Dienstag, 30. Juli 2013


A report of the integration project  „Mit Musik Brücken bauen“  

and the festival of meeting in Muri (AG) 15. June 2013 in Switzerland



The idea of the project developed in 2012 after the festival of meeting in Muri, where wings of a dove percussion power performed music, dance and storytelling from Westafrica.

The organisation Zäme Läbe Freiamt of the Kanton Aargau was happy about the performance and asked us to create a project for them, which will continue the  integration work with immigrants and refugees who live in the region. Through the idea of building bridges between  people of different nations we found the name „mit Musik Bücken bauen“. In the same time this was our Motto.

In August 2012 Power Sound Production began to develope the content of the project „mit Musik bücken bauen“.

The leading ideas were to work together with immigrants, refugees and swiss with respect, togetherness and improve our selfconfidence.  We planned to have a workshop every two weeks from September 2012 til June 2013. The aim was to present the results on the festival of meeting on 15. June 2013.

From then on we started to compose songs and write a theatre about the daily conflicts of living abroad, which is of course partly taken from our own experiences in Switzerland and other countries. In the mean while the organisation Zäme Läbe Freiamt was looking for participants.

This project was a very big challenge for Power Sound Production, because for many years we are using these ideas as a Motto in our workshops. It became a leading idea of our company.

Nadja Donkor, studied theaterscience and John Kofi Donkor as an artist, musician and actor, working together with different experiences. We merged the ideas to a theatre with the aim to send a message to the public about those difficult situations in daily life abroad.

One of the main subject is the communication. How do you communicate  when you just arrive in a foreign country with a foreign language? Making a lot of mistakes and misunderstandings have to be accepted and it will help you to continue your life. People will help you and speak to you correcting your mistakes. Through this many of them find you funny and you will find new friends.

As we read later on in the report of the Newspaper of the region (Aarau, Wohlen and Muri) about our perfromance on the festival 2013 „ Mit Musik Bücken bauen“, those ideas were successfully taken and understood by the public.

When we started the workshops, we had about 20-25 participants from all over the world .  Soon we realised that the founding of a choir with the immigrants and swiss was the best way to communicate and get to know eachother. We let the participants vote for the main workshop language.  It was chosen to be English and German.

We brought the idea that everybody can bring its texts or songs towards the motto of Unity and Togetherness. The songs appeared in many languages: Amharic, Tigrinnia, Lingala and French. Power Sound Production brought its songs in German, Akan and Haussa.

With the text of the songs we all felt happy to try another language and had a lot of fun with the pronounciation.

Our motto was always: music brings energy, energy brings happyness and happyness brings togetherness. And this is how we all feel, looking back on those many months of meetings in Muri for the workshops of the project „ Mit Music Bücken bauen“.

The main challenge was to present the results of the workshops on stage. All the participants were not professional artists. Some of them joined even the first time a music group in their life and stand the first time on stage to perform.

They really put a lot of efforts and enjoyed the performance. Additionally wings of a dove - percussion power was backing them and the dancers of the group were on fire.

To make the festival of meeting on the 15th June full and rich we engaged several professional music bands and dance groups:

Willi Hauenstein and the steelband Fassination, took us to the carribean islands. They opened the festival, drew the crowed in front of the stage and brought immediatly a good mood in to the tent.

Roger Konrad and Alpenfunkeln brought the swiss traditional music mixed with world music.  They surprised the audience with joddeling and alphorn playing. They used the whole tent as their stage and communicated with music. Sometimes you can only see the alphorn appearing in the tent to respond the joddeling and they all arrived in the end together on the stage. This was beautyful.

Afterwards the Hip Hop kids of Sivia  was taking the audience to a different music and show catagory. In the end they showed an African dance from Awa Dietemann. They impressed the audience so much and the audience responded and gave the heat to the performance.

The Extrem Bosnian Blues Band immediatly capture the audience and travelled with them a nice music journey. They really entertained the audience.

Valeria Eva came with ist special surprise dancers from Brasil. Valeria sang a lot of songs which are known to the public and they responded. The special dancers and their coulorful costumes heated the audience addtionally.

Christian Fotsch with ist Sassa group and a magnificant belly dancer took all of us to the Orient. They started with calm music which cooled the audience down and made them listen. In the end of their show a wonderful belly dance was performed.

It continued with the oriental touch with the belly dancers Dunyia’s dream. Each song was performed with its special costumes and dance. The audience was fascinated, watching and enjoying the performance.

