http://offinc.blogspot.com/2009/09/interview-with-dylan-about-ranomafana.html
You may remember the joyous sounds of the Children of Bevohazo that I featured in episode 2 of Cardboard Transmissions. The track was taken from Ranomafana Rhythms Vol 1, a compilation CD produced by my good friend Dylan Chapple, lead singer of the noise-folk band Swanifant. Rhythms is
a musical documentation of Dylan's journey throughout Madagascar: the
album captures and compiles the various regional flavors of Malagasy
music with unspoiled authenticity, with tracks compiled from three
different local musical groups. I sat down with Dylan to talk about his
experience creating Ranomafana Rhythms, the personal and cultural significance of the project, and Malagasy music in general-
Adam: How did you come to start this project? Why did you decide to make this compilation?
Dylan: I first visited Madagascar as a student in the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments/ SUNY Stony Brook Study Abroad Program in 2005. The program takes place at Centre Val Bio,
a research station close to both the town of Ranomafana and Ranomafana
National Park. The park is home to a wealth of plants and animals not
found outside of the country. Before the trip, I spent a lot of time
listening to nature recordings that my friend Ryan Huber made during
his time is Costa Rica, and I knew that I wanted to capture some of
Madagascar's unique sounds. The idea of recording music there didn't
occur to me until I got there and started seeing people with
instruments walking along the roads. I asked around at the research
station and people referred me to Dadalira, who at the time was said to
be 100 years old. Watching him perform as I recorded was a powerful
moment, and after hearing his music I knew I wanted to figure out some
way for his music to reach people outside of his community and for him
to benefit from this sharing.
My aunt, Dr. Patricia Wright, has been working in Madagascar since the
1980's, and was a major force behind the establishment of Ranomafana
National Park. The park was established with a good deal of community
involvement, and this model was a major inspiration for the
compilation. After my trip, I discovered that much of the field
recorded traditional music that I loved mostly cut the performers out
of the revenue stream, which seemed unfair. I realized that having long
standing family connections in the area made it possible to set up a
system with people I trusted that would make sure the individuals and
communities featured on the compilation could receive the money that
was due to them. The staff of Centre Val Bio is in charge of sales to
the tourist economy in Ranomafana and I'm in charge of the stateside
sales. All profits past basic operation costs (which has only consisted
of a few major CD mailings) is divided for each CD into 3 dollars for
each band and one dollar for Centre Val Bio.
Adam: What equipment did you use to produce this project? Who else was involved?
Dylan: During my first trip in 2005 when I recorded Dadalira, I
used an iRiver HP 120, which is an early iPod type device that happens
to have decent preamps and an external mic input. During my second trip
in 2007 when I recorded the Ambatolahy-Dimy band and the children of
Bevohazo, I used a Zoom H4 hand-held recorder.
The mixing and mastering for the project was done for free by Aaron
Emmert at Silent Planet Studios in Corralitos, California, and the
package design and CD printing communication was done by Ryan Huber.
Without the work of these guys and Christopher Chapple and Patricia
Wright who helped raise the start-up costs, this project never would
have gotten off the ground. I have been lucky to get a lot of help with
the technical aspects of the music making process over the years, and a
big motivation for this project has been paying this help forward.
The Ambatolahy-Dimy Band, also pictured at the top left
Adam: The description at the Rhythms store
mentions the cabousy. (Pictured in the top left corner of the article.)
How is a cabousy different than a guitar? Is it a common instrument in
Madagascar folk music? What other instruments or ways of making sound
are used?
Dylan:
Most of the cabousys that I saw were somewhere between the size of a
mandolin and a guitar. They are tuned in a major triad, and their
fretboards are not uniform like a guitars. They are strategically
placed to allow the chords found in a major scale to be played by
simply placing one straight finger across the neck. To my ear, this
allows for more rhythmic playing than a guitar. The cabousy is used by
the Ambatolahy-Dimy band at the beginning of the compilation.
The children of Bevohazo employ voices, shakers, and bamboo shoots
pounded on the ground to create drum-like tones. Their leader blows a
whistle to direct the band. Dadalira plays an instrument that i have
heard referred to as a valiha or marovany, depending on who I asked.
His is a homemade instrument that is essentially a rectangular box with
nine or ten strings on each side that produce banjo-like tones when
plucked.
Dadalira with his homemade marovany
Adam: How is music a part of life in Madagascar? What role does it play? How is it different than music in the United States?
Dylan: Many of the Malagasy i talked to about it joke that they
haven't met one American who can sing. In my experience, singing and
music were a much more integral part of parties and gatherings in
Madagascar than they are here. After the performances in Bevohazo found
on the compilation, the group of American students I was with stayed up
singing with some of the villagers and a team of guides from Centre Val
Bio. Songs were pieced together through the memory of almost everyone
involved; where someone forgot a verse, it seemed that there was always
someone ready to jump in and lead the laughing group through it.
After about a half hour of Malagasy songs, they asked us to sing
something, just one song. All we could muster as a group was a terrible
version of Sitting on the Dock of the Bay, after which we quickly
resumed the Malagasy songs. I think that our culture emphasizes the new
and valorizes individuality to an extent that makes it hard for us to
tap into a common source of music. The iPod seems to be a good metaphor
for this; your own private musical history contained in the palm of
your hand. Music in Madagascar seems to revolve much more around shared
experience and a connection to those around you, and I think that our
culture has a lot to learn from this.
The Children of Bevohazo
Learn more about and purchase Ranomafana Rhythms Volume 1: Traditional Music from Eastern Madagascar at the Ranomafana Store. (Scroll to the bottom of the page to buy.)
