The Lebanese musician Malikah started to rap out of rage. She travels between the streets of Beirut to Europe's avant-garde spaces. Norient caught up with her to talk about her sense of belonging in an English-speaking, male-dominated hip hop scene.
Today the sampling of all material from infinite sources challenges the «spectacular aura» of the pre-recorded original in order to claim autonomy. We asked musicians from the Norient network: how does the digital availability of sources change music?
A psychological approach to sampling: the American avantgarde-pop musician Katie Gately samples familiar, sometimes scary sounds and noises form the everyday that are deeply connected to her childhood memory.
A second commentary in French on the video «Formidable» by Belgium singer Stromae, written for our book «Seismographic Sounds. Visions of a New World». An elaboration on the typical Belgian «bonhomme» mentality.
Gqom edit 003 / Experimenting with interview formats // We meet gqom producer Menchess in his house in Durban to discuss what this dark electronic music genre is all about. #dreams #democratization #class #townships
Wikluh Sky is part of the hip hop trio Bad Copy from Serbia. In the podcast he talks about making art in Serbia, their video «Esi mi dobar», and about what would happen when Hans Zimmer would call him and offer him a job.
We trace the history of the carillon of the biggest church in Rotterdam, the Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk. Its bell sounds play an important role in the tracks of the compilation «010», released by the Dutch initiative RE:VIVE.
I was thoroughly fooled by Stromae’s video for «Formidable» the first time I saw it. I found Stromae to be very intelligent, beautiful, meticulous and his music made me want to dance. A commentary from a Sub-Saharan perspective.
Gqom edits 001/002 / Experimenting with interview formats // We meet gqom producer Citizen Boy and his grandmother in the Avoca Hills township of Durban to discuss about dark electronic gqom tracks.
«It's like a deformed anger which comes out us», says Wanlov the Kubolor, one half of the Ghanaian rap duo FOKN Bois. With his musical partner M3nsa he talks about their visions and their way of doing art in a religious context.
Far from folkloristic clichés and beyond the radar of the taste-shaping music press, there are alternative music scenes thriving in Central and Eastern Europe. Watch its most urgent video clips.
