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Vakoka on the Radio

  • Documentary on National Public Radio. A mini-documentary produced by Rob Weisberg aired on "Studio 360" on member stations of National Public Radio. You can listen on-line to the documentary (click on "Introducing Vakoka") on the bottom right.
  • Features on CBC Radio. Vakoka has been featured by the CBC in "The Arts Today" (national), Fresh Air (Ontario) and Sean was interviewed by Brent Bambury on "All in a Day" in August 2004.
  • BBC Documentary. Richard Hamilton, a reporter for the BBC, was present all through the recording session in Madagascar, and he prepared a 25 minute documentary on the making of the Vakoka project. It includes interviews with Sean, Hanitra and Seta, as well as clips of the songs as they progressed from raw idea through to finished track. The program originally aired in June 2003 on the BBC World Service's ArtBeat program. You can listen to the documentary here (25 minutes - 25 MB)
  • Global Village. CBC's Global Village featured Introducing Vakoka as part of a special broadcast on the music of Madagascar. In it, host Jowi Taylor interviewed Madagascar Slim how Vakoka came to be and what it means to the preservation of Madagascar's musical heritage.
  • BBC Interview. Sean was also interviewed on the BBC World Service in June 2003 (just after leaving Madagascar, and before we found a label). Listen to the interview here (5 minutes - 4.9 MB)

Vakoka in the Press

Best of 2004 - Vakoka was included on quite a number of critics' "Best of 2004" lists, including Ian Anderson (editor of fRoots), Sid Whelan (writer for "The Beat"), Tom Orr (Contributor, The Beat and Global Rhythm), Roddy Campbell (editor of "Penguin Eggs") and Jon Kertzer (Seattle Radio DJ and Producer). Vakoka has also been placed on a number of radio stations' Best of 2004 lists, including KGNU (Denver), Australian Broadcasting Corp ("The Planet"), WFMU (New Jersey), KAOS (Olympia WA) and CKCU (Ottawa).

Here is some of what the press has had to say about Vakoka (see the main page for a longer listing of all the condensed articles).

Songlines Top 50 African Albums of All Time: "This brand new album, forged over a frenetic six-week period, is a vibrant display of the infectious range of Malagasy music. The intricate twanging of the valiha and marovany zithers is there, the harmony vocals, the strident sodina flutes and the swinging, seductive salegy dance. It's got deep traditional roots plus a contemporary edge with some excellent contributions from Malagasy flute and sax player Seta Ramaroson. Sharing artistic direction with him is singer Hanitra, leader of the band Tarika, who also created Antshow, the cultural centre in Antanarivo, where the music was created and rehearsed."

Clive Bell, Wire Magazine (U.K.), September 2004: "The best Madagascan collection I've heard in years, this is a showcase for a score of the island's traditional musicians that deserves the widest possible audience. Originally visiting Madagascar to help build windmills, producer Sean Whittaker was astonished at how much high quality local music was going unrecorded and ignored. Teaming up with local wind player Seta and internationally known singer Hanitra of the group Tarika, Whittaker determined to capture some of the high-spirited, improvisational music that excited him at local concerts. Far from being 'difficult', this is sophisticated Madagascan pop in which vocal harmonies, guitars and the marovany box zither interlock with the headlong but featherlight triple rhythms characteristic of most local music. Hanitra's pair of songs are cool and pretty, then things hot up as vocalist Monja testifies over the breakneck joyfulness of 'Dame Ihaova'. Unreservedly recommended."

Rick Sanders, fRoots, July 2004: "Now (Hanitra of Tarika) has set up a cultural centre in Madagascar called Antshow, a place for the band to play and write, also a local resource. Its first ripe fruit is a remarkable summit meeting, a collaboration dreamed up and produced by a Canadian, Sean Whittaker, to make an original compendium of Malagasy music with Hanitra and a dozen of Madagascar's leading musicians and composers. Over a six-week period these people, mostly unknown to each other, created a complete work - a little bit here, a little bit there - a sophisticated but organic assemblage of the island's musical identities, and it sounds glorious. There's creativity and fire in abundance, a great sense of fun and delight by the participants, it's especially well-recorded, and holds surprises too. Highlights: the sax and flute of Seta Ramaroson is just lovely, a model of discretion, class and soul throughout; the speed and general grunt in particular of the Dame Ihaova track, with a lovely falling-away riff reminiscent of Zambian kalindula, is pure exhilaration, stratospheric. The next track, a warm and beguiling almost-Brazilian samba, turns out in fact to be a guitar style from the Malagasy mountains. All the way through the CD there's contrast: more attack than I expected, more repose too. Even if you know something of Malagasy music, rush to investigate this CD with ears wide open. It may catch you right where it counts."

