Taima
|
|
|
Maybe it’s global warming, but Taima could be the hottest thing to come out of the Arctic since the end of the ice age. Behind the beautiful and frigid cover lies the warm universe of guitarist Alain Auger and singer Elisapie Isaac. The two are Northerners, Auger being from Quebec’s Abitibi region and Isaac an Inuit from Salluit, a village in the Canadian Arctic.
The music of Taima is as distant as could be from traditional Inuit singing and this first album already has its own identity. Elisapie Isaac’s rich and soothing voice dominates the album but never at the price of anaemic musical arrangements: on the contrary, the arrangements can be quite muscular and sometimes downright psychedelic.
Taima means ‘enough’ and it is intended here to be a call for change addressed as much to the Whites of the ‘south’ as to the Native communities. Isaac feels the former tend to see themselves as culturally superior, the latter as perpetual victims. In a way, Isaac is the ultimate Canadian. The multicultural ideal that rarely is. Moving gracefully from Inuktitut to French to English, she is also a thoughtful and sensitive writer. She has already made a documentary on the future of her nation and social consciousness permeates this album. On ‘Les Voyages’ she reflects on identity, saying, in French: ‘Here I am in a city that has crushed the traces of its ancient dwellers. But I needed to go, to lose myself, to defend myself. I needed to go to find again the beauty of where I come from.’
- Product information
- by Taima
- Publisher
- Fullspin
- Product number
- FSPCD 1436
- Star rating
- Product link
- www.taimaproject.com
Join over 10,000 people just like you. Get e-mail updates about new content, issue alerts, contests, and more!
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
New Internationalist (NI) workers' co-operative exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless worldwide; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary to meet the basic needs of all; and to bring to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice.
Except where otherwise noted, images on this site are copyright of the photographer/illustrator or representative agency.Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.
