RECORDINGS

Eastwinds released its eponymously-titled debut recording in 2015. The band played at two of the country’s major folk festivals: Fairbridge Festival in WA and the National Folk Festival in Canberra. Their song, Blame Lulu Peanuts (written by Steve Barnes) won the World Music category at the WAM Song of the Year Awards in 2016. They were then nominated again the following year. Kylla Vuotti Uuta Kuuta, is a song I first heard performed by Finnish group, Värttinä. Kristiina''s vocal here is both powerful and evocative.  My tune, 7 for Esi was written not long after our Iranian band member first arrived in Australia in 2013. To accompany the Esi's Persian ney (end-blown flute), I'm playing a small pvc chalumeau I made for this piece. 

Eastwinds: Kristiina Malaaps (Voice & jaw harp - Estonia), Esfandiar Shahmir (ney & daf - Iran), Sanshi (didgeridoo & percussion), Steve Barnes (guitar & guizouki - UK), Mark Cain (saxophones & winds - Aus.) 

Purchase: Eastwinds (self-titled first cd/mp3 - Bandcamp) 

www.eastwindsmusic.com                            http://artistecard.com/eastwinds

Guitarist, Ilan Zagoria and I have been playing together since I contributed some saxophone to his album, Home. During the lockdown period at the height of covid in 2020 we started to work on a duo album together sharing individually recorded part over the web. The tracks became the basis for our recent release, Shades.

Sharing a common love of southern African music (Ilan was born in South Africa), particularly South African jazz and the music of Abdullah Ibrahim.  But we also found common ground with our love of Sephardic and other Jewish roots musics. Shades was release later that year featuring a mix of our own pieces and tunes that inspired us with their Sephardic-tinged melodies or southern African soul.  La Rosa typifies the former, blending Jewish and early music traditions, whilst  Wedding Songs is drenched in the harmonies of African gospel. Ilan's own Diagonal Street (a street in Johannesburg) is a tasty blend of soukous and mbaqanga with lovely fluid and very danceable guitar lines.

Purchase: Shades CD (Bandcamp)

Mark Cain on  Lake Dora at Punmu  (RAWA Lands, Pilbara WA - Awesome Arts Musician-In-Residence 2023) Photo: Sete Tele. The video (taken by Sete Tele:  On Lake Dora )

In 2021 I released, with support from Alexis Courtin (Parenthèses records Records in Belgium) my first solo album since Reeds in 2004, titled Cameos. Using as a basis some of the tracks I had recorded for a Cinematic Scores concert (organised by Alexis at PS Artspace in 2016, Fremantle) and a puppetry production some years earlier (Turtle and the Trade Winds by Sandy McKendrick), Cameos is a series of musical fragments and themes featuring a variety of instruments of different construction, provenance and ethnicity.

I've also included here a couple of unreleased tracks featuring the polyduk, an instrument resembling the Armenian double-reed Duduk.  Using a flattened polypipe reed (the concept of Spanish experimental instrument maker, Xavier Lozano) and a plastic tube body (based on my friend, Linsey Pollak's design), this instrument has sound surprisingly close to its Armenian antecedent. The tune here is written by late 19th early 20th century Armenia composer, Komitas.

Some instruments just speak to you as a player - there is something almost spiritual about them... for me that instrument is the tarogato, a wooden equivalent of today's a soprano saxophone. The tarogato/tarogot was developed (in Hungary and Romania) in the latter part of the 19th century and possesses a beautiful woody timbre. The tune here, Juliaana is based on an old Finnish melody learnt from the Finnish group, Pauanne, which I've re-harmonised for two tarogatos.

I sent Pauanne my recording and their response back: "Wow! We're so impressed! The sound of your instrument is lovely, and the arrangement brings the tune to a completely new level. Thank you for sharing this Mark!"

Purchase: CAMEOS cd/mp3 (Bandcamp)

Born in Pune, India, sarod player, Praashekh Borkar, is considered one of India's leading younger generation musicians. He has invented his own Esarod. This is the debut recording of the Praashekh Quartet and features tabla player, Siva Balakrishnan, bassists Roy Martinez and the diverse percussion skills of Jamie David. Subsequently the Praashekh Quartet evolved into the Praashekh Collective featuring Wayan Dana on bass. Purchase PRAASHEKH QUARTET CD

Daramad traversed terrain between music of the Middle East, Iran and improvised jazz. Featuring two Iranian musicians and drawing on their different cultural backgrounds and improvisational skills, they performed original composition as well as arrangements of tunes by composers of the Islamic world. 

In 2012 Daramad won the Songlines/World Network Medien international competition, Battle of the Bands. Daramad's debut self-titled album was released by Parenthèses Records, Belgium.

