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Robert
FALK
musical biography and experiences |
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Beginnings
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 were regrouped on the 'Muzungu' CD, which
was simultaneously being released in the classical way and downloadable
here.
The critical reviews of Muzungu have been rare but good.
You can check on this one, for example :
http://users.skynet.be/sky19290/world2.htm
The CD has also been played in several indie radio broadcasts
as far as the east coast of Australia.
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I have worked with several west-african musicians over the years
and visited the region frequently. It was thus natural that my
second set of compositions would focus on that part of the continent.
Almost all of Xelu
Sowu’s tracks have been composed between
2004 and 2007, which gives a better coherence in the compositions.
I could also benefit from the experience of Muzungu in terms
of recording and production techniques.
The comments I have received on my myspace page have been
very encouraging so far so I hope this CD will achieve
a greater
notoriety than the previous one.
You can check my myspace page :
www.myspace.com/robertfalkthemuzungu
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- @ 2005 Robert Falk