John Shand | Music & Other Spheres Posts

March 28, 2013 / Concert Reviews - Archive

Camelot Lounge, March 24  The very absence of one of the Bridge Project’s members just further emphasised the need for such a venture. Umit Ceyhan is a Turkish refugee resident in France with his wife and daughter. It appears he was denied an Australian visa for fear he would become…

March 12, 2013 / Features - Archive

A party in the Balkans is unimaginable without two things: brass instruments and alcohol. Goran Bregovic may appear to have much the same needs. Despite the astonishing breadth of music that he composes (for performance and film) a brass band is never far away, and nor, if his unforgettable 2008…

February 2, 2013 / Features - Archive

When music is banned in the north of your country, and those who persist in making it are threatened with having their fingers amputated, the stakes of being a musician have just been raised. But, as Rokia Traore knows, the stakes were always high in Mali, the epicentre of African…