WOMAD

Narasirato

From Solomon Islands

The South Pacific's leading bamboo ensemble

It's time to reclaim the panpipes. Long used, along with the nose-flute, as ammunition by those scornful of anything that comes under the world music umbrella - as well as being the soundtrack of a thousand British shopping centres - the instrument's had something of a bad press. Narasirato are now making some long-overdue amends. Not that this group from the Pacific paradise of the Solomon Islands uses the p-word. To them, their instruments - and the style they play - is simply called 'bamboo'. Mostly they blow them with gusto and style, although one member does bash his thick bamboo tubes with a pair of flip-flops. The result is a kaleidoscope of polyrhythmic sound, melodies dovetailing with each other to create something very difficult for your ears to resist. In the words of Songlines' Solomon Islands correspondent, "put simply, they rock". The sound of your local Arndale Centre might never be the same again.

(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2012)

Narasirato - Tangio Tumas