With major festivals around the world, and Pasifika at home, being cancelled due to coronavirus, I was wondering whether WOMAD 2020 would even happen.
Yet the world music event, held for the past 16 years in New Plymouth’s Brooklands Park, opened on cue when Belgium-based Balkan-style brass band Kermesz A’Lest burst onto the Bowl Stage with their steampunk attire, showy soloing and physical humour, which at one point involved attacking a trombone with a bicycle pump.
Photo: Isabella Brown
Actually, the festival had started a few minutes earlier with the traditional welcome; warm if more sombre than usual. Addressing the matter of the pandemic, festival organiser Whare Wano reminded us to “horoia ō ringaringa” and to try elbow bumps instead of handshakes. Labour minister Andrew Little acknowledged the anniversary of the Christchurch mosque attacks, praised WOMAD as a celebration of inclusiveness and diversity, and noted how appropriate it was that the event was held in Taranaki, where the people of Parihaka had historically practised their brand of pacifism. His speech was note perfect, and got the biggest applause of any politician I’ve ever seen at WOMAD.
King Ayisoba performing at WOMAD 2020 Photo: Isabella Brown
Noting that there will be another chance to hear Kermesz A’Lest on Saturday evening, I left the Bowl early to catch part of Reb Fountain’s set on the Gables Stage. She and her tight band were in full flight when I arrived. The Auckland-based singer-songwriter has shed any country inflections her music once had, and her new songs have a brooding, gothic quality. A dark folk music for the 21st century. There will be another chance to hear her on Saturday, and I recommend it.
Reb Fountain performing at WOMAD 2020 Photo: Isabella Brown
As Fountain was winding up, King Ayisoba and his band were kicking off on the Brooklands Stage. Well-known in his native Ghana, his music is raw, repetitive and exciting. Every one of his group is a percussionist; even his own two-stringed kologo is used percussively. His voice at times reminded me of the blues singer Howlin’ Wolf. He encouraged us to sing along, but I could never make a sound like that. He plays again on Sunday.
King Ayisoba performing at WOMAD 2020 Photo: Isabella Brown
The most beautiful notes I heard all evening came from the smaller Dell Stage, where Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Senegalese kora player Seckou Keita wove European and African modes together with empathy and grace. Seckou’s playing could be funky, chicken-pickin’ against the delicate almost-Elizabethan sounds of Catrin’s harp; at other times Catrin steered the rhythm. With upward of fifty strings between the two of them, the sound was both delicate and full. A must to hear again when they play on Saturday afternoon.
Hiatus Kaiyote come from Melbourne, drawing elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop into complex and original music. “Are you still hanging in there?” singer Naomi Saalfield asked about halfway into the set, We were, but with the skittery rhythms and Saalfield’s busy, melismatic vocals, this essentially introspective music was challenging stuff for a Friday night on the Bowl.
Hiatus Kaiyote performing at WOMAD 2020 Photo: Isabella Brown
Those wanting to clap on the one might have had an easier time with Scottish quartet Rura, who drew on folk traditions with guitar, fiddle, bodhran and bagpipes to create a strong sense of place, whether playing an upbeat reel or a more meditative ballad.
Greek vocalist Marina Satti and her group Fones, which also featured bagpipes, percussion and five backing singers, struck more of a party mood on the Brooklands stage with a modern mix of Balkan and Middle Eastern folk styles that at times bordered on synth-pop.
Reb Fountain performing at WOMAD 2020 Photo: Isabella Brown
Local acts closed out the night, and I roamed between them. Albi & the Wolves played a kind of sophisticated skiffle, with upbeat Celtic-tinged arrangements of popular songs (‘Another Brick In The Wall’, ‘A Love That Keeps Me Waiting’), perhaps better suited to a pub. Shapeshifter, a last-minute replacement for the cancelled Ziggy Marley, hit the bowl-stage, stadium-fit, with thundering sonics, strong melodic hooks and their own lights and graphics. It might be party music, but the songs had messages too. “The pain we feel now can be our strength tomorrow”, sang Paora 'P Digsss' Apera, and it couldn’t have felt more appropriate.
P Digsss of Shapeshifter performing at WOMAD 2020 Photo: Isabella Brown
I made my exit to the sounds of Troy Kingi playing songs from his Holy Colony Burning Acres album. The latest release in a project that involves recording an album per year for a decade, each in a different style, this one is roots reggae, and Kingi’s 10-piece band fell into a convincing groove while he delivered passionate political lyrics. Unusually for WOMAD, it was the first reggae I had heard all day.
King Ayisoba performing at WOMAD 2020 Photo: Isabella Brown
The crowd at the Bowl stage, WOMAD 2020 Photo: Isabella Brown
Photo: Isabella Brown
Photo: Isabella Brown
Photo: Isabella Brown
Photo: Isabella Brown
Photo: Isabella Brown
Photo: Isabella Brown
