Switzerland - The Centre

 Next we are heading to Luzern (Lucerne) right bang in the middle of Switzerland.  This is where folk and jazz musician Albin Brun was born in 1959.  The composer, saxophonist and Schwyzerörgeli (a small diatonic accordion) player has his fingers in many pies, collaborating with many ensembles including the Ala Fekra Project and Patricia Draeger mentioned in the last post.  Patricia Draeger is also part of the Albin Brun Trio which explores the boundaries between folk music and jazz.  Here's a song from the trio's 2018 album Lied.schatten called Dr Heimetvogel (the home bird) sung in Swiss German featuring Issa Wiss on vocals.

Moving on to the sleepy capital of Switzerland Bern, where we encounter contemporary folk band Silberen.  They consist of Barbara Berger (vocals, Schwyzerörgeli, harmonium), Christian Schmid (double bass), Nayan Stalder (hammered dulcimer) and Roli Strobel (percussion).  They produce songs inspired by their native landscape combined with some jazz influences.  Here is a song from their debut album Blumenstein called Melklied (milking song), which includes some melodic yodelling (you can't go to Switzerland and not yodel!):

Also from Bern is 'techno-yodeller' Christine Lauterburg born in in 1956.  She combines yodelling with a variety of more contemporary styles, although I wouldn't call it techno myself.  This is a clip with her band Landstrichmusik where inexplicably, apart from yodelling she also plays the broomstick and a guy playing the bodhran on an old banjo case:

Singer/songwriter Émilie Jeanne-Sophie Welti aka Sophie Hunger was born in Bern in 1983, but has been around the block a bit having been brought up in London, Bonn and Zurich and now living in Berlin.  She is influenced more by the Anglo-Saxon folk tradition singing in English, German, Swiss German, French and Italian.  Here is a song which features on her
2013 live album The Rules of Fire called Walzer für Niemand (Waltz for nobody):

Senegalese composer and singer Pape Djiby Ba also calls Bern his home and has set out to teach the Swiss some African rhythms by founding the Swiss African Orchestra.  It's a veritable big band with a beefy horn section, percussion, electric guitars and bass as well as keyboard and background singers fronted by Ba on vocals.  They combine Mbalax Senegalese rhythms with jazz improvisations and a touch of funk.  This should get even the dour Swiss to swing a dance leg.  Here is a song from their latest album Jokko called Baliya, a song about the importance of family:

Finally some more African influences: DJ, musician and filmmaker Fabio Friedli aka Pablo Nouvelle is also from Bern.  He mostly dabbles in electronica and trip-hop and produced an EP of afrobeat inspired music last year in collaboration with Beninese superstar Angelique Kidjo and ethno-musicologist Hugh Tracey called Eliso Lyamu Katata.  The track Milambi has Kidjo's powerful vocals over some pulsating electronic house rhythms interlaced with afrobeat as well as archival recordings of tribal singing.   The video is made up of archival footage of African landscapes and ritual dances.

That's it from Central Switzerland for now.  Quite a varied lot this time, hope you found something in there you liked.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.