Australian composer is a friend of Melanesia
29 May 2011
BY PETER KRANZ
DAVID BRIDIE is a long time friend of PNG and West Papua who has promoted many Melanesian musical artists over the year - most notably the incomparable George Telek.
He is himself a renowned musician and performer, with such bands as My Friend the Chocolate Cake and Not Drowning, Waving.
He has also produced many memorable musical scores including the music for the TV series Remote Area Nurse. He has also written several soundtracks for Aussie films, notably The Man Who Sued God in 2001 and The Circuit in 2007-10.
David has visited PNG many times and recorded much traditional music before it is lost - particularly noteworthy are his field recordings of traditional flute playing and singing by Simbu women.
He is currently touring the northern province of New Caledonia to coincide with the South Pacific Games and is performing with artists Telek, Richard Mogu, Airi Ingram and Lea Rumwaropen.
One of his recent projects is Strange Birds in Paradise - a tribute to the many and varied cultures of West Papua. It will be released on 10 June on the Wantok label. See here for details: http://www.waterfrontrecords.com/product/77793. I'll be getting a copy for sure!
If you are not familiar with his wonderful music, I recommend the album Succumb from 2008 as an introduction. It has much PNG influence - including some Simbu traditional singing.
There are some David Bridie songs (and of course many other musicians like George Telek etc) available on Torrents and Youtube, but many of these are not authorised and are in contravention of copyright.
If you download these you are doing the original artists out of their rightful royalties. The result is that there will be no incentive for local artists to record music - as they cannot make a living out of it.
I've seen this happen in the Solomons, where the instance of bootleg recordings is worse than in PNG.
So have a thought for your favourite musicians before downloading stuff or buying dodgy copies from the local market.
If you pay $10 for a legitimate CD, maybe $2 goes to the artists - which may keep their family in food for a few days.
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 29 May 2011 at 01:43 PM
Here's Dave and friends with the Nasonal String Band, Vanuatu in 2006 (a local video).
Looks like they were all having fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k2xbHpZNl0
Posted by: Peter Kranz | 29 May 2011 at 07:02 AM