master Hailu Mergia visited Thailand last year to perform at Wonderfruit and Studio Lam. World Beat attended the gig at Studio Lam, where Mergia performed with his trio (Kenneth Joseph on drums, Alemseged Kebede on bass). It was a fantastic gig.
Mergia re-emerged about 10 years ago, set up his Washington-based trio and has been on the road ever since, and while some of his old albums have been re-released on Awesome Tapes From Africa, there has been no recent live album that catches Merigia and his band in full flow.
Awesome Tapes has plugged that gap with Pioneer Works Swing (Live), which is a recording of a 2016 performance in Brooklyn. The first single from the album, Belew Beduby, is already out and the album will be officially released on Nov 3. For more information, visit awesometapes.com.
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
