Asad Buda is an Afghan writer and artist. He was born during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and was only two years old when his father was killed by the Mujahideen. A member of the country’s Hazar minority, Asad Buda had a religious upbringing. As a teenager he moved to Iran to study Islam. However, his experiences, along with the discovery of writers such as Paul Celan eventually made him question political Islam. He would soon move his focus towards sociology and literature studies in Teheran, where he was later to be imprisoned. In 2015, he came to Sweden on a scholarship as a refuge writer in Karlstad. In this interview, made by Mia Herman, he talks–among other things–about his poem Urbicide and the ideas behind it. The music in this episode was performed by Aziz Herawi.

Clandestino Podcast

Clandestino Podcast: Asad Buda

Hanna Rajs Lara (1991) är en svensk poet vars debut, Armarna (2018), nominerades till Borås Tidnings Debutantpris. Baby, utgiven 2020 på Anti, är en kärleksdikt som rör sig mellan himlen och framtiden och frun, på ett språk som är ledigt och lyriskt. Under månen (2020), Rajs Laras senaste bok samlar dikter om arv, framtid, vänskap, trauma och sorg – upplysta av ett skarpt, men ömt, månljus.

I samtal med Hanna Rajs Lara möter vi UKON, akronym för Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson, poet, psykolog och psykoanalytiker född 1965. Har sedan debuten 1990 med Kung-Kung utkommit med ett tjugotal böcker, senast essäsamlingen Röstautograferna (Norstedts 2019). Skriver litteraturkritik i Göteborgs Posten och Svenska Dagbladet; i redaktionen för Glänta och Arche. Aktuell med sin och Jenny Tunedals översättning av Emily Dickinsons Faskikel 40, De enda nyheterna (Anti 2021).

Litteratur i krisens marginal: Hanna Rajs Lara och UKON

Gunnar Nirstedt, född 1965 och bosatt i Stockholm och Borghamn, är en svensk redaktör, förläggare och författare. Han driver sedan 2018 förlaget Nirstedt/litteratur som har fokus på skönlitteratur och poesi. Han är aktuell med sin första roman, Valborgsmässoafton på Nytorps gärde (Modernista) som kom ut hösten 2020. 

I samtalet med Gunnar möter vi även Gordana Spasić, född 1988 i Belgrad, uppvuxen i Malmö och verksam som poet och kritiker. Hon debuterade 2017 (tillsammans med Johanna Frid) med diktsamlingen Familieepos som nominerades till Katapultpriset och Sveriges radios lyrikpris. Sedan 2017 har hon regelbundet skrivit litteraturkritik för framförallt Göteborgs-Posten och Örnen och Kråkan. Hon är utbildad vid juristprogrammet på Stockholms Universitet och Biskops-Arnös författarskola.

Litteratur i krisens marginal: Gunnar Nirstedt och Gordana Spasić

Johan Jönson, född 1966, är uppväxt i medelpadska Njurunda ett par mil söder om Sundsvall. Han är sedan 1990 bosatt i Örnsberg i Stockholm och bokdebuterade 1992 med Som samplingsdikter. Sedan dess har han utkommit med ett tjugotal poesiböcker, bland annat Efter arbetsschema (2008) och Marginalia/Xterminalia (2019). Under våren 2021 är han aktuell med ProponeisiS.

I samtalet med Johan möter vi också Lidija Praizović, född 1985 och bosatt i Fruängen, Stockholm. Praizović är verksam som författare, journalist och dramatiker och utkom senast med Hjärta mot hjärta / Pappas bil / Adolf (tre dramer) på det queerfeministiska Dockhaveri Förlag. Hon har tidigare gett ut romanen Spegelboken (2009) och diktsamlingen Porr för Vlada (2012).

Litteratur i krisens marginal: Lidija Praizović och Johan Jönson

Andrzej Tichý, född 1978 i Prag, är bosatt i Malmö. Han debuterade med romanen Sex liter luft (2005), för vilken han tilldelades Borås Tidnings debutantpris. Tichýs verk har sedan dess blivit flerfaldigt prisbelönta och översatts till en rad olika språk. Hans senaste roman, Eländet (2016), tilldelades Eyvind Johnson-priset samt nominerades till Augustpriset. För den engelska översättningen av Eländet (Wretchedness) är han nominerad till The International Booker Prize 2021. 

