Can’t Fake the Caribbean Funk. A selection of soulful and funk-inflected tracks from around the Caribbean with a few spicy breaks, cadences and compas mixed in. Produced for the Zamal Funk crew (DJs Kobal & Grandhuit).
Date: 2021-2022
Roles: On-site Sound Recording and mixing Technician and Mixing, Post-Production Technician
Collaborators: Youssef Shoufan, ELAN
In 2020, the English Language Arts Network (ELAN) began to develop a project about identity and belonging within the English-speaking communities of Quebec called Waves of Change. ELAN brought together five discussion groups based on waves of immigration. A sixth group brought together English-speakers from communities all around Quebec. Participants were invited to discuss their experiences to help us define that nebulous character – the English-speaking-Quebecer.
The six Waves of Change documentaries explore these questions from a multitude of perspectives, presenting a rich and diverse portrait of what it means to be an English-speaker living n Quebec.
I was in charge of audio and sound recording as well as live on-the-fly console mixing for the video shoots, which involved 5 – 11 participants each and was shot during the pandemic.
The result was later crafted into a feature-length documentary called What We Choose to Remember, which later aired on CBC Gem.
Date: 2019
Roles: historical researcher, music researcher, editor, panelist
Collaborators: Échantillons (Justin Doucet, Philippe Néméh-Nombré) on n10.as Radio, Itzayana Gutiérrez
How does Latin music document the construction of the racial figure of the chinese and its exclusion from Latinidad and brownness?
This musical trip, which first aired in 2019 in a special edition of the Échantillons radio program hosted by Justin Doucet and Philippe Néméh-Nombré, and featuring guest Itzayana Gutiérrez, connects cumbia, salsa, mambo, cabaret songs, guaracha, and other key genres of the musical heritage of the Americas. It speaks about Orientalism, race and the socio-political histories of the interactions between these two cultures and it is also a window into discussing the erased presence of Chinese and Asian diasporas in the Americas.
It is now presented here in an expanded version with the full interview and songs, and a bonus chinxlatinx mix.
TW: Racist tropes, historical descriptions of anti-asian racism
Date: 2020-2021
Roles: Sound Designer (Production, Sampling), Radio Technician, Musician
Collaborators: Ronald Rose-Antoinette, Articule, Lamin Fofana
Press: Pour un monde d’après vivant, Emmanuelle Jetté
“L’artiste a centré sa composition autour du vécu des personnes racisées afin de visibiliser ces histoires trop souvent ignorées. Il répondait ainsi directement au thème central de l’exposition : « l’air », élément de l’invisible. Cet air que l’on respire est aussi devenu source de contagion depuis un an. Le recours à la fréquence radio a permis à l’artiste de déjouer la peur de l’autre, la crainte d’une contamination, pour faire de l’air un véhicule d’ondes de vie et de liberté.” -Emmanuelle Jetté
Part of a group exhibition at Articule entitled Soul, with a difference (âme, avec une différence) curated by Ronald Rose-Antoinette with Lamin Fofana, Zab Maboungou, Kengné Téguia and Parker Mah
Installation / Performance in articule’s front window
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
The face mask is the ubiquitous new hall pass. It protects from infection and insulates the wearer from the fear of what they cannot sense. It is also a physical, social and psychological barrier, a fitting metaphor for the suffocation of BIPOC voices and the invisibilization of their struggles that have redoubled in intensity in 2020, the year of the pandemic, the year we came up for air, gasping.
What happens when expression can no longer be stifled? What happens when energies and emotions break their confinement? Parker Mah (Rhythm & Hues) channels these questions in his latest performance work, in which the performer is (all but) captive in his bubble. Music and words reflecting and amplifying the experiences of black and brown bodies find a way to escape through the plexiglass. Microscopically, vibrationally, the air around us quivers with life.
DESCRIPTION
A mix of vinyl, samples, live instrumentation, and effects, this piece was performed at 4 random times between November 27 – December 13th for a maximum of 2 hours. An array of instruments, turntables, consoles and equipment were set-up behind the front window space of articule, which gives onto Fairmount street. Surrounded by living room furniture and a disco ball, Parker Mah aka Rhythm & Hues performed a prepared set of meaningfully juxtaposed records, instruments and vocal samples, routed live through a pirate radio signal broadcast extremely locally (50 meter radius) as well as to a boombox positioned outside, to passerby and unwitting radio listeners.
GALLERY
Lamin Fofana & Parker Mah
Sound
20 min. 30 sec.
