KUCHING, 7 June 2022: The Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) 2022 will be hosting a slew of brilliant performers from over 15 countries representing the many unique sounds from parts of the world.
On the top bill of talents, bringing the different representations of Indian music to the forefront include BluGuru, best described as a twisted tale of Indian, Blues, Celtic, Swing, Jazz, Bluegrass, and adventure.
Comprising multi-instrumentalist and three-times Bluegrass National Guitar champion Andrew Clermont and Fringe Award nominee Josh Bennett, along with the extraordinary vocals and dance of Parvyn, who is the daughter of the renowned singer Dya Singh, expect a sound that resonates with Jeff Beck meets Ravi Shankar on the set of “O Brother, Where Art Thou’ while dancing in Rio.
Their shows are sure to keep you on your toes with soaring vocal harmonies, blistering guitar and fiddle, with regular appearances of traditional Indian, Australian, European and American instruments like the sitar, tabla, and dilruba, didgeridoo, mandolin, banjo and more.
Despite their extensive musical abilities and experiences as musicians individually, the trio only debuted their first album in 2010. “Ragas 2 Blu Riches” was hailed as a triumph for acoustic music and covers everything from Jazz and Bluegrass to Brazilian samba and meditative Indian pieces.
Also on the list of musicians set to perform a powerful show at the 25th RWMF is Indian slide guitar maestro Debashish Bhattacharya who will be accompanied by his daughter, rising vocal star Anandi Bhattacharya. Along with them will also be their Grammy-nominated family member Subhasis Bhattacharya on tabla.
A disciple of the legendary Brij Bushan Kabra, he is a constant innovator who takes the Indian slide guitar beyond its boundaries to the point where he designed several new styles of the instrument to realise his musical vision.
As a performer, Debashish gave his first guitar recital at the tender age of four on the All India Radio (the national public radio broadcaster of India), and in a public concert. It was inevitable that by the age of 21, he was awarded the President of India award in 1984. In his twenties, he evolved a unique style of playing the guitar and also synthesised selected features of various other instruments such as the veena, sitar, sarod and kannur.
A seasoned performer, Dehabshish has performed worldwide and recorded with some of the world’s top artists, including 12-times Grammy winner Jerry Douglas, African Kora legend Ballake Sissoko, jazz guitar legend John McLaughlin, Moroccan Oud legend Driss el Maloumi, American bluesman Bob Brozman, British singer Martin Simpson, Australian rocker John Butler, American rocker Henry Kaizer, Indian legends Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pt Ravi Shankar and many others.
Rainforest World Music Festival 2022
The Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF), is back once again, celebrating its 25th anniversary as a hybrid event for the first time since the beginning of the music festival in 1998 from 17 to 19 June 2022 with the physical concert taking place at Sarawak Cultural Village while viewers can also live stream it from their homes via rwmf.net.
With the theme “25th Legendary Rainforest Celebration”, RWMF will feature a host of international performers from Canada, India, USA, Finland, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Madagascar, Ukraine, China, Bhutan and Seoul, among others while showcasing a string of Malaysia’s talents such as Alena Murang, At Adau from Sarawak, Bamboo Woods from Sabah and many more.
Activities at the Festival
The festival is back with its familiar format of daytime workshops and evening concerts with various activities planned throughout the festival. Festival-goers can enjoy craft fairs featuring the best of Borneo handicrafts or savour a diverse choice of traditional delicacies from the food bazaars.
The musical workshops bring together diverse musicians from many disciplines, drawing together these talents under unifying themes to showcase, jam and create unique music in the setting of the Sarawak Cultural Village. Among the activities to look out for are a Sape Gathering’ that brings together anyone who can strum a sape in Sarawak and a kiddie’s workshop to bring on the next generation where they can play with instruments create art, and enjoy the festival ground to their hearts’ contents.
Rainforest World Music Festival tickets
Festival-goers can choose from the different ticket categories at pre-sale prices – Adult 1-Day Pass (RM165), Adult 3-Day Pass (RM405), Child 1-Day Pass (RM85), Child 3-Day Pass (RM195) and 1-Day Family Package Pass- 2 Adult and 2 Children (RM440). The virtual tickets are priced at RM25 per one-hour block.
For more information visit: https://rwmf.net/
(Your Stories: Sarawak Tourism Board)