I samtalet med Andrzej möter vi också Pär Thörn (född 1977, författare och ljudkonstnär. Sedan debuten 2002 har han givit ut närmare tjugo böcker och blivit översatt till bland annat danska och franska. Thörn har även framträtt på scener i Sverige, Europa, Mexiko och Vietnam. Just nu är han aktuell med prosaboken Era anklagelser är meningslösa.

Litteratur i krisens marginal: Andrzej Tichý och Pär Thörn

Meet Nuri, a musician who uses field recordings, pygmy songs and tribal drums. Not to forget drum machines and FAT bass, creating electronic dance music that he calls Afro Bass. 
His full name is Amine Nouri, and he grew up in Tunisia but has spent more than half of the last decade in Copenhagen.
One of his influences is Stambeli, an ancient Sufi music with ecstatic and healing capacities. Stambeli was once banned in Tunisia, but was nevertheless played and became a symbol of freedom in Nuri’s homeland.
But his career didn't begin in electronic music – Nuri started out as a drummer when he was 14, playing in various bands.

Clandestino Podcast: Nuri

On their album Nayda, the French-Moroccan group Bab L' Bluz use modernized versions of the traditional string instruments guembri and awicha, to create a combination of North African gnawa and hassani music, mixed with blues and rock n roll noises.

Bab l' Bluz talk to Markus Görsch about the role of female musicians in Morocco, and about their unique sound, created not only through the mix of many traditions but also by using gardening equipment as part of their instruments. But the story begins in Morocco, where the two main songwriters Yousra Mansour and Brice Battin started writing songs together after meeting at a festival.

Clandestino Podcast: Bab L' Bluz

Meet Hasan Nakhleh, singer and keyboard player of the band Tootard. He started the band with his brother Rami when they were both living in the Golan Heights. Since then they have gone through several line ups and their style has changed from Mali blues meets Arabic reggae to a kind of 80's Levantine disco sound, like on their latest album Migrant Birds. 

In this interview Hasan Nakhleh talks to Markus Görsch about the band's dream of traveling freely, about relocating to Europe, and how a cheap oriental-scale synthesizer caused a sort of Proustian madeleine-experience. And why the band chose the name Tootard, meaning "strawberry" in Arabic.

Clandestino Podcast: Tootard

Moroccan singer and master of several string instruments Majid Bekkas is one of the foremost modern gnawa musicians. He is also one of the genre's superspreaders to the west through his collaborations with jazz legends such as Archie Shepp and Pharaoh Sanders. And lately, he has been playing with the Magic Spirit Quartet alongside Swedish trumpeter Goran Kajfeš and others. In episode nine, Markus Görsch talks to Majid Bekkas about all these collaborations, and about the magic that is musical improvisation.

Clandestino Podcast: Majid Bekkas

From the underground scene of Nairobi, Kenya comes this duo consisting of Martin Khanja and Sam Karagu. As Duma they make extreme metal using samples of traditional drumming, synthesizers, found sounds and drums machines, sometimes played at a mindblowing 666 beats per minute.

They both used to play in bands with traditional lineups including guitars and drumkits. But when one of these groups – The Seeds of Datura – drifted apart, Martin and Sam decided to cross the border to Uganda and record for the experimental label Nyege Nyege Tapes.

Clandestino Podcast: Duma

At the beginning of the 20th century, the taarab music of Zanzibar was revolutionized by the singer Siti Binti Saad. In stark contrast to previous versions, hers was an improvised people's music with lyrics in both Arabic and Swahili. As the first female superstar of the genre, Siti Binti Saad also paved the way for coming generations – one of them being her great granddaughter Siti Muharam, who is bringing new life to the old songs on a much acclaimed album called Siti of Unguja. 
In this episode of Clandestino Podcast, Markus Görsch is joined by Siti Muharam as well as oud player Hassan Mahenge and Pete Buckenham of the record label On the Corner. We'll hear about the process behind this album and about Siti Binti Saad's importance for the music of Zanzibar.

Clandestino Podcast: Siti Muharam

The composer and ­multiinstrumentalist Lea Bertucci works with a combination of performance and sound installations. Alto saxophone and bass clarinet are her go-to instruments, but flutes, organs, and field recordings also play important roles. 

In 2021 she released A Visible Length of Light, an album that emerged out of a turbulent year in the USA. The beauty of the ­American ­landscape – beaches, mountains and prairies – is reflected in the compositions. But you can also hear the cities, desolate in lockdown, or as scenes for revolt and chaos. The feeling of alienation in one’s own native country hangs like a shadow over the music.

