| |
Robert
FALK
musical biography and experiences |
|
Beginnings
|
 |
I was born in Paris, but if I am french I
am not of french origin. My father is german and my mother is Belgian.
This eclectic background may be already a reflection of my eclectic
musical tastes. For professional reasons the family moved to Brussels
when I was 10 and I still live presently in this city, one of the
most multicultural of Europe.
I started to get interested in music when I was 14 and I bought
my first guitar at the age of 15. At this time I was mostly interested
in folk music, especially the protest songs of the USA. In order
to understand the meaning of the lyrics I learned English as
fast as possible. I also liked country blues as well as traditional
music from Latin America or Eastern Europe.
I started very quickly to write songs and to play with school
friends in various groups. I have still some recordings left
of that time but their sentimental value far exceeds their musical
value.
Later my musical tastes got more diverse. I started playing
electric guitar and keyboards. I loved the head-rock (or symphonic
rock) period from the early seventies then the jazz-rock explosion
that followed.
|
At
this time I also first stopped singing then writing songs. As
from 1979 I have only composed instrumental music.
I played a lot of jazz-rock with two consecutive bands between
1979 and 1986 (Spring and Falklands). This led me to know the
Belgian jazz scene, the nicest musical scene I know so far.
I got acquainted
with computer-music at it’s beginning
in 1986. The software of that time were very user-unfriendly
: everything had to be written note per note, and the only way
to humanize a bit the result was to play with the length of the
notes by adding or subtracting 1/128 notes. I acquired then a
solid experience as contemporary monk and a sound hatred for
quantizing.
|
 |
Being
a member of a “expert” group
in computer-aided musical composition I got involved, through sheer
chance, in a cultural mission between Belgium and Zaïre. The
purpose of this mission was to put together a three-week workshop
on computer-aided music for the benefit of a selection of zairian
musicians. I had no knowledge of African music, but I knew how to use a computer
in a musical way and the software had gotten much better. All I
had to do was to train the participants.
|
This
trip to Zaire, my first to Africa, was a deciding factor in my
musical choices up to now.
Since the beginning I had always been in touch with “black” music,
from country blues to soul and then jazz, so I was not completely
in foreign territory, but Zaïre had a wealth of new rhythms,
melodic and accompaniment patterns that were fascinating to me.
Furthermore some of my trainees were part of
a wonderful group called Embowassa,
with excellent voices and great songs.
At the end of the mission I went back to Europe,
taking with me the precious disquettes on which I had stored
as many rhythms
and songs as possible. In the course of the next two years I
started working on a new series of compositions, with mixed African
and jazz elements of which a part can be found in my CD ‘Muzungu’.
I was also working on arrangements for the Embowassas
and on the various ways to make them come in Europe. Eventually
they were invited in 1991 for a one month stay in Belgium which
I used to record their (and my) first CD, 'Tuta
Weza' (1992 - Franc'Amour CD 73).
Two members of the band, unwilling to return to a decaying country
(Zaire of 91) decided to stay in Europe, despite the hazards
of underground living, and this led to the split of the group.
I tried to maintain the links between the part of the band in
Europe, and the one that had returned to Zaire, but after a few
months spent in Belgium, Didi Ekukuan, the leader and principal
singer of the band moved to France and joined his brother Lokua
Kanza who he played with for 10 years, sometimes with Bondo Lumembo,
another ex-Embowassa. The group was by now really dead and I
had to find something else.
However this almost confidential CD got an excellent
welcome and one of it’s tracks, Tshanga, is featured in an American
compilation, ‘The Best of World Music : African’ (1993 – Putumayo
Records).
|
My next musical encounter was in 1993 with an
artist from northern Senegal, Abou Thiam. He had come to Belgium
with his traditional trio, Ngaari Laaw, but his guitaris had been
lost in the way. I replaced him at a moment’s notice and
we didi a mini-tour during the summer of ’93. Through Abou
and his sideman, Mamadou Gueye, who plays the hoddu ( a traditional
4-string African instrument close to the american banjo) I discovered
the halpulaar music of the Senegal river region.
I recorded two songs with the trio in Brussels, and after the
return of Abou and Mamadou to Dakar I did a symphonic-type arrangement
on one of the tracks, Daara, which I sent to Abou. He was so
impressed by the result that he sent the song to the RFI competition
of ’93 where Daara was one of the finalists.
|
|
|
Sometime later Abou signed a contract with the Cobalt label in
Paris and released a CD, on which my version of Daara is
featured. However, Abou had not forgotten to include the
song but did forget me when if was time to share the money
that the song had generated.
