Zebra crossing : walking in two continents sharing and celebrating difference through music

I use the metaphor zebra crossing in my reflective narrative to describe my plight and struggle as a non-white person growing up and working in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the apartheid era. This article considers and compares the notions of culture, diversity and identity as I now work in a tertiary institution in Melbourne, Australia. I reflect on my teaching of African music and position myself as ‘the other’ at zebra crossings, as I create a space in multicultural Australia. By engaging in meaningful dialogue with music and culture, I contend, we do have opportunity to explore, experience and express music making and sharing globally. The inclusion and embracing of non-western music can serve as a dais for understanding and celebrating cultural difference not as distant experiences but as integral aspects of our daily lives.

Sharing music files : tactics of a challenge to the industry

The sharing of music files has been the focus of a massive struggle between representatives of major record companies and artists in the music industry, on one side, and peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing services and their users, on the other. This struggle can be analysed in terms of tactics used by the two sides, which can be classified into five categories: cover-up versus exposure, devaluation versus validation, interpretation versus alternative interpretation, official channels versus mobilisation, and intimidation versus resistance. It is valuable to understand these tactics because similar ones are likely to be used in ongoing struggles between users of p2p services and representatives of the content industries.

Cultural diversity in Australia : promoting the teaching and learning of South African music

Australian society is increasingly multicultural, and this article provides some theoretical perspectives on multiculturalism, cultural diversity and the teaching and learning of African music. It identifies the need for teachers, practitioners and artists to jointly work together to create a community of practitioners where pedagogy meets practice. Through reflection and interview data of an artist in schools, a primary music specialist and a tertiary music educator, the 'how' and 'why' about teaching South African music and culture is discussed through pedagogy. Whilst this article discusses a particular culture and music, it has implications for education within a wider sphere and calls for further investigation when using different music from diverse cultures.

(Electronic music) beginnings (full length)

This is an optimistic, full length pop instrumental featuring piano, dub-step styled drums, synth bass, muted trumpet, Hollywood styled strings and vibraphone. The break is touched with the melancholy.

(Electronic music) homesick (elegant and energetic)

This is a bright composition featuring a sweet vibraphone arpeggio accompanied by, piano, bass, synth strings (including an early 1970s modelled synth), percussion and FX.

(Positive electronic music) mighty boom (full length)

An uplifting, energetic dance styled composition with dirty synth, booming drums, piano and arpeggios.

Festivals and music : negotiating culture, identity and place

It is noted in the introduction to this book that ' Festivals are believed to recreate and emphasize relationships that are normally submerged; of being built in structures whilst following unstructured codes, of creating a separate world with its own rules, personnel and expectations; of encompassing contradictory ideas and practices while involving formal and informal institutions: So what is this 'separate world'? What relationships, normally unseen or unnoticed, are made apparent within the space of the festival? While the origins of festivals lie in the close relationship of the quotidian and ritual aspects of traditional communities, how do contemporary festivals relate to the diversity of multicultural societies? Conversely, how are they inflected by the forces of globalization, by the festivalization of culture that in recent years has become a widespread tactic for the promotion of cities and regions? While many traditional festivals still exist, increasing urbanization, improved communications and diversified migration have meant that many contemporary festivals are of recent origin, the products of what Giddens refers to as the post-traditional state of present societies (Giddens 1994). This description highlights the self-conscious nature of dealing with culture in a world of competing and overlapping world views. While cultural identity and authenticity are still used to infer the existence of qualities intrinsic to communities, ethnicities or nations, the fragmentation and interconnectedness of contemporary societies have long made assertions of essence untenable. Meanings have become dependent on performativity and context. Cultural identity, while traditionally applied to those sharing a particular geographic, linguistic, ethnic or religious background, has become extended to other senses of belonging, to communities based on sexuality, physicality or simply shared experience and taste. The notion that festivals might create separate worlds suggests that part of the reason for their recent proliferation in recent times is that they provide the ideal medium for both performance and participation in this diffuse and shifting environment.

Ambient music (in the elevator)

In the Elevator is a warped take on ambient elevator music and a good piece of audio for a digital project where elevators or boredom are needed.

Baltic winter (amped folk instruments-ethereal and haunting with female vocals)

Baltic Winter - a Slavic mermaid rests upon a rock on the edge of the Baltic Sea. It is night time during the depths of winter. She risks not being able to return to the sea as it could freeze in the time that she drapes the snow crested pine trees with her ethereal calls. Her voice travels through the Medieval forest in search of her nymph . . . will he hear her? Or will her calls only serve to sing her loneliness?

OK . . . now for the technical . . . I wrote this with a documentary in mind. I have used a sampled Finnish/Estonian Kantele, a touch of an acoustic guitar, female vocals, percussion, and a couple of synths.

Baltic winter (under 1 minute haunting female vocals and ethereal)

Baltic Winter Shorts 02 - a Slavic mermaid rests upon a rock on the edge of the Baltic Sea. It is night time during the depths of winter. She risks not being able to return to the sea as it could freeze in the time that she drapes the snow crested pine trees with her ethereal calls. Her voice travels through the Medieval forest in search of her nymph . . . will he hear her? Or will her calls only serve to sing her loneliness?

OK . . . now for the technical . . . I wrote this with a documentary in mind. I have used a sampled Finnish/Estonian Kantele, a touch of an acoustic guitar, female vocals, percussion, and a couple of synths.

Baltic winter (under 1 minute haunting female vocals and ethereal)

Baltic Winter Short 01 - a Slavic mermaid rests upon a rock on the edge of the Baltic Sea. It is night time during the depths of winter. She risks not being able to return to the sea as it could freeze in the time that she drapes the snow crested pine trees with her ethereal calls. Her voice travels through the Medieval forest in search of her nymph . . . will he hear her? Or will her calls only serve to sing her loneliness?

OK . . . now for the technical . . . I wrote this with a documentary in mind. I have used a sampled Finnish/Estonian Kantele, a touch of an acoustic guitar, female vocals, percussion, and a couple of synths.