The Wind That Shakes

From jamming with griots, to becoming a student of a respected Hindustani master of music, via classical cello training at Birmingham conservatoire, Pete Yelding’s musical background is incredibly varied. His live shows are an amalgamation of his experiences as a musician, tying together cello, sitar and his voice to create a “melodically intricate and texturally visceral” performance. 

His family name, Yelding, is a Romany name with an illustrious history in the Circus and travelling fairs, and is a proud part of Pete’s identity. He is informed by this and his unbridled curiosity and interest in his ancestral roots is evident in much of his work, always through a well researched political and post-colonial lens. 

Pete is a unique performer who uses the vehicle of composition, improvisation and performance to evoke his lived experiences and ancestral history. This combined with talent, intrigue and a thoroughly diverse musical knowledge base, we are very excited to have Pete on the podcast.

This podcast was written and produced by Harriet Paintin and Will Paintin, edited by Will Paintin and hosted by Josh Middleton.

Cabbar Boziye is Kurdish musician originally from Turkey. He is a veteran percussionist, but not only that, he is a multi-instrumentalist playing saz and djumbush to name a few. He is also an accomplished vocalist with a large repertoire of traditional repertoire in Kurdish and Turkish. Cabbar has spent many years travelling, picking up songs, instruments and experience along the way, usually taking the wise decision to spend the colder months in India gigging and working with musicians from around the world.

He is resident percussionist in supergroup The Turbans, and has worked with countless groups in the UK from Faith i Branko, to Josh’s band Don Kipper! He has played countless festivals across the UK, Europe, North America and Asia. Cabbar creates a community wherever he goes, with a generous and open attitude towards his home. The jam sessions he ran at his house were legendary, featuring some of the best musicians in London from a range of traditions resulting in some of the most eclectic and unique music making.

This episode was produced by Harriet Paintin and Will Paintin, written and hosted by Josh Middleton and edited by Andy Everett. 

*Please note that we encountered some technical difficulties during the recording of this episode that caused occasionally significant loss of audio quality. We hope this does not affect your enjoyment of the podcast.

This week we are very excited to be joined by El Far3i (El Farai), a singer, songwriter, rapper and multi-instrumentalist from Palestine and Jordan and a founding member of the shamstep group 47Soul.

As a solo artist El Far3i mixes hip hop with acoustic folk to create a unique and rich commentary which touches on many themes relevant to the world today. Inspired by the the verse, grooves and melodies from the eastern side of the River Jordan, he conveys in Arabic his visions and thoughts on his surroundings and the changes he witnesses. He describes his music as coming ‘from his region’s subconscious, with lyrics that archive the socio-psychological, political and personal subtexts of Arab daily life, extending to the diaspora. Themes of love, borders, spirituality and identity manifest.’ 

He started performing in local venues in Amman, Jordan and from that time onwards his solo career has included four albums and live performances across the Arab world and further afield. He has a grass-roots approach to his music projects, and believes in the importance of solidifying, growing and evolving different independent music scenes. This has led to numerous collaborations with numerous rappers, songwriters, and producers. These collaborations led to him co-founding 47Soul, who are one of the biggest alternative bands in the MENA region with their genre defining shamstep electronic music movement, which blends Palestinian dabke beats with electronic hip hop. Dabke is a traditional Palestinian circle dance in which groups stamp and kick to powerful rhythmic percussion accompanied by traditional music, and it has been a particularly powerful tool to assert the Palestinian identity.

This episode was written and produced by Harriet Paintin and Will Paintin, edited by Andy Everett and hosted by Josh Middleton. 

Having drawn inspiration from ancestral poetry, ancient Chinese art and even dreams about grandparents, Yijia Tu’s songs are timeless, borderless and personal. She found incredible success as a teenager in China, winning a televised talent competition and receiving multiple awards and accolades, but Yijia Tu’s ambition to explore ethnomusicology led her to London, and to SOAS where she studied music. Since coming the UK in 2016 she has appeared onstage at Richmix, the British Museum, Oxford Town Hall and on BBC Radio 3’s “Music Planet”, as well as our event at Jam In A Jar in May 2019 with her band The Sages.

The Sages are a London based syncretic ensemble who draw inspiration from different music elements throughout time and history, with a soft focus on traditional East Asian music. Emerging from a diverse cosmopolitan generation that grew up under an age of globalization and other social changes, they aim to explore and challenge the concepts between “East” and “West”, cultural identity and musical “genres” through both original composition and adaptation of traditional folk music.

This episode was written and produced by Harriet Paintin and Will Paintin, edited by Will Paintin and hosted by Josh Middleton.

Since its beginnings on the basketball courts of New York City, hip hop has become a universal platform for expression as well as an extremely powerful political tool. 

Over the last 40 years, hip hop has played a significant role in several political and social movements,  including the Los Angeles Riots in 1992 and more recently the Arab Spring of 2011. 

Astute and outspoken, Fedzilla is an MC and rapper straddling dembow-heavy beats with a Latin twist. Taking strong influences from sound system performance culture, she specialises in multilingual lyricism, weaving between ragga, cumbia, hip-hop and dancehall.

Apart from her solo work, she is also a key member of the award-winning band WARA and featured in 47SOUL’s ‘Border Ctrl’ as well as previously playing with Full Attack Band. A rare performer, her drive and motivation are not merely for the thrill and kudos of making musical waves, but to inspire and contribute to the culture of our society.

We kick off our first episode with Sara McGuinness, musician and academic, to discuss Cuba's cultural powerhouse Son Cubano. From a colonialist past to communism via resistance, revolution and some pretty turbulent global affairs - Cuba is a Caribbean island with a complex history and a vivid and expansive culture that spans literature, dance and music. 

And at the heart of Cuba’s rich musical history is Son: a deeply syncretic tradition with roots in Spanish and African music. Following the abolition of slavery in 1886 and independence from Spain in 1898, Son slowly permeated the country’s expanding working classes and soundtracked dinners, parties and revolutions throughout the 20th century. 

Sara McGuinness is a lecturer at The School of Oriental and African Studies and the University of West London, specialising in audio production. She is a musician and is MD of several groups currently operating on the London circuit including the Congolese-Cuban ensemble Grupo Lokito and the more solely Cuban focussed Sarabanda, who we welcomed at The Wind That Shakes event at Jam In A Jar in February 2019. 

This episode was written and produced by Harriet Paintin and Will Paintin, co-produced by Sara McGuinness, edited by Will Paintin and hosted by Josh Middleton.