Simon Broughton, Songlines Magazine, July 2004: "The music of Madagascar sounds like nothing else in Africa - but then Madagascar isn't really in Africa at all. It's a huge mountainous island in the Indian Ocean, some 1,600 km from top to bottom and with its own distinctive flora and fauna, people and culture. It's a shame that despite fabulous musicians and groups like Tarika, Jaojoby and Justin Vali, the country's music isn't as widely known as its lemurs. Vakoka (Tradition) provides a great place to start if you're new to Malagasy music, but also something new and significant if you have a sizeable back catalogue. The CD features musicians and styles from all over Madagascar under the direction of flute/sax player Seta Ramaroson, Hanitra (Hanitrarivo Rasoanaivo, the charismatic leader of Tarika) and producer Sean Whittaker. It was created and rehearsed over a six-week period at Antshow, the cultural centre recently established by Hanitra in the capital Antananarivo. There's a rich variety of styles here, from the opening 'Salama' in the driving salegy dance rhythm to the spacey sodina flute and drum piece 'Lazao'; from the raw, marketplace feel of 'Dame Ihaova', dominated by marovany zither, to the splendid fusion of traditional lokanga fiddle and Seta's sax on 'Manigne'. 'Vorondolo', a catchy choral song with exquisite counterpoint on two guitars and acoustic bass, is one of those numbers that really sticks in the memory. Its title, literally 'ghost bird', is Malagasy for owl, a creature associated with witches in Madagascar ... a vibrant achievement.'

Derek Beres, AfroPop Worldwide: "Sean Whittaker is poised to be the next Ry Cooder. Not that his guitar skills match up (in fact, he doesn't play an instrument), but his profound love for the music of Madagascar rivals the passion Cooder poured into Buena Vista's infamous club. Whittaker's half-decade living abroad inspired a return visit in 2003, where he witnessed, dumbfounded, virtuoso woodwind player Seta Ramaroson playing for an aerobics class. Traditional music, he saw, was not receiving its due. Joining the same plight as Tarika vocalist Hanitra Rasoanaivo in exposing and spreading this music, Whittaker arranged a biweekly club night for musicians of varying styles at Grill de Rova in Tana, the capital city. The success of that night spawned Introducing Vakoka, a melding of 13 artists of numerous styles converging in Antananarivo's legendary Mars Music studio. Headed by Seta and, eventually to Whittaker's surprise, Hanitra, the outsider created sacred space for locals to do what they do best. The album itself is an acoustic masterpiece. Despite the ever-present issues when musicians of stylistic difference come together (rhythmic approach, production mastering) and some rarer instances (chicken feeding, twisted ankles, spirit possessions), Seta and Hanitra culled 12 gorgeous tracks in six weeks. The polyrhythmic blend of breathing, chants and melody against the langoro (Malagasy drum) and marovany (box zither) creates a hypnotically stable beat, easily trance inducing. Many other elements across the album conjure such emotion: the intricate guitar work of Haja Rasolomahatratra and Claude Teta on "Salama" and "Vorondolo" simply seduce the listener, inviting them into the same ritualistic sound-play that must have engaged the musicians. While every vocalist and musician is first class, there's something unique and special in Hanitra¹s vocals, and you instantly fall into her lines. The gorgeous "Era," about the modern anxiety of clock-watching, and "Vorombazaha," a traditional lullaby reworked to make a bird into an airplane, shows why Tarika has become known as one the top bands in the world. She exudes fanahy Gasy (Malagasy soul), what would be called duende among Spain's flamenco elites, and real (as in "keeping it") among American rappers. This she does, as her mission to let the world hear Madagascar's sonic folklore continues within her country's borders, and without."

