Wednesday September 29th: Oreka tx( Spain): Instituto Cervantes 7PM

The txalaparta is a Basque percussion instrument that loosely resembles a xylophone. The instrument is made up of two to five thick wooden boards and is played by two people who are called txalapartariak. They use wooden sticks about 10 inches long and an inch and a half in diameter to hit the boards following a set of rules for rhythm. The sound can sound like galloping horses. After the Spanish civil war the txalaparta was almost lost; it was censured by Franco. Oreka tx take the instrument to places it perhaps has never been: Mongolia, India and Lapland. The result is cross cultural fusion that ranges from pop and folk to the avant garde.

Well there you go; just a few acts from what promises to be another fantastic World Music Festival Chicago. Grab the link to the schedule, map out your grid and hopefully you’ll not only discover sounds you never know existed but will come away happily exhausted but looking forward to WMF Chicago 2011