In this episode, Lea Bertucci talks to Markus Görsch about the physical and social geography of her home country – and about the idea of nature and how to make music inside a giant German bridge.

Clandestino Podcast: Lea Bertucci

One of Iran’s most important musicians and composers, Kayhan Kalhor was born to Kurdish parents in Teheran and already as a thirteen-year-old found himself playing in the National Radio and Television Orchestra.

At the age of seventeen his career was abruptly interrupted by the Iranian ­Revolution. Alone, with nothing but a suitcase and his favourite instrument – a kamancheh – he escaped to Europe and later to North America.

Since then he has become an internationally acclaimed soloist and collaborator with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble, the Kronos Quartet, the New York Philharmonic and many others.
In this interview, Kayhan Kalor talks to Markus Görsch about tradition and innovation, about language, love and revolution.

IN SWEDISH:

En av Irans största musiker och kompositörer i modern tid. Kayhan Kalhor föddes i Teheran till kurdiska föräldrar och redan som trettonåring spelade han i den nationella radioorkestern. 

Vid sjutton års ålder avbröts karriären abrupt i och med den iranska revolutionen. Ensam med bara en resväska och sitt favoritinstrument, en kamancheh, flydde han till Europa och senare vidare till Nordamerika.

Sedan dess har han blivit en internationellt hyllad solist och samarbetspartner med till exempel Yo-Yo Ma och Silkroad Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, New York Philharmonic och många andra. I den här intervjun pratar Kayhan Kalor med Markus Görsch om tradition och innovation, om språk, kärlek och revolution.

Clandestino Podcast: Kayhan Kalor

Guedra Guedra a.k.a. Abdellah M. Hassak is a musician and producer from Morocco who explores the nomadic tribal cultures of North and West Africa, tracing the tracks from thousands of years of migration to crossroads of traditions where the continent’s music blossomed.

The sounds that form the backbone of the debut album Vexillology come from a library of field recordings. Choirs, flutes, string instruments; the sound of fire and cicadas; a riff consisting of looped bird sounds; hands clapping and feet stomping. 

In this episode, Guedra Guedra talks to Markus Görsch about the process behind this highly imaginative collection of dance tracks.

--------------------

Guedra Guedra a.k.a. Abdellah M. Hassak är en musiker och producent från Marocko som utforskar musik från nomadiska stamkulturer i Nord- och Västafrika och hur tusentals år av folkvandringar lett till att traditioner korsats och på så vis skapat kontinentens musik. 

Ljuden som utgör stommen i debutalbumet Vexillology kommer från ett bibliotek av fältinspelningar han byggt upp under resor i regionen. Körer, flöjter, stråkinstrument. Ljudet av eld och cikador, ett riff av loopat fågelkvitter. Händer som klappar och fötter som stampar.

I det här avsnittet pratar Guedra Guedra med Markus Görsch om processen bakom denna fantasifulla samling av dansspår.

Clandestino Podcast: Guedra Guedra

Marina Herlop is a classically trained vocalist and pianist from Barcelona. On her latest album Pripyat, she leaves the signposted road and gets deliberately lost in a magical forest of cut-and-paste piano melodies and bird calls. Like an heir to Meredith Monk, she lets her voice slip between guises: humming, whispering, singing… 

She has also experimented with composition techniques from South Indian Carnatic music; one of which is konnakol, where chanted syllables are transformed into percussion. What at first listen might sound like lyrics in a cryptic language turn out to be vocal sounds beyond translation;  no stories, just sound allowed to be sound. 

Marina Herlop was interviewed by Markus Görsch.

Clandestino Podcast: Marina Herlop

With a brand new style, from Soweto, South Africa: Meet BCUC – Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness. This seven member group is known for their explosive live shows, built on melodic bass lines, intense drumming and sometimes the conjuring of ancestor's spirits. 

In this episode, the two main singers of the group, Nkosi "Jovi" Zithulele and Kgomotso Mokone, talk to Markus Görsch about the group's DIY-philosophy; about their inspiration from punkrock, poetry and indigenous musical styles and ceremonies. And about why their home audience of Soweto was the hardest to win over.

Clandestino Podcast: BCUC

We talk to Annie Caldwell, singer and forming member of The Staples Jr Singers. 

They started out as a group of teenage siblings in 1975, covering their favorite songs by Mavis Staples – hence the bandname The Staples Jr Singers.  Most weekends they would play shows across their home state of Mississippi and beyond. 

