Today's FREE Song is by Madamax, a superb collaboration between veteran - South African trance musician Madala Kunene who amongst other projects released the sensational Kon'ko Man, and Swiss guitar supremo Max Lässer, famous for many recordings, including Between and A Different kind of Blue.
Madala says "I first met Max at a studio in Johannesburg in 1995, because of a session that Robert Trunz had organised in Downtown Studios in Johannesburg." Great creative empathy and feeling was shared between exceptional artists for this project.
Max has successfully worked before with South African artists who have added special flavours and extra dimensions to his already distinctive work. With Madala, however, what started off as "a real jam" started "becoming a new thing". They even recorded their first takes, giving the sound a crisp freshness and playful sophistication. The result? In Max Lässer's words "Unique music happened".
Max Lässer says that meeting Madala Kunene was like finding a brother from another culture and part of the world, "He really opened my heart to African music and to a different view of playing music than I was used to".
Both guitarists are unique, both have their own style and yet when playing together the result is something else, something like "primordial and confrontational." The two artists complement each other in an extraordinary way, and their work can be best described as an organic unity of the best of two cultures, or as Max describes it: "a perfect marriage."
I posted a clip titled Lua Lua from the album Between (BW103) in 2006 - featuring Busi Mhlongo, Max Lasser, Madala Kunene, Lungiswa Plaatjies and Mabi Thobejane - courtesy of MELT 2000. Stunning stuff.
Posted by: Rouvanne | February 23, 2008 at 05:26 PM