New CD release on 16 April 2007 on March Hare Music
The story of BAKA BEYOND came full circle last year, when a series of live dates brought Martin Cradick and Su Hart's pioneering World Music collective together with a group of Baka Pygmy musicians from the forests of Cameroon on a UK tour. Originally inspired in 1992 by the music of the Baka people - especially their haunting bird-like 'yelli' songs and percussion - BAKA BEYOND has since toured Europe, USA, Canada and Brazil, and their upbeat Afro-Celtic sound has established them as firm favourites at worldwide festivals.
With 300,000 sales for their nine albums to date (including Heart Of The Forest, Sogo and Spirit Of The Forest for Joe Boyd's Hannibal imprint and East To West, Rhythm Tree and Live & Pedal-Powered on their own March Hare Music label) BAKA BEYOND are now among the most popular artists in the World Music arena. The debut BAKA GBINÉ album has been among the top 25 downloads on iTunes since its release in April 2006, and one track has been selected by users as a top ten pick. Live performances by both BAKA BEYOND and BAKA GBINÉ are always celebrations of common human ties and experience.
The members of BAKA BEYOND are themselves drawn from Britain, France, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Mali, Congo and Cameroon, while Cradick and Hart have regularly returned to the forest home of the Baka for inspiration during the band's 15 year history, ensuring that the Baka people receive a sizeable share of royalties through their own One Heart: Global Music Exchange charity. One Heart has helped in the struggle for local and international recognition for the Baka people, supplied basic medicines and tools, and supported the establishment of an organisation, Gbiné, to represent the interests of the Baka Pygmies within Cameroon.
One Heart also raised finance and provided expertise to build a sustainable Music House where Gbiné meetings can be held and Baka musical traditions continued. Until last year Cradick and Hart resisted the idea of live touring with Baka musicians due to the risk of creating what Cradick calls "a Pygmy circus" for Western audiences, but with the initiative now coming from the Baka, the time felt right for musicians to visit the UK and perform on their own terms as equal partners in the BAKA BEYOND & BAKA GBINÉ shows.
The resulting BAKA LIVE CD, to be released April 16th, draws material from the BAKA BEYOND & BAKA GBINÉ shows in Oxford, Cardiff and London in May 2006, capturing all the energy and celebration of this landmark joint tour. Opening a fresh chapter in the ongoing story of Cradick and Hart's long collaboration with their first inspiration in the Baka forests, the CD release of BAKA LIVE also precedes a fresh round of live dates for the Spring and Summer of 2007.
For further details, arrange interviews, high resolution pictures, videos please contact Chélima Fadé press@baka.co.uk or phone on 07940 266 773
listen to "Baka Live" on this Flash mp3 player ...
