Womex 2007
The Scottish Arts Council is supporting two Scottish acts to perform at the World Music Expo in Seville, Spain in October.
The annual World Music Expo, Womex, takes place in Seville from 24-28 October. Womex is an annual event attended by world-music industry representatives from across the globe, and comprises a conference, trade fair, showcases and awards ceremony.
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The showcase opportunities give artists valuable exposure to booking agents, festivals and record labels at an international level, whilst the trade fair allows actual networking opportunities between artists’ representatives and the wider industry. |
The Scottish Arts Council and the Scottish Music Centre will share a trade stand to promote the work of both organisations, and for the first time have joined forces with Arts Council England, UK Trade and Investment and the Association of Independent Music (AIM) to create a joint UK presence at the event and the trade fair.
This year the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Music Centre have joined the future music market and created a unique promotional device to raise the profile of Scottish musicians and companies. Companies represented at Womex usually use compilation CDs to promote their artists and organisations, but this was the first time a small and handy USB device could be easily distributed to promote Scotland at Womex. The memory stick contains tracks from showcasing artists Julie Fowlis and Shooglenifty, and includes music from other artists like Sohpie Bancroft, Salsa Celtica, Kris Drever, Mr McFall’s Chamber, My Latest Novel and Voces del Sur. Womex delegates can also find information about Scottish agents, promoters and record labels on the USB, as well as information about the Youth Music Initiative, Tune Up, Showcase Scotland, BBC: Scotland’s Music and the Traditional Music & Song Association.
This year the Scottish Arts Council is supporting two Scottish acts to attend Womex, helping to raise the artists’ profile and the exposure of Scotland’s music in general. Julie Fowlis will perform on the official showcase programme and Shooglenifty will appear off-Womex, on Saturday 27 October.
| Scottish Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis has played every major British festival since bursting onto the wider music scene in 2006. She has showcased in the United States, including at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) conference in New York earlier this year. Julie’s performances of songs from her Hebridean heritage have won her both Scots Trad Music and BBC Radio 2 Folk awards and nominations, as well as awards on the international Celtic music scene. Her second album, Cuilidh, was released early in 2007 on the Shoeshine label. |
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Celtic folk/fusion band Shooglenifty is one of Scotland's most unique musical exports.Malcolm Crosbie (acoustic and electric guitars), Garry Finlayson (banjo and banjax), Angus A. Grant (fiddle), Luke Plumb (mandolin, banjo and bououki), Quee MacArthur (bass and percussion) and James Mackintosh (drums, machines and darabuka) are credited as being the originators of 'acid-croft', a fiery and infectious blend of Celtic traditional music and dance grooves that band members describe as 'hypno-folkadelic ambient trad'. Energetic and witty, audiences from around the world have fallen under their musical spell.
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Their latest album, Troots, features several original compositions, as well as adaptations of a traditional 200 year old Scottish pipe tune and a Balkan folk song. 'Excess Baggage' features the extraordinary vocals of North American Inuit throat singer Tanya Taqaq Gillis, also showcasing at Womex 2007, and touring Scotland with Shooglenifty in November. |
Other Scottish acts who have showcased at Womex in recent years are Salsa Celtica and the Unusual Suspects.
| For more information, visit the Womex website. | |