WOMAD

Darbar Morchang Party

From India

Transcendental sounds for (nearly) the midnight hour

The ethnomusicologically minded have a perfect opportunity this weekend to compare and contrast how different cultures have adopted and adapted the same instrument - the mouth (or Jew's) harp. On Friday night, Wang Li demonstrates how it's played up in north-east China. Tonight's night owls Darbar Morchang Party will show the direction the instrument took in the Indian region of Rajasthan where it's known as the morchang. Not that a little academic comparison is at all mandatory. Those simply wishing to soak up some transcendental sounds to sign off the weekend are of course most welcome too, as the other-worldly rhythms of the morchang, powered along by dhol drum and other percussion, transports all those within earshot on wings of song to Rajasthan's Thar Desert. Fingers crossed for a cloudless, starry night to complete the illusion.
(Biography by Nige Tassell 2009)