Luminous Music Glasgow

21/10/2024

Thanking you all ... for your kind birthday wishes/thoughts. My son and I are leaving a little of the turquoise Scottish woodland behind ... and are on the way to Malaga and Nerja for a quick celebration. Soon xx

18/10/2024

lucky guy I guess. There goes another year. No need to count candles.

12/10/2024

We used to protect the Cosmic Egg, but now it has cracked. Most video footage is normalised by playing some very nice music in the background, even for what are extremely disastrous events. Yet as the anger rises I hear some say: “I didn’t cause these disasters” ... Waiting to be rescued from the floodwaters, someone found a pig tied to a petrol station forecourt. It's alright Ma, I'm only bleeding.

06/10/2024

As it’s well known, drum kit players far outnumber percussionists in western music. But here's is a shout out for Bernhard Schimpelsberger, an Austrian percussionist now London based, and whose path is going in remarkable directions. Having studied in India, he translates this technique back to the drum kit. A wide range of collaborations with other artists, such as Akram Khan, has followed. Check out the instruments that make up his drum-kit

recorded at Taal Yogi Pt. Suresh Talwalkar's Guru Utsav Festival, Pune August 2018 Bernhard Schimpelsberger - drumsMilind Kulkarni - harmoniumRoopak Taal 7 b...

05/10/2024

Calypso & Drumming: Trinidad & Tobago
Drumming is joyous, essential to many festivals and celebrations. I first came across the music of Trinidad & Tobago when I was in London in the 70-80’s especially during Carnival, the annual celebration of West Africa/Indian culture. There was a mix of music … from Jamaican Dub to Calypso/Soca and the steel bands of Trinidad & Tobago …wild costumes, dancing, g***a and political intrigue were mixed with artists like Mighty Sparrow, King Tubby, Prince Jammy, Scientist, Lee “Scratch” Perry. Politics and social danger were close at hand.

Even though the steel drums of Calypso ‘drums’ are metallic, sounding more like marimbas or hang drums, they were originally a replacement for traditional hand drums from African traditions, and music that was banned in 1883. A political/cultural rebellion followed, one where the drums were transformed into bamboo instruments. A new Tamboo-bamboo music emerged, ensembles with three sizes of these bamboo drums became the norm. Eventually Tamboo-bamboo instruments were replaced by steel drums.

Trinidad & Tobago are a centre for festivals and steel drum music. If you want to understand the music of Trinidad & Tobago, the two islands situated off the coast of Venezuela, there are four major music threads to deal with: Kaiso/Calypso, Soca, Chutney music, and Parang. There is also a Hindustani classical music culture. The history is fairly complex.

Columbus spotted the Islands in 1498. They had been settled some time between 3500 and 1000 BCE by different Ortoiroid and Saladoid cultures, and by the Kalina around 1630 CE. Dutch settlers came in 1628.

In 1783 the King of Spain opened Trinidad to immigration from the French Caribbean islands. The colony boomed from 1400 to 18,627 by 1797. There were French planters with their slaves, free persons of colour, and mulattos from neighbouring islands of Grenada, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Dominica that migrated to Trinidad during the French Revolution. By 1797 it was under British rule, as a crown colony. Drumming was banned in 1883 but the instruments were transformed into bamboo, ensembles of three sizes of bamboo. Eventually Tamboo-bamboo instruments were replaced by steel drums, and soon Calypso music emerged.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Trinidad_and_Tobago

03/10/2024

Somehow elusive music ... that slips through mind and penetrates the heart. Hamza El Din. Nubian artist. Smithsonian Folkways Recording. This album is amazing. Tracks Ollin Arageed, and Helalisa ....

Provided to YouTube by Smithsonian Folkways RecordingsOllin Arageed · Hamza El DinEclipse℗ 2011 Smithsonian Folkways Recordings / The Mickey Hart CollectionR...

26/09/2024

There was one more double-exposed photograph in the 'Birth of Brendan' series. Like the few other images on that roll of film, there are Clouds ... and this time Brendan is there in the clouds. Of course it's not a Premonition of Something to Come ... because well ... he is visible, now born, physically in our arms, and perhaps Dreaming in the Sky.

25/09/2024

Penny Bun mushrooms aka Boletus edulis are still hanging around in Scotland, yet they hide well amongst the yellow leaves. That's just one type of Boletaceae found in woodlands. There are Bay boletes, Birch boletes, Larch boletes, Suillus luteus
aka slippery jack, Downy boletes, Red cracked bottles, Suillus bovinus, Suillus granulates. All tasty when cooked in stew, or dried. Do you see any in your area?

23/09/2024

YOU GOT IT! I guess that God Thee Father was/is pretty busy trying to keep the weather in balance, especially after all the Cataclysms and Floods. Big job! GTF carried on from the Egyptian god of the Sun, RA, the all-powerful God of the Sun and Light. After the justified dead were delivered to their destination, Ra and his CREW sailedl on toward dawn. When the Sun rises all see it as the sign that Ra was again victorious, and that the Egyptians would see another day …Ra Ra Ra! This is what the music CELESTIAL NILE is all about.

HOO-RAH Shakuntaladevi Matahari
Ra Ra Zoo Stephen Kent

05/09/2024

“Once we have awakened from a bad dream we are not required to go back into that dream to straighten out its mess. Leave that dream behind. No therapy on our part is required. We are the measure of ourselves, and in taking our measurement we find that we have measured our universe and its creation.”
Artwork: Jon Keliehor

25/08/2024

The gifts … rainy day … music. How the heart responds. When I was young I found opportunity to see performers from India, often at Kane Hall, Seattle, and many more in London. Artists such as Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, S. Balachander, Ram Narayan. Vocalists such as M.S. Subbulakshmi brought experiences that pushed me hard to understand the subtlety of music. Hariprasad Chaurasia is a gift.

A late evening raag with a wonderful devotional mood ! Perfect for meditation ! I love it so much I had to upload this masterpiece !...