Drumbeat-Heartbeat

Drumbeat-Heartbeat is launched in London

Drumbeat, An International Festival of Percussion became a reality at London Borough of Barking and Dagenham’s MOLTEN Festival, last month.  Mirador Culture worked with Drum Jam and The Sounds of Africa to provide a unique offering to hundreds of guests who came to the exciting Festival throughout the day.

Drumbeat’s defining characteristics were brought into existence - it was not the case of the boring old linear display of skills and talent where one group follows the previous one as predictably as night follows day! There was no standard compositions ‘to adhere to’ and so no one had to perform to a preset piece. The term ‘fusion’ is favoured by many musicians when they refer to a collaboration. What is often not clear whether the fusion is the input or the end result! Where a fusion is seen as a merger or assimilation, there is a predictable loss of identity. One musical form merges into another and becomes fused.

That does not sound too great an outcome if all that happens is that something disappears! We like the term musical dialogues, a shared and hopefully balanced dialogue where musicians and percussionists of quality ‘talk’ to each other via their music.  There is a focus on innovation and exchange. There is respect for each others output or musical point of view. The end result is aggregation and not replacement. What do you think? Many musicians will say that this is nothing new. They ‘improvise’ all the time, suggesting that they respond to what they hear and try to make sense of other performer’s output. Does improvisation not sound too much like trying to upstage the other or even survive on the stage?  The South Asians, mainly Indians and Pakistanis have a term - jugalbandi. This mode of playing music suggests a more ‘harmonious’ relationship, a respectful exchange of musical output where both sides try to add value.

Whatever your preference in terms of the language, where people try to listen to other people’s work and try to respond to it with respect, good music is bound to follow.  Drumbeat hopes to engender respect for other cultures and offer a platform for creative exchange that adds value without destroying the identity of other participants‘ work.

If you like this sense of shared adventure then Drumbeat-Heartbeat is your opportunity to influence and be influenced.