OUR MUSIC
Many African drummers learn their trade before they learn to walk, yet
with us the joy of creating rhythm came a bit later. BU formed as a group
of people exploring the most accessible and simple rhythms of the rich
African and Latin-American heritage. Soon after getting to know the drum,
the basic strokes and its rhythmical possibilities, we started creating
our own compositions, rearranging the traditional, blending different
approaches and adding our own flavour to it all. Ever more daring rhytmical
samples were combined with the static "background" patterns,
we hummed, sang and played with everything that had a sound and would
give rhythm - since we discovered it to be one of the most precious gifts
of nature. The first compositions of our own were created without a traditional
base but rather as a combination of both traditional and contemporary
(electronic) sound as well as (numeric) composition.
The selection of drums and other instruments has been changing and growing
throughout the years and soon the so called rhythm machine - sangpan,
dundun and kenken came into foreground and secured the long-lacked foundation
to the main front of djembe drums. Also the small percussion such as claves,
bells and shakers became a necessary contribution to the more and more
complex rhythms as well as choreographic challenges. Although a single
bandmember usually (re)creates and "submits" the entire composition,
our greatest fun is taking it from there to a point where every member
contributes to the piece, adding a solo part, a bridge, another groove
or a certain movement of the body,…
Since 2002 we have been expanding our musical expression into the realms
of street performance and specific socially motivated rhythm-events. In
the drum drama "BUsingye" we emphasized
choreography, thus the nonverbal communication through the entire body
and drum was felt even stroger (in exchange) with the audience. Apart
from cooperations with a choir and some international collaborations (www.lanuit.nl)
we are also creating "rhythm-events" for the deaf and the hard
of hearing ("BUmBUs" 2003 - 2005), whereby
our experience in understanding music and musical composition is upgraded
and recombined anew. In 2004, the project called "BUdiseja4002"
reevaluated our past multimedia experiments and blended them into a journey
down the river Ljubljanica, which brought together different elements
of natural expression such as music, dancing and visuals, telling a story
of the four basic elements (water, air, earth and fire).
In the year 2005 we are attempting an even more intensive multicultural
and experimental approach to drumming, adding percussion from all over
the world (tarabuka, tapan, indian tabla, congas, timbales,…), mixing
different cultural heritage and giving the traditional african groove
a new go. Even combining hand drumming with electronical rhythmical experience
is not out of our reach and with it we hope to achieve a new level of
awernes of rhythm for us as well as for our audience, to whom the our
music is deeply committed...
>> Listen to mp3 or have a look at some
of our performances on video - but best is simply
to share it live!
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