Introduction | Activity Report 2003 | Description | Floor plans
 The Vakoka project  |
ANTSHOW Madagascar Activity Report 2003April/MayThese two months were very busy. For the first time, Antshow experienced dealing with the music business and production. A big musical project called Vakoka took place. It was a joint venture between two Malagasy companies dealing with the music business, Hovana, led by Seta Ramaroson, who is also a musican (a saxophone player) and Antshow led by Hanitra Rasoanaivo. Hovana took care of the administration side of things and Antshow provided the place to create, to make demo recordings and the day to day needs for all the artists present. Antshow became a proper cultural exchange place for all the different local artists who took part in this project. For the first time, all these artists from different regions of Madagascar got to know each other, played together and explored the possibilities of creating a unique blend of Malagasy music by using everybody's technique. The whole project was triggered by a Canadian musican, Sean Whittaker, who had fallen in love with Malagasy music and wanted to promote it by creating a synergy between different talents and styles from around the island. Sean's primary job was to find some money to fund the whole project, with many difficulties. We learned a lot of things in the process. Musicans who are only used to playing live were put in the studio to be recorded on multi-track. We also came across different kinds of problems where some musicans did not have the experience of tuning with a tuner, nor of creating something new with other players. Some of them live so far away that they wanted to finish their part and leave. A lot of them did not understand anything about contracts, record deals and so on, so this project really took a lot of effort to get going. This learning process about how records are made in the West these days taught everyone a lot. Between Antshow, Hovana, Sean Whittaker and all the participants, we came to create, rehearse, record, eat and live together during those two months and it all went very fast once we had the routine in place. Our final recordings were done at Mars Studio, the only one that has decent facilities for professional sounding recordings. Sean Whittaker then took the masters to Canada and shopped at Womex in Seville for possible deal. At this time I write, he is about to sign a deal with the record company World Music Network for worldwide license and distribution. We are all very excited about this project because our work will finally have a home. BBC radio journalist Richard Hamilton was present during the whole process of Vakoka. He reported on how our work on progress was going on and interviewed us. If you would like to know more about that particular project, Vakoka, or would like to know the release date or where to find the recordings, please contact: Executive Producer, Sean Whittaker, Duncan Baker Buying this record would generate income, raise hope for artists in Madagascar and help our production team to get to be known. Thank you for understanding and helping. |
Introduction | Activity Report 2003 | Description | Floor plans