Mark Hudson, The Daily Telegraph (London) Top 10 CDs of the Week, August 23: "One of the first releases of a new label introducing little-known world artists at mid-price, this is a beautifully airy album. The singing, whether from world-weary growler Marovany or exuberant folk diva Hanitra, flashes with joy and melancholy in a cocktail of moods unlike anything you'll hear anywhere else".

Banning Eyre, The Boston Phoenix - "Introducing Vakoka focuses on music neglected in its home setting and is guided by an inspired, sensitive foreign producer. Sean Whittaker had lived for five years in Madagascar, and he often lamented the lack of attention accorded the island’s folkloric musicians. In 2002, he returned and assembled a group of top-flight musicians from different ethnic groups for a series of concerts and then for an album in which each principal contributed two pieces and could draw upon the other musicians for accompaniment. Two months of rehearsing preceded a frenzied two-day recording session that resulted in one of the most satisfying recordings of Malagasy folk-pop available."

Damian Rafferty, FLY Global Music Culture: "Picture this: you arrive at some remote location with a mini-disc recorder in hand and record a few locals doing their traditional songs. You take the tape back to London and through a mate you get to meet someone who'll team you up with someone who knows how to make a proper recording. You go back. You get better songs and better quality. The CD sells well and a couple of years later you go back once more. There is no legacy, the musicians had a few extra bucks for a while and then the money went and life returned to normal. You even get hustled at a bar by a musician you recorded. You figure that no one got killed, a few bucks were made and the world got some new sounds. Now listen to how this CD got made. Sean Whittaker spent five years in Madagascar working on local projects and developed an appreciation of Malagasy music. In 2002 he returned and found that local musicians were still frustrated by a lack of places to play. He helped set up a night at a local restaurant and started a train of events that would lead to the CD being created with local musicians acting as musical directors. All the pieces were original and rehearsed properly and the producer's proceeds are going to the Madagascar Cultural Archive Project. And what music is it! There is a huge range of music as you would expect from a place as large and diverse as Madagascar. Upbeat stormers like Salama and excursions in chilled instrumentalism like Faly Sy Ravo. Particularly catching is the second track, Era with a wonderful lead vocal by Hanitrarivo (a song appropriately enough about the way time chases people and as musical director she would know) and her second track, instantly recognisable as a lullaby, Vorombazaha. Seta's track Lazao has an almost Irish feel to it combining as it does drums and what sounds like a whistle. Djoma's two tracks feature a very upbeat southern African guitar sound and on the second one accordion. Hanitrarivo also returns as a background vocal to Djoma's lead. In fact, despite the very different music produced, a closer look at the credits reveals that most of the same musicians are playing on each other's tracks taking different levels of prominence as they do so. Vakoka is a joy to listen to and a testament to what can be achieved when projects are handled in an organic way with local people at the heart of them."

Doug Spencer, Australian National Radio - The Planet "'Introducing Vakoka' sees thirteen of the island’s finest musicians, in a singular circumstance, in a suitably-titled studio: Mars! From all over the world’s fourth largest island, most had not worked together before. “Vakoka” means “tradition”, but their brief was to collaborate, creating new songs & tunes, with just these restrictions: the music must be original, have “Malagasy soul” & not involve synthesizers or drum machines. The resulting album is as irresistible as it is unique."

Adam Greenberg, AMG All Music Guide: "Vakoka is something of a one-shot Malagasy supergroup, comprised of performers and composers from around the island, each with their own bits of diverse styles and ideas. The two primary forces behind the music are Seta Andrianary, a woodwind player from the capital, and Hanitra Rasoanaivo, the force behind Tarika. The roster is filled in by a number of local stars and composing geniuses. The idea behind the album itself is to represent something from each of the multitude of styles present in Malagasy traditional music (sans the rock and pop influences hopefully), and moreover to combine this multitude of styles into a coherent whole. This is done remarkably well, with each composer setting out a couple of songs and the group members each taking on the various aspects of the sound from their own repertoire. Valihas, sodinas, and guitars intermingle over a constant patter of small drums during the hotter numbers, and light twinkling on the strings accompanies softer vocals on the slower numbers. The album capably transports the listener to an aesthetic not present in much of Western music, and an ambience that's rarely to be experienced outside of the locale in question. Give it a spin as something of a mixed primer of Malagasy music."

All reviews re-printed with the kind permission of the publishers.

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