Sacred Music + Winter Solstice Festivals

Tenzin, Feridun and I headed up to Redcliffe to take part in the Sacred Music Festival there on Sunday June 19, organised by Moreton Bay Council. The event brought together musicians and dancers from the major world "faiths", including "Australian Aboriginal Faith". Reading the event publicity, it looks like my faith is "Fusion." :-)

Michael Connolly - Australian Aboriginal Faith

Michael Knopf - Bahai Faith

Namita Debroy - Hindu Faith

Tenzin Choegyal - Buddist Faith

Feridun Avar - Sufi Islam Faith

Feridun and Tenzin with Shen Flindell - Fusion

Northey St City Farm Winter Solstice Festival

After the Sacred Music Festival we zipped off to Northey St City Farm where Tenzin and I were joined by Tibet2Timbuk2 regular guest Peter Hunt for the Winter Solstice Festival. The City Farm's solstice and equinox festivals bring loads of community together to eat the delicious veggies they've grown and enjoy great local music, winding up with a ceremony to light a big bonfire and dance to Spankinhide's African drum grooves.

Tenzin, Shen and Pete at the Northey St Winter Solstice Festival

Winter solstice bonfire

Tibet2Timbuk2 acoustic concert in Ocean Shores

Tibet2Timbuk2 had a lovely little show at my regular Ocean Shores home concert venue, Paul Kimmel's "Temple of Melodious Sound" last weekend. Unfortunately due to a number of factors - the cold weather, many people going to the Dreaming Festival, late organisation and lazy promotion - the audience was shall we say "exclusive", but regardless the natural sound in Paul's place is marvellous and that exclusive audience were very appreciative of our music. It was also a really nice chance to jam with some of my Indian classical friends, Armando Ornano (bansuri) and Tahir Qawwali (vocal). Yuki (who prepared the atmosphere with some beautiful mantras to start) took a few videos too, so here's Crane Song: Sorry about the video quality - the lights were very dim.

Tahir and his partner Barbi treated us to some Punjabi geet.

Special guest bansuri player Armando really slotted in well.

Turkey2Timbuk2 @ Powerhouse

Feridun Avar and Turkey2Timbuk2 filled in for Tibet2Timbuk2 once again last weekend, as Tenzin had flown off to New York to help raise an incredible $25000 for Tibetan earthquake relief. Back in humble Brisbane, the Powerhouse was host to the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival (HRAFF), which included an evening of free bands on the Turbine Platform - Kooii, Jumping Fences, African drumming and dance, Turkey2Timbuk2.

Kooii featuring the vocal and songwriting talents of T2T2 regular guest Peter Hunt

African Drum & Dance with Linda, Yenenesh and Michi

This girl knew all the moves.

Shen, Feridun, Peter, Marcello

Tibet2Timbuk2 home concert earthquake fundraiser

Following our busy Saturday, Tibet2Timbuk2 had another home concert on Sunday, this time in West End. My friends Elliott & Josie, well known around town for their African drumming and dance work, have a lovely spacious patio next to the Brisbane river that is perfect for home concerts. We were a little worried about the cloudy weather but there was no rain and the atmosphere was just fine. We raised $540 for the victims of the earthquake in Kyegundo, Tibet.

Spankinhide opened up the space with some traditional West African drumming

Yuki brought stillness with Sanskrit

Tibet2Timbuk2 rocked as usual

Eric Mandala and Will I Am had an impromptu acoustic ngoni session while things wound down

T2T2 @ Arana Hills and amazing Eumundi home concert

Tibet2Timbuk2 had a big weekend this week, kicking off with a brief Saturday afternoon set at The Hills Carnivale in Arana Hills - where they liked us so much they requested us to extend our set from 15 to 25 minutes - and then heading up to Eumundi for a beautiful home concert at The House With No Walls, hosted by Hemi and Linda and organised by Harii Bandhu who has been organising these home concerts for the last 2 years. On Sunday afternoon we had another home concert, but I'll leave that for another blog post. Meanwhile, check out these great photos... Many thanks to Harii Bandhu, Hemi and Linda for having us. It was an amazing concert, as you'll see.

Tibet2Timbuk2 @ The Hills Carnivale - a 15 minute set which became 25 because we're so good :-)

Yuki opened the Eumundi home concert with some meditative mantras

Harii Bandhu and Chris Lane did a set of beautiful spiritual music

Tibet2Timbuk2

Harii joined us for a jam in Daway Wola

Get down to that chunky Lhasa Beat

Turkey2Timbuk2 @ West End Carnivale

Last Saturday Tibet2Timbuk2 spinoff band Turkey2Timbuk2 opened the West End Carnivale. During the process of booking the show we discovered that Tenzin had another engagement, so we decided to rehearse a few songs with our good friend, Turkish musician Feridun Avar. All the acts were supposed to wear masks but as the day wore on it became clear no one was bothering with that too much. It's quite hard to communicate while wearing masks! Anyway we were first up and as you can see from the photos we took a mixed approach.

We opened with a short mantra session from Yuki with ambient sounds from Marcello (guitar) and Pete (trumpet).

Feridun, Shen and Marcello, with a bit of butoh-inspired exit dance from Yuki.

We started at the same time the festival gates opened, so thanks to this extra-keen supporter.

World Music Afternoon @ The Shire

A couple of weeks back my friend Feridun Avar organised a "World Music Afternoon", pulling together a bunch of friends to play outside The Shire Cafe in West End, culminating in a big jam session.

Yuki opened the proceedings with an extended mantra session, accompanied at the end by Peter Hunt (trumpet)

Feridun asked me to play tabla solo so I gladly obliged, having a go at the Basant Taal (9 beat) stuff I've been practising, plus a bit of teentaal to finish off. Thanks to George for accompanying me on harmonium, and for coming over to practise from time to time.

Feridun Avar (Turkish music) with Shen

The Tibet Three - Tenzin, Shen, Pete

World champion whistler Asim Gorashi (Sudan) led the final jam session.

Tibet2Timbuk2 @ Crystal Waters

This Sunday Tibet2Timbuk2 got back into concert mode with a very special concert at Crystal Waters Permaculture Community near Conondale in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. A month or so back I'd put out a request on our Facebook page for people to organise some shows for us, and Scott and Rosie at Crystal Waters offered to organise a show there - big big thanks to you guys! We were all really happy with the night, which gave T2T2 an opportunity to really stretch out and play all our songs including a few new ones we're working on.

Yuki opened the night with her beautiful Sanskri mantras, joined by Peter and Marcello adding some subtle tones

Special guest Peter Hunt (Kooii) sang some beautiful jazzy songs, accompanied by Shen on tabla

We played our slower songs in the first half of the set, culminating in our epic journey "Lotus Born"

Things got dancey in the second half of our 100 minute set. Everyone was getting down to that funky Lhasa Beat by the end.

We wound up with everyone singing "Aum Mani Padme Hum" together - a new melody we are working on.