There must be something in the water at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane, because BEMAC continue their bountiful stream of culturally rich and diverse shows to intrigue and engage.
One upcoming offering (4 May) facilitates a crossed path for two powerful women making waves in the music industry, Takako Haggarty of JADE Ensemble and Gelarah Pour of ZÖJ.JADE Ensemble, featuring Indigenous didgeridoo musician David Williams, Japanese koto master Haggarty, Nepalese tabla virtuoso Dheeraj Shrestha, and Australian guitarist and composer Dr Anthony Garcia, will take to the stage last, fusing Asian and Western classical elements to showcase the fruits of cross-cultural collaboration.
The ensemble centre around improvisation, allowing their cultures to ebb and flow seamlessly together. "The initial composition all comes from improvisation," Haggarty shares.
"I bring Japanese culture, on didgeridoo and piano is David Williams, and Anthony has a Mexican background but grew up in an Asian country and he'll bring Spanish guitar culture, and then Dheeraj Shrestha, he brings a tabla, Nepali-Indian culture. Individually we have 30, 40 years emerged in that particular culture or practice and the philosophy behind it."
JADE Ensemble allow their music, through flawless collaboration, to speak for itself. "Brisbane used to be a multicultural city, a melting pot, and the end product is you have to work together.
"It is social impact we want to create through music, what happens with a very strong, diverse cultural background of people working together. It's not a cultural display. It's all work. What we can create through the music, but without explanation.
"Music has to speak itself. We take improvisation as a vehicle to find the sweet spot. Then we open that flexible manner, have a conversation, and people can take it home. People live in different backgrounds. We have an idea of people living, and how we can have harmony without losing authenticity. We do that through the music."
Equally passionate about social change, ZÖJ comprises percussionist Brian O'Dwyer and kamancheh master Gelareh Pour, whose intense, earnest vocalisations stir the darkest depths of the soul.
"ZÖJ's set is influenced and affected by the room and the audience," Pour discloses. "It is totally improvised. The only thing that is set is the poetry. Every show is different.
"It is a combination of modern Australian music and classical Persian music. Brian and I have totally different backgrounds and upbringings. But after 12 years of playing together, finally ZÖJ is something pure that we only bring onstage and play together. We don't even expose it in rehearsals or anything. That's why the audience is a big part of it."
Originally from Iran, Pour was forbidden to perform as a solo vocalist, so each moment of her performances are treasured gifts where she seeks to remind her audience of our most human elements. "The past couple of years, the women in the freedom movement in Iran have been a big part of our music.
"As a musician under the umbrella of male musicians, as a woman, I could not sing as a soloist there. That's still happening in Iran. Women are controlled. With all the freedom fighters and the resilience they're showing as brave women who are very influential and inspiring, there's so many controls over them.
"Before there were other male and women singers singing over me to make my voice unrecognisable, because that's the law. The movement has brought down this feeling of more power.
"It's through music and pushing out that feeling of fighting against all those controls, the dictatorship, and saying things which are really dark and hard to speak through music. As Takako said, music speaks for itself, and through music you can say so many things that are difficult to put into words in usual conversation, because it's an abstract form of art.
"The audience may never meet again, or have anything to do with each other, but as humans, we all have compassion, and sometimes we may forget, but music will polish those feelings.
"It helps bring that compassion and togetherness out, and when the message of freedom, the message of life, and the message of power to women and any human that's been suppressed because of their beliefs, because of their gender, because of how they wanna be, the simplest things in life are taken away from them. We are trying to bring comfort through music.
"Most of the time, people cry when they listen to our music, because the music is very emotional and brings out parts of your feelings. Sometimes sorrow, sometimes happiness, but it brings it up so intensely that you have never experienced it before. and the easiest way to deal with it is through crying usually, but it doesn't mean it's sad.
"That's why our music is very influenced by the place and the people who are in the room with us to create this triangle with them."
Both women perform using traditional instruments, retaining thousands of years of culture and presenting it for a modern audience. Haggarty is a master of the koto, a 13-string zither harp that originated in China over 1,000 years ago.
"The instrument adjusted into the Japanese culture as an instrument for people with vision impairment, so I'm very passionate about teaching this instrument to people with vision impairment," enthuses Haggarty.
"I'm going to Braille music camp soon, I'm excited about that. To learn it has to do with oral teaching; I think kamancheh shares that as well. It used to be for the court only, so only the royal family could listen, then high-ranking people could listen, and that period finished and it was for everybody.
"Only blind male performers could perform professionally, and then females got the right later on, and now it's for everybody and it's in Brisbane," Haggarty laughs.
Also a stringed instrument, Pour's kamancheh is an ancestor instrument to the violin, which originated with three silken strings going down to a gourd used as a resonation box, and played upright like a small cello with a spike underneath.
The advent of violin inspired the addition of a fourth string, and further complicated the already complex restringing process. "When I was little and starting to learn music," Pour tells, "the generations before us were pushing students to play this instrument.
"It was going extinct, because it was really difficult and hardly anyone was playing it, but from my generation on, lots more people play this instrument. Unlike many instruments that move the smaller part of the instrument to change strings, you move the bigger part of the instrument, which is a whole challenge itself, tearing the instrument to change the string."
Playing a traditional instrument has its added challenges. "Traditional instruments don't modernise as much," Pour explains. "When you play guitar or violin in an outdoor place, the technology has developed so much that musicians don't worry much about the weather.
"But with our instruments, because they're traditional and old, the development has been held back to keep them authentic and hold onto the sounds they originally had. I think things like 'am I playing outdoors?' Because my bridge sits on animal skin, and animal skin is sensitive to humidity, dry. Whatever happens around is going to influence the instrument and the tuning.
"So my instrument does have restrictions, but at the same time this makes it sound unique. Compared to violin, it has a much more earthy and nasal sound, but in terms of playing, it has all the freedom that a violin can have, and it fits in any instrumentation and Iranian orchestra.
"Historically, the music in Iran has been more unison, rather than polyphonic, but these days, they have bass kamanche and alto kamanche to have polyphonic and different sounds in the orchestration and the composition of Iranian music."
The Brisbane show is set to be a night of wonder, marvelling at the offerings of rich cultures and their preservation thanks to artists such as Haggarty and Pour. "I am really excited that we can share a night with local artists from Brisbane," Pour declares, "and can't wait to hear the music."
JADE Ensemble & ZÖJ play Queensland Multicultural Centre (Brisbane) 4 May.
