Our latest CD Mara! meets Marais has arrived and will be available on-line in the next couple of days.
This CD had its beginnings back in 2008 when The Marais Project, combined with 3 members of the Award-winning World Music/Folk ensemble Mara! in a cross-genre concert the climax of which was a performance of 13th century troubadour Martin Codax’s song cycle, Cantigas de Amigo.
ABCFM were so impressed with the concert that they invited Mara! and The Marais Project into the studio for a day to record the music played for broadcast. We have now licensed that recording for release as a budget CD.
For more than 20 years Mara! founders Mara and Llew Kiek have defied categorisation as they engage in multiple projects across a virtual kaleidoscope of musical styles from mediaeval ensembles to Bulgarian folk music, jazz, film music, choirs and orchestral works. Llew and Mara Kiek share something of their musical heritage and interests below. Below is an edited version of an interview I conducted with Llew and Mara back in 2008.
The cover of "Mara! meets Marais"
Philip Pogson (PP): Llew and Mara, how did you find your way into the early music scene?
Mara Kiek (MK): My first real introduction to early music was through “Aquila Alterra” in the early 80’s. The group was a kind of offshoot of the Renaissance Players. I had a background in dance and was asked to research early dance forms which could be incorporated into their performances. Around 1983, about two years after the formation of “Tansey’s Fancy”, (precursor of the Mara! Band), Winsome Evans asked me if I would like to audition for the Renaissance Players. She wanted me to audition as a percussionist as she had a full complement of singers at the time. I passed, and performed with the group regularly prior and subsequent to my 1988 study trip to Bulgaria.
Llew Kiek (LK): My early music interest was spawned through the Renaissance Players with whom I began performing in the early 1990’s. Sometime after, Winsome asked me to produce the first 6 CDs that she recorded for Walshingam Classics, which went on to be re-released on Celestial Harmonies. The sixth of these was an ARIA nomination for best classical CD in 1996 – the first of several nominations I have since received for my CD productions.
PP: On the CD, Mara! consists of a trio, yourselves with jazz legend Steve Elphick on double bass. How does that work?
The performers
MK: We already knew lutenist Tommie Andersson and Jenny Eriksson, of course, as well as soprano Belinda Montgomery. The performance and CD gave us the opportunity to explore some traditional and medieval repertoire that we wouldn’t normally perform with the Mara! quintet. The fact that The Marais Project also features instruments of the same families enhanced the texture. We did make Steve tune down to 415 by the way!
PP: Looking at the WWW site (http://www.maramusic.com.au/) I am amazed by breadth of your musical interests. Mara, how did you get involved in Eastern European folk music?
MK: My introduction to music from the Balkans came via Linsey Pollak who was playing with Renaissance Players when I joined them in 1983. Linsey had recently returned from a study trip to Macedonia where he studied (gaida) bagpipes. He joined Tansey’s Fancy and taught us a body of Macedonian traditional folk music and dances. Thus began a lifelong passion for the music of this region.
While I concentrated on Bulgarian music and particularly the traditional female singing voice, Llew focused more on Turkish music, particularly long and short necked lutes. He studied for a number of years with Sabahattin Akdagcık in Sydney and made numerous trips to Turkey to research and collect instruments.
PP: Mara, what is different in your sound production from an opera singer or even a rock artist?
MK: My singing technique has always been folk based. Although I studied classical singing privately in the late 70’s and early 80’s, the classical timbre was not instinctive to me. I always tended towards a “folk” sound and was irrevocably drawn to the arresting power of the Balkan voice when I first heard it. I badly wanted to achieve the Bulgarian-style timbre but could not easily or consistently access it during those early days. The quest for mastery has lasted 25 years and continues still. While I have gathered a great deal of information about the Bulgarian singing technique, there are still many unanswered questions about this particular voice.
Comparisons between Bulgarian traditional and “classical voice” are perhaps the easiest because the two techniques use different mechanisms of vibration of the vocal folds. The classical voice is produced with a short “closed phase” of vocal fold vibration (the vocal folds are usually closed for no more than 30% of each vibratory cycle), while Bulgarian appears to feature a long closed phase (thought to be over 60%). A long closed phase results in greater sound pressure levels and perceived “loudness” and a greater intensity of high frequency harmonics within the sound spectrum. In some ways the Bulgarian vocal mechanism is actually closer to that employed by rock singers or the “belt” quality used in music theatre.
PP: What does the future hold for you as individual artists and for the various Mara Music projects?
MK: The promise of many diverse projects, the main one being the Martenitsa choir with whom we have already performed, recorded extensively and toured internationally. Add to this some theatre, film music and youth projects. I also intend to continue my studies and voice research including undertaking a doctorate. This will involve more time overseas, and provide further opportunities for the Mara! band to tour in Europe, traditionally our most receptive audience base.
LK: The Mara! band has several ongoing Musica Viva commitments and is completing (in 2011) a new CD for release early in 2012. I am also producing several other CDs including a second recording for The Marais Project which will follow up “Love Reconciled” which I also produced.