Clandestino Podcast

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.

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.

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.

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 Kalhor talks to Markus Görsch about tradition and innovation, about language, love and revolution.

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.

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, 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. 

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.

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.  

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.

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.