🌻 Ethno England 2019 🌻

(Relocated)

Hello 👒

About a week ago I came back to London after spending 10 days working with Ethno England — still catching my breath, feeling happy and dizzy with wonderful music. Ethno England takes place every summer in Ramsden, a beautiful stone village on the North-East edge of the Cotswolds, surrounded by rolling green hills, soaring ravens and wildflowers… I recently found out that Ramsden means ''Wild Garlic Valley' which makes it even more romantic... 😍 Anyway, Ethno England is not about the pretty scenery - it is all about MUSIC !!! — Sharing songs and tunes, immersing in music, celebrating cultural diversity and building lifelong friendships. This summer Ethno England hosted around 20 participants and volunteers who came from all corners of the globe, Brazil, Estonia, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Portugal.. etc, bringing their instruments, voices, experiences and cultures with them. We all met for the first time Friday 14th of June, creating a mash of excited, nervous and bubbly textures, vibrant sounds and radiating expressions, not knowing what was to come, who we would befriend, what music we would learn or how it would all unfold.

The coming days consisted of tune learning workshops and intense rehearsals - arranging, discussing, playing, trying, understanding, learning, creating.. and every night was an endless musical jam exploring sounds from far and beyond, playing ‘human orchestra’, making ‘hug spirals’, telling stories and folk tales, making flower reeds, dancing and drinking scrumpy cider and sharing about everything between heaven and earth. One day we went to Oxford where Ethno England collaborated with some primary schools. We taught three different groups of children a song and a dance, and at the end of the day, everyone met to perform for each other. I was amazed how quickly all the children had picked it up, singing in Portuguese, Gaelic and Dutch - one little boy said it was the best day of his life!

After spending every day and night together for a week, teaching each other songs through peer-to-peer learning, the group, who had never met before, became an ephemeral transglobal orchestra, ‘Ethno England Band’, playing two crazy wild wonderful concerts. The first one was at Tap Social Movement in Oxford and then at the main stage of Tandem Festival, showcasing traditional music from over 15 different countries, connecting people across borders through the power of music.

Ethno England is part of a worldwide series of Ethno summer exchanges, Ethno World, taking place in over 20 countries, with a mission to revive and keep alive global cultural heritage and to promote peace, tolerance and understanding.

What are you waiting for - go to an Ethno !!!

💞

x Moa

Photos by @MayaMcCourt & @JasonWarner (GlassHertzzphoto)

FLOTSAM SESSIONS PRESENTS: TRANSGLOBAL MELODIES

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On the 18th of May, we had a big party in Club Makossa to round up the first year of Flotsam Sessions and to celebrate music, community, culture and diversity. Some of our favourite local musicians played unique solo sets and the Flotsam Orchestra performed the songs we learnt over the year in the Sessions, featuring music from Mongolia, Egypt, Bulgaria, Peru, Mali, Nigeria Afghanistan and Wales. 🌊

The event happened In collaboration with Babalonia Records > > > a door to the cosmos < < <

Photos by Tom Hyatt

Solo sets came from from:
- LOU HOLM - Scandinavian melancolia
- Michael Ekeghasi - Soulful Nigerian/Finnish music
- Peadar Connolly-Davey - Irish Songs
- Sophie Darling - Soul-Reggae-Folk-Fusion and our World Music DJ Queen
- Forest Law - Essex boy playing Brazilian songs
- Worldwide Welshman & Beyond - World- Pop - Fusion
- aga ujma - Polish / Indonesian dream folk
- Kerttu Sormunen - Beautiful Finnish songs
- Flotsam Orchestra: Moa Norrsell Fahlander, Maya McCourt, Mauricio S. Rivera, Michael Ekeghasi, Peadar Connoly-Davey, Kerttu Sormunen, Liam Rickard & Ana Maria

FLOTSAM SESSIONS PRESENT:

🎉 A BIRTHDAY PARTY! 🎉

Flotsam Sessions is turning ONE !!! For this glorious occasion we’re throwing a spectacular party in Club Makossa, followed by Babalonia's renowned club night - and you’re all invited ❤️

We have a wonderful selection of live bands from all corners of the world, and the Flotsam Orchestra performing an ever-growing repertoire of transglobal folk, plus Spring Chicken DJ spinning tasty tunes to get your feet grooving. Don’t miss this unforgettable evening of musical madness!

Event info and Tickets here: Eventbrite / Facebook

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Flotsam Sessions resumes Wednesday 4th September

We’ve had a lovely summer full of sunshine and music, and we’ve washed up back home! We’re massively looking forward to our first Flotsam Session after the summer break, where we’ll be learning a beautiful Colombian song with the wonderful Ana Maria, and sharing some of the great songs and tunes we’ve learnt on our summer journeys… we hope you’ll join us!

Everyone welcome, no matter what instrument, background, or level.

8pm, Club Makossa, Dalston (just by Dalston Kingsland station)

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Flotsam Sessions Art Work

Check out the new amazing Flotsam Artwork, made by our wonderful creative practitioner Liam Stuart Rickard. The art work draws on the meaning of the word Flotsam —
Flotsam is the floating wreckage out on the sea, things from far and beyond, finally washed up on the strand, creating intricate, beautiful patterns. And such are the songs that stay with us wherever we float in life, the songs that give us a way to connect with new grounds, a way to find a home on every stormy seashore. Through the music we see each other, we connect, we unite, we understand, we grow, we live.

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