posted by Swadhi Thanabal... on August 29, 2013 - 10:40am
The summer is dwindling down to its inevitable end, taking my time at OIMA with it. It's been fun, to say the very least! I managed to get a ton of awesome music onto the site, and blog about topics deeply meaningful to me. But tomorrow, I clear off my desk, pack up my bags, and hand in my key to the office. And this, sadly, is to be my final post!
posted by Swadhi Thanabal... on August 22, 2013 - 9:20am
As much as I love World Fusion (and, believe me, I do love fusional music), I have a thing for the uber-traditional stuff. I'm enchanted by the idea of history playing in my ears, hearing songs that moved people in ages long ago.
posted by Swadhi Thanabal... on August 14, 2013 - 10:52am
In my search for World Musicians, I recently discovered NIMBAYA!, an all-female drum and dance company based in Guinea, who are currently on a world tour ("The hit of Montreal's Nuits d'Afrique Festival!" according to Ottawa Express). Their bio on their website begins like this:
posted by Swadhi Thanabal... on August 9, 2013 - 10:46am
In the few weeks that I've been working with OIMA, I have encountered some seriously amazing musicians (exhibit A! exhibit B!), but one of my favourites so far has to be Vandana Vishwas, whose crystalline voice and classic arrangements I find so engaging.
posted by Swadhi Thanabal... on July 30, 2013 - 2:18pm
I think one of the dangers of the World Music genre is that it can promote a West-centric "them-and-us" approach to music of other cultures, where "World Music" just means any music that's not Canadian/American/European. When in fact (and hopefully this isn't a major news flash), "the West" is part of the World!
posted by Swadhi Thanabal... on July 18, 2013 - 4:37pm
Hi everyone!
I'm Swadhi, the World Music Archive Coordinator here at OIMA for the summer. For the next month and a half, my days will consist of listening to tons of awesome music, contacting artists across Ontario, and helping build a digital library of songs to be accessible and available to all for years to come!
Yep, it's a pretty sweet summer job. And not to sound corny, but I actually find my work quite meaningful too.