Since then I have never worked with him anymore.
|
In 1994 I started a musical collaboration with Dominic Kakolobango,
a Zambian artist who lives in Brussels. Dominic was one of the
pupils and is one of the musical heirs of the late Jean Bosco
Mwenda, a guitarist and songwriter from the southeast of Congo-Zaïre.
Jean Bosco Mwenda and other artists from Zambia, Kenya or Tanzania
are representative of a style of music which could be called ‘Swahili
folk’ : ballad-like songs with an acoustic guitar backing
; something very different from the majority of modern urban
african music.
Dominic and I decided to revisit this repertoire and to perform
it. We put together a mini-band with bassist Ary Zogdoulé
and the then unknown Marlène Dorcéna.
We also recorded the CD "
Habari Za Kwetu " (1995 - Sonodisc).
Later Dominic and I .experienced tensions because of musical
divergences and we decided to end our collaboration.
|
|
 |
My
financial problems with Abou Thiam had not disgusted me with
halpulaar music.and I started in 1996 to
work with Malick Pathé Sow, a Senegalese artist living in
Brussels. Malick had founded a group called Welnere, which I joined,
bearing the prestigious title of musical director.
By getting
also a drummer, we had a real stage-group of world music (which
is after all only the same of the folk-rock of my
adolescence) and we played a large number of gigs, both small
venues and big festivals between 1996 and 1999 (including a
memorable
show in Geneva for the ‘Fête de la Musique’ in
june 1998 and another –less convincing – in Couleur
Café in june 1999).
I recorded in the studio that I had built little by little 7
songs which I released as a cassette at the end of 1997. I wanted
to release it also in Senegal, but the production demands and
the impossibility to find reliable partners, made me decide against
it. Fortunately something else was coming up.
Malick played
for a long time with Baaba Maal and put me in touch with Baaba’s label, Island Records. The people there
were delighted with this cassette and proposed to us a CD contract
on Baaba’s new label which was being created.
|
The CD was released in august 1998, but Malcik lost both his Pathé
and 'c' between London and Brussels : Malik
P. Sow - Danniyanke
(1998 - Yoff. Distr. Palm Pictures)
For reasons which are still unknown to me today, nobody within
the English label did seriously take care of the promotion, and
this CD was never released in the USA despite being listed in
the European World Music Charts.
At
the end of 1999 the tensions which had long existed in the
group got worse and a large part of the band went away including
myself.
|
Almost a year later I went back but with a much
lesser status. We worked nevertheless on a second CD, for which
I collaborated with the new musical director Mbagnick Gaye. Due
to the general disinterest of the established labels I eventually
decided to take in charge the entire production and release of
the CD which took place in june 2002 on my own label.
Malick P. Sow - Diariyata
(2002 - A3 Distribution)
The same problems about finding reliable partners occurred
again, and this CD is up to now almost confidential. When looking
for an American partner I sent a few copies to the USA and
I learned later that the CD had been pirated on a large scale.
It is still theoretically possible to launch a cassette of
Diariyata in Senegal (a contract has been signed), but this
is delayed for inexplicable reasons.
|
|
|
|
At the end of 1999, after my departure from
Welnere, I joined Pas Mal +, a Brussels Congolese band. This group
has been founded by Yannick Koy and J.P. Kilosho and comprises
excellent musicians from the soukous community in Belgium.
The repertoire has nevertheless a large amount of songs in afro-cuban,
jazz or reggae style.It is thus a real fusion music with afro
elements from both sides of the Atlantic.
Since 1999
we have made a large number of gigs, both in small venues and
big festivals. However we haven’t had so far
any serious proposal for management.
We
have recorded enough material for a large CD, but my experience
of Diariyata has made me very cautious about the possibilities
to manage properly a CD release without an adequate structure.
However some of the songs can be downloaded from this site. Download
|
|
|
Since
2004 I have chosen to concentrate my efforts and my financial
resources on self-production of my own compositions. Some of these
are quite old (the oldest dates from 1985), but have been enhanced
over the years as my musical experiences have expanded. The first
set of tracks are regrouped on the 'Muzungu'
CD, which is simultaneously being released in the classical way
or downloadable here.
|
|
|
|
- @ 2005 Robert Falk