But like many gospel musicians of the time, they lacked the backing of a record company, and instead self-published an album called When Do We Get Paid, to be sold at performances and from the family’s yard.

The band did eventually split up, but now, almost fifty years after they started, their music is embraced by audiences all over the world. This unexpected chapter in Staples Jr. Singer’s career began when the record label Luaka Bop reissued their album. 

We'll get to that part, but first we'll ask Annie Caldwell to take it from the top – the beginning of The Staples Jr Singers in Aberdeen, Mississippi 1975.

Clandestino Podcast: Staples Jr Singers

One of the most exciting jazz albums of this year so far is Yeahno Yowouw Land by Swedish all star quintet Langendorf United. In this episode we talk to the bandleader Lina Langendorf, a saxophonist whose curiosity not only took her on a continuing musical exploration into Ethiopian jazz, she's even jammed with non other than Mulatu Astatke, a.k.a the father of Ethio jazz. Before we get to that part of the story, we ask Lina about the first steps of her musical journey.

Clandestino Podcast: Langendorf United

In this episoide we meet Maya Dunietz, a pianist and  composer from Israel, known for her diverse projects within everything from jazz to classical music and sound art. She will tell us about her work documenting and performing the music of the Ethiopian composer, pianist and nun Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. 
Emahoy was born in Addis Abeba in 1923. As a child she discovered the music of Beethoven and decided to be a composer.

However, when the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie personally put an end to her plans of continuing her music studies in England, Emahoy withdrew from the world to live in a convent. During her years as a nun she continued to write music without really having much of an audience. And perhaps her work would have remained in obscurity, had her old recordings not been re-released by the record label Buda Music in 2006. 

And some years after that, our guest on this epoisode Maya Dunitz had fallen in love with the music and decided to find its all but forgotten composer. 

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou passed away in the spring of 2023, 99 years old, after this interview was made.

Clandestino Podcast: Maya Dunietz plays Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou

Meet the experimental composer and singer Hatis Noit. Inspired by the great American voice artist Meridith Monk, and by a kind of role playing of sounds, Hatis Noit takes us on a journey exploring the human voice and how it can connect us both with our own memories and with nature.

Her music consists of Layers upon layers of wordless singing. Echoing the sounds of opera, Japanese Gagaku and Bulgarian chorals. Many different voices – all belonging to just one individual. In this episode, she explains how she found her very own unique style.

Clandestino Podcast: Hatis Noit

Derya Yıldırım is a singer, songwriter and bağlama-player known for her work together with Grup Şimşek. On two albums and a long series of EP:s, this quartet creates captivating songs filled with deep emotions and high degrees of danceability. Turkish psych-rock, synth pop, funk and jazz are some possible references. A fundamental part of Grup Şimşek's music however, is Anatolian folk music – something that Derya Yıldırım first learned to love through her parents, who migrated from Turkey to Hamburg in Germany as guest workers.

Clandestino Podcast: Derya Yildirim

I det första avsnittet någonsin av Clandestino Podcast träffar vi musikern Sara Parkman, som berättar om arbetet som årets gästcurator för Clandestino Festival. Sara ger oss en liten introduktion till artisterna som hon bokat till Hagakyrkan den 7 juni, då Clandestino arrangerar en “musikalisk novell” istället för det ordinarie festivalprogrammet. Vi får också höra hur hon upplever denna vår präglad av karantän och inställda konserter.


Musik i avsnittet
Sara Parkman: Ing-Maries vals
Ebo Krdum & Genuine Mezziga: Back in the Days
Shida Shahabi: Futō
Maria W Horn: Epistasis
Sara Parkman: Vreden

Clandestino Podcast: Sara Parkman

I avsnitt två av Clandestino Podcast träffar vi Ebo Krdum, gitarrist, sångare och låtskrivare. Musikkarriären började när han som grabb spelade muntrummor och sjöng på gatorna i Darfur. På en hemmabyggd gitarr lärde han sig sedan spela, inspirerad av afroblueskungen Ali Farka Touré. Idag bor han i Stockholm och har utnämnts till Årets nykomling på Folk- och världsmusiken tillsammans med bandet Genuine Mezziga. I den här podcasten berättar Ebo Krdum också om hur regimen i Sudan utsatte honom för tortyr och fängelse på grund av hans politiska aktivism. Ebo Krdum intervjuas av Markus Görsch.

