Jill Turner wonders if we all share common musical roots.
Just as walking barefoot in a grass field allows you to connect with nature in an otherwise bustling world, listening to Inka Mbing's Ga-ga allows a communion with its people.
The basket of humankind was amongst the first phrases that sprung to mind on first listening to the album. Strange, I thought, until I read the ample sleeve notes to find that for her people, Ga-Ga refers to the natural law of the universe. The Tayal believe in one kind of power that comes from 'Yaba Utux Kayal' which means the origin of beings.
I'm no ethnomusicologist and definitely couldn't recount the characteristics of Taiwanese music but this would be the last country in which I would place this music. Especially as it has a Sami shamanic feel about it. Track 7, 'Hope' , is a wonderfuul hypnotic recitation over vocal improvisations somewhat akin to those of Dhafer Youssef, add in some elements of Central Asian vocal styles, frame drums and you could be anywhere between Uzbekistan and North East Africa.
The interest continues with 'Protecting the Creek' based on a traditional Tayal song and I'm convinced the vocal dueting sounds similar to Innuit Katajjaq dueting, echoed again in the playground clapping style of song designed to call back the spirit of sharing. Either Inka Mbing is a well travelled musicologist or I'm beginning to think we all share common musical roots. Indeed the Ainu people of Japan once had a throat singing style that was close to the Inuit style rather than Tibetan or Mongolian.
Inka Mbing's biography is as interesting as her music with parallels to that of the late Andy Palacio, who worked so hard to preserve the language and culture of the Garifuna people. After leaving her grandmother's home, forming a rock band, marrying and raising a family, Inka Mbing became active in Taiwan's indigenous rights movement which eventually led her back into music. Following the devasting earthquake of September 1999 she became involved with helping to rebuild some of the Tayal mountain communities forming a band and releasing an album to raise funds for the work. That was in 2000 and she has gone on to search out Tayal songs and to preserve them whilst also writing her own arrangements and nursery ryhmes to help children learn Tayal culture.
This is her first solo album, its accessible and melodius.
She is joined by a throng of musicians including her daughter Yashui Inka and Ngner-Ngner who is responsible for the haunting vocal improvisations.
The songs like the Tayal traditions are uncluttered, they have a simplicity yet an emotional depth but above all an extraordinary beauty. All these characteristics come together in the closing track 'The Sounds of Papakwaqa Mountain'. A sensational ballad about the sacred place and Tayal spiritual home. Worked from a field recording made in 1996, Inka Mbing says it arouses tremendous waves of emotion that she hopes will act to remind future generations of the sacrifices made by previous Tayal generations in order to make this the place of sanctuary it is. A statement that could also be applied to this collection of 12 songs.
In an open plea to promoters here in the UK please book this extraordinary artist and let us experience her music live....
Ga-Ga is published on the Taiwan label Trees Music
Inka Mbing Biography
Trees Music Website
