Mas Y Mas launches new Cuban album!

Mas Y Mas recorded this song in Havana last year. It is the first song from their new album La Bala which is due for release at the end of January 2010. The album will be launched at two events: one on the 30th January at the Malt Cross in Nottingham and the other at The Green Note in Camden, London. For more information please see www.masymas.co.uk and www.myspace.com/masymas1

Mas Y Mas: Wayne D. Evans (doublebass & vocals); Richard Kensington (percussion & vocals); Rikki Thomas-Martinez (lead vocals, guitar, songwriting)

Antares and Rikki Thomas-Martinez (lead vocalist and guitarist of Mas Y Mas) at the Rainforest World Music Festival 2007

Richard Kensington (percussion & backing vocals) by Alan Harris

Mas Y Mas by Lucy Killingley

Wayne Evans (upright bass & vocals) by Lucy Killingley

A Starry-Eyed Vacation from Bloggoria

[photo taken 07.07.07 by Anoora Chapek]

It's that time of year again: the Rainforest World Music Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary from July 13-15 at the Sarawak Cultural Village and you bet I'll be there! Having been a performer at the very first festival back in August 1998 (read my euphoric report here!), I haven't missed a single year. I look forward greatly to the reunion with fabulous musicians from all over the world who have all played at this festival at least once over the past decade - the boys from Shooglenifty (a totally hip Edinburgh trancedance band that's been around since the 1970s), Mas Y Mas (great buddies who have visited Magick River twice since 2004), The mesmerizingly charismatic Hanitra (Anch) of Tarika Be and her delightful sister Noro, the friendly Inka Marka guys from Melbourne, three good-humored chaps from Hull who call themselves the Doghouse Skiffle Group... and, of course, Huun Huur Tu, the sensational Tuvan throat-singers with their Russian acoustic/electro-trance collaborators, Malerija! Oops, forgot to mention my Mohican wizard friend Marcin Ruminski who heads Shannon, the powerhouse Polish Celtic group that rocked the crowd in 2005, and the wholesome, sweaty boys from Oregon who call themselves the Foghorn Stringband :-)

Back before anyone notices I've been gone. Good time to browse my blog archives, ha ha.