Vanuatu Cultural Centre

While most of us were visiting family, taking annual leave, or touring the world, some of Vanuatu’s young musicians have been working hard. The members of Kalja Riddim Klan (KRK) decided to take advantage of the slow season and locked themselves in the studio at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre to record their debut album “Long Taem Bifo”. But it was a decision born of necessity as the members of this troupe have an extremely busy year ahead of them.

Not only will they be releasing their debut album – a KRK/VKS/Mangrove production – but they will be shooting two video clips and then recording their second album straight away. And to complicate things further, each of the members of this multi-talented troupe has his or her own side projects. One will be releasing a book next month. Two are opening a music centre and school later this year; others are touring New Caledonia with the popular performers Titamol – who bring many custom stories to life with a powerful combination of music, spoken word, dance, and interactive performance.

And on top of all of that there are the regular events on the Vanuatu musical calendar – Fete de la Musique, Independence, and Fest’Napuan.

Mars Melto, one of the singer/songwriters of KRK, feels that 2007 will be a very important year for Vanuatu musicians. “Last year was dominated by the Sunshiners breakthrough tour of Europe. This year we want the focus to be on Vanuatu musicians in Vanuatu. We need to build on the successes of our brothers in the Sunshiners.” And there is no reason why not.

KRK will be producing two video clips. The first one will accompany the title track of the album and is funded by the Alliance Francaise, Port Vila and produced by KRK in conjunction with VBTC.

The second clip is still in planning phase but is likely to be associated with a track called “Tomermer”. Mars describes it as “a traditional custom story brought to us by one of the band members. We have chosen this one because it reflects our commitment to a genuine fusion of traditional and modern perspectives – not just musical styles but instruments, vocal styles, sounds, rhythms, and melodies. There is a violin, bamboo flutes, tam tams, guitars, and both traditional and modern percussion instruments. In “Tomermer”, Steve takes the microphone and launches into a raga-style flow. We like mixing it up like that. We composed and arranged the music ourselves – but the story comes from our great-grandparents”

This year the Fest’Napuan committee has set the dates for the annual festival – the biggest of its kind in the region – for the 27-30th of September. And after five years in a row of sustained growth (in terms of attendance figures and international profile), the committee has indicated that 2007 will have more local content. “Each year we have managed to improve our production standards and consequently have been able to attract higher calibre artists such as Telek (PNG), Not Drowning Waving (Aust), and Edou (NC). But we have found that this has created its own scheduling problems with many bands forced to play into the early hours of the morning. This year we intend to increase the exposure of the local bands” explained Mars, who is also a member of the Fest’Napuan committee.

“This is the Year of the Custom Economy and Fest’Napuan is doing its bit for local industry by establishing rehearsal studios with a full set of instruments, in three of the regional centres, most likely to be Santo, Lakatoro, and Lenakel.” Mars went on to explain that the project will hopefully enable people on the islands to practice and refine their skills without being forced to come to Vila to find access to instruments. Fest’Napuan wishes to thank its major sponsors TVL, Unelco, Air Vanuatu, and the VKS, as well as the sponsors of the Studio project, GRM International.