Clandestino Podcast – Ebo Krdum

In episode three of Clandestino Podcast, we meet guitarist and singer Lula Pena. Her music has been praised by the likes of Caetano Veloso, while others describe her voice as a female version of Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits. Traces of French chanson, bossa nova and Greek traditional music can be heard in Lula Pena's songs, blending with the music she once became known for: the Portuguese fado, songs of loss and longing, once sung by sailors far away on the outskirts of the Portuguese Empire. Markus Görsch interviewed Lula Pena just before her concert arranged by Clandestino Festival at Folkteatern in Gothenburg, Sweden. 

I det tredje avsnittet av Clandestino Podcast träffar vi gitarristen och sångerskan Lula Pena. Storheter som Caetano Veloso har hyllat hennes musik, och vissa beskriver hennes röst som en kvinnlig version av av Leonard Cohen eller Tom Waits. Fransk chanson, bossanova och grekisk folkmusik hörs i Lula Penas musik, men någonstans under alla lager finns den portugisiska fadon: Sånger om saknad och längtan, som en gång sjöngs av sjömän långt borta i det portugisiska imperiets utkanter. Fado handlar om att vara i rörelse och har alltid varit en musikstil i förändring. Markus Görsch intervjuade Lula Pena kort innan med hennes konsert som arrangerades av Clandestino Festival på Folkteatern i Göteborg.

Prenumerera gärna via Spotify, iTunes eller Podcaster för att inte missa framtida avsnitt.

Clandestino Podcast: Lula Pena

Majsa Allelin, Nathan Hamelberg och Betlehem Isaak om James Baldwin och BLM.

Mordet på George Floyd innebar startskottet för en av de största proteströrelserna i USA:s historia. Protesterna som enats under slagordet ”Black Lives Matter” har spridits och pågår på många platser i världen. Inte minst i Sverige. 

Den amerikanske författaren James Baldwin (1924-1987) har under våren och sommaren diskuterats flitigt inom antirastiska rörelser och undersökningar visar på att James Baldwin är en av de vanligaste citerade författarna. 

Varför dyker James Baldwins namn upp i samband med dagens protester? Och varför just nu? Vad kan Baldwins författarskap har för betydelse – bortom alla hashtags och tweets – för vår egen tids politiska klimat?

Medverkar gör Nathan Hamelberg, skribent och kommunikatör på musikföreningen Selam, Betlehem Isaak krönikör och författare till romanen Mitt liv utan dig (2020). Samtalet moderas Majsa Allelin som forskar i socialt arbete vid Södertörns högskola och är ordförande för Clandestino Instituts styrelse.

Detta tillfälle arrangeras inom ramen för samtalsserien ”Slutet på mardrömmen om raser”. Det finns plats för max 50 personer i konsertlokalen på Kulturhuset Oceanen.

Om James Baldwin och BLM

Roger Robinson is a poet, activist and the singer of King Midas Sound. The Swedish edition of his latest collection of poems is being released in December 2020, a book entitled A Portable Paradise, which explores the idea of a utopian paradise. Robinson writes about the paradise that was denied the inhabitants of Grenfell Tower, an apartment building in London where a fire caused 72 deaths. And the paradise denied to the so-called Windrush generation, migrants who crossed the sea from former Caribbean colonies to Britain between 1948 and 1970.

Roger Robinson was born in London but moved to his parents' Trinidad when he was three years old. He eventually returned to London and made a name for himself as a poet in the 90s. In this episode of Clandestino Podcast, he is interviewed by Jakob Kaee from Aska Förlag, publisher of A Portable Paradise in Swedish, and by Maziar Farsin, translator of the book from English to Swedish.

Clandestino Podcast: Roger Robinson

Clandestino Festival has been an annual event in Göteborg, Sweden since 2003 and features music, art and talks from urban and rural cultural environments created out of the waves of global migration from the late 20th century until today.

It strives beyond "multiculturalism" which is understood as the contemporary metamorphosis of racism. The festival relates not only to alternative forms of music and diversity of the margins, it challenges mainstream representations of ethnic differences at the same time as it provokes one to rethink multiculturalism in new ways, beyond binary folklorification, exoticism and demonizing representations.

Through a genre-bending electronic intifada, posing of known and future legends, underground university talks and tantalizing imagery, Clandestino Festival has gained a reputation for promoting an uplifting critique of contemporary forms of cultural imperialism.

Clandestino Festival

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