LA CHERGA, REVOLVE (ASPHALT TANGO RECORDS)
[DUNKELBUNT]
A NEW DAY; LAYA PROJECT REMIXED
ADDIS ACOUSTIC PROJECT
AFRO ROOTS WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL
AMADOU & MARIAM
ANTÓNIO ZAMBUJO
APHRODESIA
BALKANBEATS
BANCO DE GAIA
BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC ORKESTAR
BOBAN I MARKO MARKOVIC
BOY WITHOUT GOD
C.J. CHENIER
CARLOS GOGO GOMEZ
CHOBAN ELEKTRIK
CHOPTEETH
CHRISTIANE D
CHRISTINE VAINDIRLIS
CLARA PONTY
COPAL
CUCHATA
DAMJAN KRAJACIC
DANIEL CROS
DEBO & FENDIKA
DEL CASTILLO
DR JAYANTHI KUMARESH
EARTHRISE SOUNDSYSTEM
EGYPT NOIR
ELIN FURUBOTN
EMILY SMITH
FANFARE CIOCARLIA VS. BOBAN & MARKO MARKOVIC
FEUFOLLET
FIAF PRESENTS WORLD NOMADS MOROCCO: MUSIC
FOOTSTEPS IN AFRICA
GECKO TURNER
GENTICORUM
GEOFF BERNER
GIANMARIA TESTA
GODS ROBOTS
GUARCO
HUUN HUUR TU
INDIAN OCEAN
IRENE JACOB & FRANCIS JACOB
JANAKA SELEKTA
JANYA
JERRY LEAKE
JOAQUIN DIAZ
JOEL RUBIN
JORGE STRUNZ
JOSEF KOUMBAS
JOYFUL NOISE (I GRADE RECORDS)
JUST A BAND
KAMI THOMPSON
KARTICK & GOTAM
KHALED
KHING ZIN & SHWE SHWE KHAING
KITKA'S CAUCASIAN CONNECTIONS PROJECT PERFORMANCES AND WORKSHOPS
KMANG KMANG
KOTTARASHKY AND THE RAIN DOGS
LA CHERGA
LAC LA BELLE
LAYA PROJECT
LENI STERN
LES TRIABOLIQUES
LISTEN FOR LIFE
LOBI TRAORÉ
LO'JO
LOKESH
MAGNIFICO
MAHALA RAI BANDA
MIDNITE
MOHAMMED ALIDU AND THE BIZUNG FAMILY
MR. SOMETHING SOMETHING
MY NAME IS KHAN
NAWAL
NAZARENES
NO STRANGER HERE (EARTHSYNC)
OCCIDENTAL BROTHERS ON TOUR
OCCIDENTAL GYPSY
OREKA TX
ORQUESTRA CONTEMPORÂNEA DE OLINDA
PABLO SANCHEZ
PEDRO MORAES
RAYA BRASS BAND
SALSA CELTICA
SAMITE
SARA BANLEIGH
SARAH AROESTE
SELAELO SELOTA
SHYE BEN-TZUR
SIA TOLNO
SIBIRI SAMAKE
SISTER FA
SLIDE TO FREEDOM II
SONIA BREX
SOSALA
SWEET ELECTRA
SYSTEMA SOLAR
TAGA SIDIBE
TAJ WEEKES
TARANA
TARUN NAYAR
TE VAKA
TELEPATH
THE MOUNTAIN MUSIC PROJECT
THE NATIVE AMERICA NORTH SHOWCASE
THE SPY FROM CAIRO
TITO GONZALEZ
TOUSSAINT
VARIOUS ARTISTS
VARIOUS ARTISTS
WATCHA CLAN
WHEN HARRY TRIES TO MARRY SOUNDTRACK
WOMEXIMIZER
WOMEXIMIZER
ZDOB SI ZDUB
ZIETI

Bio

La Cherga: A Weapon of Mass Construction

Let us, for a moment, imagine a parallel universe: 1978 and Lee "Scratch" Perry does not burn down Kingston's Black Ark Studios. Instead, disturbed by the CIA-funded violence and corruption disrupting Jamaica, he accepts an offer from Comrade Tito to relocate to the People's Republic of Yugoslavia, reopening Black Ark deep in the Southern Balkans. Tito, drawing on the gnostic mysticism musicians across the planet share, encourages exemplary talents to journey to the Ark. The likes of the region's finest jazz musicians and most raucous Gypsy brass bands stop by to see what happens in the echo chamber. A variety of vocalists add texture to Scatch's dub collages. From Mingus to Marley, Istanbul to Memphis, the Balkan Ark drew on the energies of legendary musicians and cities.

Tito believed the Yugoslav Ark would act as a conduit for world peace, international understanding, artistic communing and Balkan-flavoured partying. Yet before any of these Ark sessions were released the Yugoslav wars raped the region, leading to the fateful burning of the Ark and forcing Scratch to flee to Switzerland . . .

Back in our universe, amongst those forced to flee Yugoslavia's inflammatory nationalism was NEVENKO BUCAN, a Croat electronics wizard with a taste for dubbed out Balkan grooves. Once settled in Graz in Austria, Nevenko sought out fellow Yugoslav musicians, finding Bosnia's MUAMER GAZIBEGOVIC (guitar), ANKA ILIJASEVIC, a folk and jazz singer from Croatia, Macedonian brass masters KIRIL KUZMANOV (alto saxophone) and TRAJCE VELKOV (trumpet/fugelhorn) and MICHELE MONTOLLI (bass). La Cherga came together as these musicians began to feel out a new musical identity, sharing what could be called a "Post Pessimist" philosophy, working on cultural exchange projects, differentiating between war profiteers and anti-war profiteers, whispering about raiding the lost Ark. La Cherga (named after a rag rug, appropriate for these musical recyclers) began weaving a sonic collage, inventing a Balkan internationalist music & manifesto: their sound drawing on the best of both East and West (skanking rhythms, sour horns and boiling dub) while the lyrics deal with freeing your mind from mental slavery.

La Cherga represent a pan-Balkanic consciousness (ripe, bright and tasty as stuffed peppers - with a shot of rakija!), good times music shadowed both by Yeats' maxim that "things fall apart" and Gramsci's "pessimism of reason, optimism of the will". Here then is a post-Yugoslav unity music, one sung in several tongues, its sounds advocating musical healing and a world without borders. These musicians, all too familiar with the insanity of nationalism and the impotence of bombs and the bleak reality of refugee visas, have created a temple of tolerance, one built on diversity.
LA CHERGA: a weapon of mass construction.

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