dURBAN NOISE and scrapsWORKS
Initiated and produced by Jürgen Bräuninger
Lyrics by Ari Sitas
Send cheque for $30 (order GSE Claremont CD AM31) to the NSW Phonograph Society, M-J Hanna, Lot 58, Forest Gum Place, Greystanes, NSW 2145; or order by credit card at <http://www.indie.co.za>.
Review by Norm Dixon
One of the most vivid memories I have of my stay in South Africa to report on the 1994 elections for Green Left Weekly was the time I spent on the beach promenade in Durban. Just a few years before, the beach was reserved for the exclusive use of white South Africans. But in the post-apartheid era all that changed â tens of thousands of people of all races thronged the promenade. The sights, sounds, smells and excitement came flooding back as I listened to this challenging album.
Black South Africans were there to swim in the once forbidden waters (or at least walk on the sand), and Afrikaner families from rural Gauteng and the Free State were making their traditional annual trek for their seaside holiday.
Thousands inspected the wares at the informal market on the promenade, teenagers were flirting with each other, lost kids were crying, drunks were fighting, European tourists were clutching their bags and purses, while pickpockets were on the lookout for those that weren't. The marvellous sound of busking Zulu guitar players and dancers drifted across the crowd, while the wail of police and ambulance sirens was ever present.
dURBAN NOISE combines a fascinating and surreal collage with the sounds of post-apartheid Durban and the new South Africa. While many South Africans are painfully aware of the slowness of the change in their lives, especially in kwaZulu-Natal province which is still ruled by apartheid collaborator Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, this surprising work of sound-art reminds us that winning the right to walk on a beach, and to have fun, was no minor achievement.
Jürgen Bräuninger, University of Natal professor and composer, and Ari Sitas, trade unionist, anti-apartheid activist, playwright and poet, have collaborated with 47 of Durban's musicians and borrowed the daily murmuring and noises of dozens of ordinary Durbanites.
The CD opens with the crash of the waves from the Indian Ocean, followed by Sitas' first poem read in the many accents heard on South Africa's urban streets. South Africa's many varied musical accents are also blended â traditional and electronic instruments, township jive and jazz, hip hop with nyanga panpipes, migrant workers' gumboots and concertinas, and the north Indian reed instrument, the bansuri. The music ranges from the funky, the quirky and the quaint to the way-out.
A highlight is "Violino", a classical piece written for violin music and played brilliantly on the traditional umakhweyana by Dolores Buthelezi, while crickets sing in the background.
"Warwick" is a sound-scape that weaves together the raucous sounds of the marketplace, the traffic, the sirens and the buzz of the city. It ends disturbingly with the sound of gunfire, a reminder that political violence still bedevils kwaZulu-Natal.
Perhaps this CD will be a little too abstract and avant-guard for many, and Sitas' poetry is certainly on the obscure side, with overt political sentiments hard to find. Yet, with each listen you discover something you didn't hear the first time. This makes dURBAN NOISE annoyingly addictive.
Visit the dURBAN NOISE WORKS web site at <http://www.und.ac.za/und/music/adunw.html>. 6&A4 6&A4 .O@PARAFILTR ON =
Noises from the new Durban
dURBAN NOISE and scrapsWORKS
Initiated and produced by Jürgen Bräuninger
Lyrics by Ari Sitas
Send cheque for $30 (order GSE Claremont CD AM31) to the NSW Phonograph Society, M-J Hanna, Lot 58, Forest Gum Place, Greystanes NSW 2145; or order by credit card at <http://www.indie.co.za>.
Review by Norm Dixon
One of the most vivid memories I have of my stay in South Africa to report on the 1994 elections for Green Left Weekly was the time I spent on the beach promenade in Durban. Just a few years before, the beach was reserved for the exclusive use of white South Africans. But in the post-apartheid era all that changed â tens of thousands of people of all races thronged the promenade. The sights, sounds, smells and excitement came flooding back as I listened to this challenging album.
Black South Africans were there to swim in the once forbidden waters (or at least walk on the sand), and Afrikaner families from rural Gauteng and the Free State were making their traditional annual trek for their seaside holiday.
Thousands inspected the wares at the informal market on the promenade, teenagers were flirting with each other, lost kids were crying, drunks were fighting, European tourists were clutching their bags and purses, while pickpockets were on the lookout for those who weren't. The marvellous sound of busking Zulu guitar players and dancers drifted across the crowd, while the wail of police and ambulance sirens was ever present.
dURBAN NOISE combines a fascinating and surreal collage with the sounds of post-apartheid Durban and the new South Africa.
While many South Africans are painfully aware of the slowness of the change in their lives, especially in kwaZulu-Natal province, which is still ruled by apartheid collaborator Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, this surprising work of sound-art reminds us that winning the right to walk on a beach, and to have fun, was no minor achievement.
Jürgen Bräuninger, University of Natal professor and composer, and Ari Sitas, trade unionist, anti-apartheid activist, playwright and poet, have collaborated with 47 of Durban's musicians and borrowed the daily murmuring and noises of dozens of ordinary Durbanites.
The CD opens with the crash of the waves from the Indian Ocean, followed by Sitas' first poem read in the many accents heard on South Africa's urban streets.
South Africa's many varied musical accents are also blended â traditional and electronic instruments, township jive and jazz, hip hop with nyanga panpipes, migrant workers' gumboots and concertinas, and the north Indian reed instrument, the bansuri. The music ranges from the funky, the quirky and the quaint to the way-out.
A highlight is "Violino", a classical piece written for violin and played brilliantly on the traditional umakhweyana by Dolores Buthelezi, while crickets sing in the background.
"Warwick" is a sound-scape that weaves together the raucous sounds of the marketplace, the traffic, the sirens and the buzz of the city. It ends disturbingly with the sound of gunfire, a reminder that political violence still bedevils kwaZulu-Natal.
Perhaps this CD will be a little too abstract and avant-garde for many, and Sitas' poetry is certainly on the obscure side, with overt political sentiments hard to find. Yet, with each listen you discover something you didn't hear the first time. This makes dURBAN NOISE annoyingly addictive.
Visit the dURBAN NOISE WORKS web site at <http://www.und.ac.za/und/music/adunw.html>.