After the festival we got a lot of compliments from the audience, newspaper, friends and people we didn’t know before.

We also got a nice feedback from the parents of the children who took part on our schoolworkshops we gave during the project „mit Musik Bücken bauen“.

 

Power Sound Production is looking successfully back on the project and the performances. We gathered a lot of new experiences and looking forward to work with people and organisations who are interested in music and art.

PowerSoundProduction, July 2013

Donnerstag, 28. März 2013


With music we build bridges

PowerSoundProduction was travelling to Ghana and back to Switzerland.  With it‘s research we formed a theater together with „zäme läbe freiamt“. We call it “with music we build brigdes“.

We meet every second Tuesday since October 2012 with various migrant of the region. We formed up Unity songs, which gave ideas to all participants to create their own songs about unity. At the moment we got 6 to 7 songs in different languages and we are working on it.

PowerSoundProduction find it’s dynamic strength and energy, togetherness and harmony, creating rhythms towards all the songs. With music you don’t need language behind it. we are working in Harmony and it is wonderuful to see other cultures merging in one music.

Additional PowerSoundproduction provided a theatre about immigrant who arrived in Switzerland and had a lot of missunderstandings because of the language. We took the positiv side and made a nice story full of humor.

If you travel you may find yourself in thoses weared situations sometimes, when people don’t get what you want to say…or how can you let them understand you.

Your thoughts are still in your mothertongue and you just translate it to the other language...which mostly leads towards those missunderstandings.

Sometimes you can laugh and sometimes you don’t realize it for many months untill you come across it again. By then you understand the other culture better with it’s language. You go back and laugh again.


That is the idea PowerSoundProduction got to bring this festival up. It doesn‘t matter which language you speak, we can always missunderstand and understand eachother.

For us to make it in the positiv way, we put all into a commedy.

Come and watch it on our Festival on 15th June in Muri (AG) switzerland and it maybe reminds you of some of your mistakes which you are laughing about it til now.


At the moment we are looking for artists, who have interest in dance, music and theatre. To join us on 4th, 25th, 26th May and 8th,9th June in the aula Muri, Marktstrasse 5630 Muri and on the main rehearsal on 14th June.

The performance will be on 15th June on the festival.

Come and meet profession dance teachers and musicians, who will lead you to strengthen your talent and make you to perform in a show.

The teachers are Mike Larbi, Awa Dietemann and John Kofi Donkor.

It is free of charge – we are even paying your petrol and if you are arriving with a train we pay half of travellling costs. Food and drink will be provided. Come and realise your golden voice and your skills of movement and dance and your touch on the percussions. you can Register yourself till end of April 2013.

We are looking forward to meet you.

Yours
PowerSoundProduction
+41 41 788 05 77

Freitag, 8. Februar 2013


Report of my visit in Ghana: Sound effects
Last year 2012 I went back home to Ghana in December. It was a very successfull and adventures arriving. Already on the next day I started my day with costruction work. The whole day I am driving a wheel truck. From far I can hear how people passed by and wisper: „Oh he just arrived from Europe and he is doing hard work like this.“ Some called me : „Rasta – this shows that you are not lazy in Europe!“

As I was working I walked around and found out, that the area was full of plastic bags and not clean. In the evening I said to myself: tomorrow morning I will organize my friends and we clean the area. I send people to get me a lot of brooms. In the morning at 6 c’clock the three of us started to clean the area. Immediatly friends who passed by and didn’t know that I am in town started to join in and helped while we are conversing. Within half an hour we were about twenty people. The assembly man saw us from far and as he got closer he said: „Hey Rasta – when did you arrive?“ He then also joined us. I used that possibility to extend the work further. By 11 o’clock around my area was so clean.

Suddely in the afternoon I saw my neighbours around me also began to clean up their area. An elderly woman passed by and said to me:“ You brought energy from Europe and shared it around. This is very good work. For me people could clean up, but often they are feeling shy to do it. Thinking the others are watching them and seeing them doing a dirty work. But I don’t call this a dirty work. This is a communion labor, which we have to do it and clean our area. But who will start it for someone to join in. The assembly man was often organizing people to clean the area. But suddenly they don’t want to do it. All is simple feeling shy that they are doing cleaning work. I am happy you are showing them, cleaning work doesn’t stand for one person. Every body is allowed to clean its area. Even ministers are joining in communion labor.“

This conversation I had with the old lady gave me a push. Every Saturday I am doing it and people are joining in.

