The SIGNAL - HAIN

 1991

Three musical redefinitions, tattoo ages about the Selk'nam Indians (Ona's)  in Fireland, Argentina

ID1. Die Aufforderung - Héhé  (7'56")
ID2. Die Begegnung - Yoyoyoyo (3'49")
ID3 - Húp ke kep (3'19")
ID4. Die Verwandlung - Ham-nia (6'30")

commissioned by the Goethe-Institut Buenos Aires
dedicated to Lola Kiepa

Voice: Lola Kjepa
Keyboards: Simon Been
Percussion and white pebbles: Michael Jüllich
Recorder and electronic instruments: Michael Fahres
Production: Michael Fahres
Co-Production: Simon Been
Studios: Ata Tak, Düsseldorf; CEM, Arnhem
Sound-engineering: Kurt Dahlke and Tibor Fueloep
 

Between 1850 and 1971 the Selknam or Onas, Indians from Fireland  in the South of Argentina, died out. This disaster happened, because the new  white people (mainly English) used the Indians as slaves and of course the Indians  lost her land. The Indians had nothing to eat and so they got tuberculosis and  died. They had to be Christians to get bread from the Salesian monks. In 1965  the American anthropologist Anne Chapman made a last recording from the Chants  of the Selknam. These songs were sung by the Shaman Lola Kjepa. She was  at that time 85 years old. From Anne I got the original recordings. These recordings  form the base for my composition Hain. Later I wrote Karryon  (I listened what other people telling me) and also here I used the Chants of  Lola beside my own recordings (interviews, songs) .

KARRYON

(Selknam)
(oir hablar)
(Carry on - Carillon)

I listened to the stories of other people about the Selknam  Indians
in Tierra del Fuego

Shoort

1992
1. part
a musical note

The spirit Shoort remembers to the died away culture of the  Selknam

ID5. Milonga (226)
ID6. Cauquen del Fuego (927)
ID7. Kaisiya (621)
ID8. Milonga (324)

commissioned by the Fonds  voor de Scheppende Toonkunst Amsterdam

Voice: Lola Kjepa
Narrator: Segundo Arteaga
voice and guitar: Nieves Cabrera
Flutes: Ramon Ernesto Leiva
Recordings of the birds: Roberto Straneck
Midi-assistant: Arno Peeters
Studios: Cem, Arnhem; NOS, Hilversum

Many thanks to Anne Chapman, Smithsonian Folkways, Hector Zanola, the Museo  del Fin del Mundo in Ushuaia, Sofia Ballve, Martine Inklaar, Maarten Coelink  and Abel Ricardo Basti

MILONGA (Payada)
Text: Nieves Cabrera
I.
Ancient earth, owned by him who was born there,
earth of the first human,
who by the song of the finches
greets the day.
The penetrating sound
has the colours of his flag.
His mountains and hills,
get the hue of ermine, from the white man.
He loved his spring.

II.
Time fared stormy,
left old poems behind.
The men on their horses appeared,
to battle the wind.
So the suffering threaded.
What rested him other than the bread,
the taste of the old fatherland?
And llamas gave way to sheep.

III.
The landowner approached,
as if to swallow the earth,
he examined the fertile ground.
He arrived first.
The Indian did not become the owner,
maybe because he was held prisoner,
jammed in a rage.
Ousted from his ground, his beloved native ground.

IV.
Without destination, without means,
in the slow hours of staying awake,
he lost his family,
beyond a far horizon.
He climbed mountains
to resist.
More and more he got the countenance of the white ermine,
even though he cherished his life, so that he could maintain hope.

V.
The snow saw him wandering
on his legendary journeys.
The kaikenes-birds called out to him,
as you greet someone in passing.
No-one was waiting for him,
so he left.
Perhaps, when he is standing still,
this song might come to him.
Who knows where he is going,
in his cloak of oblivion.

VI.
The missionaries came,
with their good intentions,
and united all patron saints,
to request their assistance.
The mountains, the trees, the plains,
speak of long gone times.
Thence it came that the gentlemen,
went to tend sheep.
What rests is only the warmth, the warmth of a wiped out race.
 

KARRYON

Short
1992/1994
excerpt from the 2.part
a musical note

It will not take a long time any more, till we forget it all

ID9. Coda (204)
ID10. Cerca Diosi (617)

commissioned by the Fonds voor  de Scheppende Toonkunst Amsterdam

dedicated to La India Varela und Segundo Arteaga

Voice: Lola Kjepa
Narrator: Segundo Arteaga
Production: Michael Fahres
Ata Tak Studio, Düsseldorf
Sound engineering: Kurt Dahlke

Many thanks to Anne Chapman, Smithsonian Folkways, Carlos Baldassarre, Anne  Maria Stadnik, Patricia, Martine Inklaar, Bartolomé Ramos Varga, Jan  Landuydt, Maarten Coelink and of course to all who helped me with the realisation  of the project.

MERCURY SOUND

1992

ID 11. Mercury Sound (418)
ID 12. Escape Shore (031)

Voice and guitar: Ramon Ernesto Leiva
Production: Michael Fahres
Studios: Ata Tak, Düsseldorf; CEM, Arnhem
Sound engineering: Kurt Dahlke und Tibor Fueloep

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