ARTISTS’ STATEMENT
Wax (pronounced wakh) means “to speak” in Wolof. This project, a first collaboration between artists Lamin Fofana (Black Studies) and Parker Mah (Rhythm & Hues), catalyzes the collective strength of afrodiasporic presences in time and space, through a mapping of vocal samples lifted mostly from vinyl records. In the airy expanse between utterances lie ghostly traces that make visible the invisible; that speak truth to forgotten narratives.
DESCRIPTION
This exhibition produced a second piece, a collaboration between artists Lamin Fofana and Parker Mah, both DJs and sound artists. Lamin had been expected to come to Montreal for the residency but could not due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. This piece developed out of online exchanges and a mutually established creative process.
Tradici๏nes ★ 02 – Raíces Afro Caribenas (100% Vinilos) por @rhythmandhues para Cosmovision Records (El Extravagante).
Esta mezcla es un viaje sonoro a través del tiempo, el espacio y percusiones hacia los orígenes espirituales de la música afrolatina. Desde el llamado de apertura del pregonero a “abrir camino” a la rumba cubana y los cantos de orishas, a los ritmos folclóricos afrobrasileños y de las antillas, trazamos una compleja red de influencias y tradiciones, delineadas por las antiguas rutas de comercio de esclavos, de vuelta al Africa que los dieron a luz. Después de descender por la costa atlántica de Colombia, bastión de los sonidos del carnaval y de Palenque (el legendario pueblo formado por cimarrones o esclavos escapados en el siglo XVII), cerramos el círculo con el mítico “Yiri Yiri Boum” de Gnonnas Pedro, originalmente compuesto por el rey de la percusión el Cubano Silvestre Méndez, creador de la “Oriza”.
Las corrientes transatlánticas son fuertes y continúan arrastrando culturas en sus mareas incluso hoy.
∗ ⋅ BIO ⋅ ∗
Vagabundo musical y coleccionista empedernido, Parker Mah, también conocido como ¨Rhythm & Hues¨ ha estado compartiendo sus selecciones poco convencionales durante más de una década. Como DJ ha destacado y encendido las pistas de baile en lugares como Ciudad de México, Cotonú y Hong Kong. Cofundador del colectivo DJ Tumbao, su especialidad abarca el espectro afro-latino-brasileño-caribeño, con una fuerte predilección por el vinilo.
Músico, compositor y presentador de programas de radio, su pasión es ampliar y compartir su interés en el legado sociocultural de estas músicas y las historias que cuentan sobre la migración y la polinización cruzada.
This mix is a sonic journey through time, space and drums into the spiritual origins of Afro-Latin music. From the opening call of the pregonero to “abre camino” into Cuban rumba and Orisha chants, to Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Antillean folkloric rhythms, we trace a complex web of influences and traditions, outlined by slave trading routes, back to the African shores that birthed them. After swooping through the Atlantic coast of Colombia, bastion of carnaval sounds and of Palenque (the legendary village formed by cimarrones or escaped slaves in the 17th century), we come full circle with Gnonnas Pedro’s mythic “Yiri Yiri Boum”, originally composed by Cuban percussion king Silvestre Mendez, originator of the “Oriza”.
Cross-Atlantic currents are strong and continue to tow cultures in their tides even today.
Cover art by Kristian Bolanos, Neon Cactus.
Date: 2016-2017
Roles: Sound Designer (Field recording, Sampling, Composition, Production), Videographer, Photographer
Collaborator: Sarah Elola, Montréal Arts Interculturels (MAI)
La Pileuse dives deep into the origins of rhythm and dance. This art of entering in communion with the elements instead of resisting them, of neither enduring nor dominating them; this art of renewal that can transcend the laborious; La Pileuse takes stock of all this and represents a mine of movements, sounds and philosophical reflections in what is ultimately an intimate encounter with the African woman. La Pileuse is Sarah Elola’s second solo piece. It draws upon African traditions, and more specifically those of Oulo and Boromissi – villages in Burkina Faso where the dancer and choreographer spent her childhood.
I produced the entirety of the soundscape for this piece, which integrated instrumental performance mixed with sample-based production. I also contributed some video and photo work.
Date: 2016
Roles: DJ, Musician, Music Researcher and Sampler, Sound Modeler
Collaborators: Nina Segalowitz, Moe Clark
Relive a magical performance put on for Nuit Blanche 2016 called “NIPI: Paysages Sonores”, led by spoken word poet / musician Moe Clark alongside throat singer Nina Segalowitz & Rhythm & Hues on turntables / MPC. The multi-layered set mixed traditional storytelling, drumming and singing with loop pedals, effects, and a sample-based sound design drawing from field recordings and the rich pantheon of indigenous music to create an northern ambiance as crisp as the night outside. The highlight of the night was this live retelling of an Inuit Drum Story, presented here. This performance, commissioned by the Canadian Guild of Crafts, marks their first collaboration together.