This spread in the area. I was happy to walk around and see cleaners in the area.

I also often traced my roots and go to old places where I haven’t been for a long time. I saw a lot of development in Ghana. I went to an area, which quickly klicked my mind and I remembered a friend which I knew in Austria. 1995 he came to Ghana as a reporter for a festival sura za africa in Vienna. I lived then with my wife in Ghana. We got a letter from VIDC that somebody is coming from the ORF to make a report. His name is Dr. Bilek. So the time reach and we want to go to the airport to fetch him. As we arrived at the airport, we meet a lot of friends who are driving taxi. They all asked us if we need help. We gave then the name of Dr. Bilek to them on a piece of paper.

They all hold then a paper with this name on. The funny thing was, as he arrived he saw his name on about ten pieces of paper.

We didn’t know him personally. Suddenly Nadja was saying: „This is our man, he is starring around and look like an Austrian. Shall we ask him“ So Nadja went and asked him: „are you Robert Bilek?“ and I heared them then speking austrian German. Then I asked him: „But didn’t you see your name on the papers‘“ he replied: „Oh yes, but there are too many and I don’t know where to go.“ There I relized, that this was a mistake to involve so many people.

 As a Nima boy I didn’t know much about hotels. So me and Emmanuel stand there and decided to bring him to a hotel, so that we will accompany him in the next day for him to choose a good hotel. We just follow the names of the hotels and choose one. Emmanuel then brought him there and me and Nadja went home. Emmanuel came back and reported to us, that he got a good room for him. So in the morning the three of us went there and we saw him sitting in front of the hotel. I did only then a bit a research and found out that we brought him to the lions dungeon. I watched the face of Robert and said in my mind, sorry! I told him that he should pack his things and we go and find a better place. So we did.

I brought him to the next hotel and it was so quite in that area. We booked a room for him there. I went around again and made  a bit a research of the area and I found out that this place is a tigers dungeon, but they are all tamed. So I didn’t get panic and let him be there. Immeditaly we have to go and set appointments with musicians, such of Nana Ampedu, the leader of African Brothers band and also with panafrican orchestra, Nana Danso and others.

As we reached Nima to show him where I was born and grew up, I think Robert got interested in that place. Immediatly he started to do some recordings. Emmanuel and me were laughing behind, because we didn’t understand why he did those recordings. He recorded the voices of birds, cocks, chicken and sound of cooking pots – for me I didn’t understand why he was recording those things. I would have recorded music. But he knew what he wanted as a journalist.

I remember once we took him near to the 37 hospital and he was recording the bats on a tree. And me and Emmanuel couldn’t stopp laughing. Today I got to know, that those things are the sound effects. Now on this trip I was also chasing those sounds of Ghana.

As I went to the village Eguafo I got up early morning and did some recordings of the village sounds in the morning. Often the elders are asking me: „Eh – you don’t want to find something more insteresting?“ In my mind I just remember and said to myself, you don’t know I was just also in the same position, but now I can see the value of all this.

Dr. Bilek did a very nice report about Accra. I quite remember as I arrived in Austria. A lot of Ghanaian friends gave me complements, which I didn’t understand why

A friend took me to his home and played the report of Accra for me to hear. I went to the house and I heared a report on a tape and everything was so familiar to me, but it was in German. So I just didn’t say anything. Suddenly I heard a sound of Nima, the cocks and the cookingpots in the background and the Haussa language as a background sound. On and on I heared my voice, that is where I interfeared and asked my friend: „What is this?“ this is a report from Accra. The one who was doing this on the radio ORF is called Dr. Bilek. There I was remembering of course the funny recordings.

I was so interested and asked for a copy. Then I slowly became a bit famous through this report. I said to myself, that all the people didn’t know what Robert Bilek went through in Ghana. Thank God he is a journalist and he can stand a lot of things. In the whole world if you travel to a different country you meet good and bad. We let the good things overcome the bad ones. That was exactly what Dr. Bilek did. His wife  Karin came also to Ghana and the research became more and more interesting. I think the work of the husband had entered her. She was brave and powerful and there was nowhere she cannot enter. For me, I like people like Robert and his wife Karin.

I found out that he had a big position in the ORF, but you cannot see it from him. That’s why we could go anywhere we want in Accra.

Robert Bilek - I want to tell you – come back again! Do another report! Now all the areas we know are very much interesting than before. I know you came to Ghana several times, but we need another report.

John Kofi Donkor