Last night we went on a musical journey around the world, courtesy of the Lake District summer music festival in general, and Kabantu in particular.
Kabantu isn’t the latest operating system from Linux, it’s a talented five-piece music group which specialises in genre-defying fusion sounds from around the world. They play everything from South African funeral songs to Norwegian lullabies, taking in Scotland, south America, eastern Europe and even a Texan hoe-down on the way.
The evening, in the atmospheric setting of Windermere’s Carver church, was lively, entertaining and above all, tremendous fun. The group interspersed the music with brief snippets of information and funny stories (like the Czech drinking song which was allegedly about embroidery!) before launching into yet more samples of their impressive, multi-instrumental skills.
I think my own favourite piece was the Norwegian one, with lyrical string harmonies reminiscent of Grieg, but there’s something here for everyone and the sell-out audience was captivated from the first few bars, clapping, foot-stomping, and even singing along to many of the numbers. All except the Bulgarian wedding dance. In a weird mix of 13 and 11 time, that defeated everyone except the players themselves.
As for us, we’ll be keeping our eyes open for more concerts by these musicians, and can warmly recommend them to anyone else who enjoys world music, great tunes, and a lot of fun. You can find more information about them, their music, and their tours, on their website.
FIONA GLASS 