Friday, February 15, 2008

Sirocco - The Breath of Time

Heres another band you most likely haven't heard of, I saw them play
many times, I seem to remember mostly at the Maleny folk festival.
Sirocco are one of the best world music bands this country ever
produced. Truly a joy to watch and listen to. Below is a bio I found
on the web.

Sirocco was formed in 1980 by Guy Madigan, Bill O’Toole
and Andrew De Teliga.
Since then, Sirocco has developed
its own unique blend
of music which combines Celtic,
Mediterranean, Middle Eastern
and South American music
with that of Australia’s Aboriginal
and Anglo-Irish heritage.

Members of the group play over thirty different musical instruments
including the Arabic ud, bagpipes, bodhran,
bombard, didgeridoo,
electric guitar, flute, Greek bouzouki,
hammered dulcimer,
medieval shawm, seedpods, and Turkish baglama.

They also make many of the instruments that they play from Australian timbers.
All of these instruments reflect the diverse influences
which
make up Australia’s rich musical background which has developed
through its increasing multicultural society.
Sirroco has toured many overseas countries as cultural ambassadors
for Australia. It was the first Australian band to tour both Russia and China
and it also played in India and other places in Asia
and America.
Its performances have included: the Seoul
Olympic Arts Festival,
1988, Houston Festival (USA),
1988, Kawaguchi World Festival Fusion,
Japan, 1992,
and the Vientiane Theatre, Laos, 1995.
The group has played extensively throughout Australia in concerts for
Musica Viva Australia and also works in schools for the
New South Wales
Department of Education, giving concerts and
workshops which show
the diversity of music and instruments
found in Australia today.


This album is a wonderful journey, a Middle Eastern , Turkish
inspired journey.
I once saw this band at a small Folk festival out from a
Place called Toowoomba,
about 2hrs drive west from Brisbane.
It was about 45mins out again so it was out in the sticks.
Sirocco were the head line band, but We had gone to see
some friends play in a wonderful Latin band Gaviota.
In a performance I'll never forget,
at the hight of an electrical storm the power failed completely.
The band, which I'll add had a lot of electronic gear, samplers
and the like, didn't miss a beat.
Being percussion masters they kept playing and rounded
everyone into a circle for a middle eastern type dance,
by gas light, which had replaced the torches by now.
I don't think there was anyone who wasn't impressed.
These albums are very hard to find now,
I wish I had bought more stuff back then.

Download Here

9 comments:

Zer0_II said...

I've added your blog the Digital Meltd0wn Music Blogroll @ http://music-bloggers.blogspot.com I placed it in the Australian category. I am quite fond of Australian music, so I would like to especially thank you for putting this blog together. I'll be going through it during the next couple of days to see what I can discover.

It's not a requirement, but if you could link back to the blogroll in any way I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks once again and keep up the great work.

bob nebe said...

Thanks zero-ii, for for kind words and link, I hope you find some great music you've never heard before.I'm linking to your excellent blogroll
ciao bob

Beecham Motors said...

I adore Sirocco too, so nice to find a fellow fan. I have all of their albums, and have met them and photographed them in Bris last year. It was a highlight for me. *swoons and faints.

They have given me so much pleasure over the years, bless.

bob nebe said...

Hi Patty great to hear from a fellow sirocco fan too and its great that these guys are still playing after all these years.
ciao bob

BillyO said...

Dear Bob

That was indeed a great night. We had that happen lots of times - and in a way we preferred something like that to go wrong as it really unites an audience. The best gig (sorry Bushwackers) was when the Bushwackers first chord blew the sound system and we had a group of highland pipers with us. We got about 3000 people dancing - without any sound system.

Bill O'Toole of Sirocco (in Saudi Arabia at present)

bob nebe said...

Hi Bill great to hear from you and that you remember that gig such a long time ago, I wish I had of been there for the performance you speak of. Let me say you guys were the greatest multi-cultural band to ever come out of Australia

BillyO said...

if you would like to see the latest Sirocco (sort of )
see
http://picasaweb.google.com/otoole2006/Rajasthan#slideshow/5324364818843879666

fabulous event in Rajasthan.

Bill

bob nebe said...

That looks like a fantastic time Bill, would have loved to be there

Anonymous said...

Would there be any chance of re-upping this? The zshare link is unfortunately dead.