"Singly, Daramad's many fine qualities are not so very rare; but you rarely find them all within one band. On the one hand, they offer serious musicianship, integrity, well-informed respect for various traditions. On the other, they are very playful, conversational, in-the-moment, fun, inventive. Composition and improvisation, eastern and western elements, tradition and innovation, quietude and jubilation are equally integral. Daramad's music is vital and substantial; it is worldly, but blessedly free of the crassness and/or tedious 'worthiness' that cripples rather too much so-called 'world' music". 

“The group dynamics and improvisations in that rich Middle Eastern context, colour this authentic fusion, rewarding the close listener with jubilant exoticism". 

"The band blends traditional Middle Eastern influences with the improvised energy of jazz. This it achieves with no small measure of sophistication, subtlety and skill on an interesting selection of instruments". 

Ozmosis are a duo comprising my oldest school friend, guitarist, Tim Chambers  (well known for his long-time interest in hispanic string instruments) and myself. Together over the years we've played Hispanic, Balkan and original music, all laced with liberal doses of improvisation.  On this, our 2006 duo recording on MGM, we feature an interesting array of woodwinds, strings and percussion and of course, a few original tunes. 

"We regularly play tracks from Ozmosis on Classic Drive, ABC Classic FM. Virtuoso performers, guitarist, Tim Chambers and reedman, Mark Cain, were drawn to the sounds emerging with the birth of World Music in the 1980's. One had dived into music of the  Balkans, the other into the enchanting music from the Andes. And now, 20 years on, they have released their first self-titled cd OZMOSIS.  And that's precisely what it is. And Ozmosis take on all they've played and made and consumed in that 20 yrs, gently tinged with a jazz feel at times. So this is neither Balkan not Andean, but is international Perthean.  And they're such fine musicians, that the appeal is immediate. Between them, they excel on countless instruments, some of which you'll recognise, some you will never have heard of. A one-off sound."   Julia Lester, Presenter, ABC FM Classic Drive

REEDS (2004 MGM) is a solo multi-layered recording of my own compositions featuring wind and reed  instruments I've made and played. On a couple of the tracks I am joined by percussionist, Paul Tanner.

"It's hard when multi-tracking yourself not to emerge with an unsparky thick lifelessness. But Australian, Cain, experienced in several traditions and master of a wide range of conventional, ethnic and unlikely reeds and flutes with gorgeous rich tone, joined by percussionist, Paul Tanner, makes clear-cut melodies with and interplay and wit that sounds like a finely attuned group." 

"The many instruments on this album serve the music masterfully. Reeds is a breath of fresh air from a musician for whom the next breath is just a sound away."          

Purchase: Reeds cd/mp3 (Bandcamp)

The Orchestra of the Global Nomads were one of the concert project groups developed within the Nova Ensemble in the mid-90s. This diverse group of musicians (of jazz, classical and world music background) performed a largely original repertoire traversing the boundaries of world music. Influences included Indonesian gamelan, tango, gypsy brass band and jazz, among others - a world jazz chamber group may be an apt description. There was no shortage of instruments to go round. 

Members of the Nomads were: David Pye, Peter Grayling, Anja Tait, Lee Buddle, Mike Burns, Paul Tanner, Glenn Rogers, Wency D'Sousa, Phil Bailey and myself.

For 16 years a quartet within Nova (David Pye, Amanda Dean, Mark Cain, Neil Craig and subsequently, Paul Tanner) performed with the Musica Viva in School (MVIS) program. Over this period we performed in hundreds of schools in WA, the NT, Tasmania and Singapore. We developed three distinct programmes: Boxes, Trash and Pockets and for each we built a range of new instruments along, of course, with new repertoires. In 2001 we recorded our POCKETS show. Again, industrial and recyclable materials were our unmistakable trademark, with the music informed by our proximity to the neighbouring Indian Ocean region  In 1998 Nova performed this show at the  JakArt Festival [Jakarta and Brunei], And In a separate project involving instruments I had specifically built, Nova performed to sell-out audiences at the 2002 Perth International Festival [“Drummers of Gilgamesh”] whilst also inspiring Singaporean schools on their 1999 and 2003 Musica Viva Tours. 

Thongophone-based pieces, Washboard Cha-Cha and Ban the Bombarde Blues were typical POCKETS quartet repertoire.

Paul Tanner - Marimba

In the 90s I tried my hand for the first time at writing pieces for marimba - in this case, two marimba quartet pieces for the Nova Ensemble. The four players (all Nova members), David Pye, Amanda Dean, Paul Tanner and Ian Robbie played these pieces on two marimbas. One of the joys for a non-orchestral musician like me was watching as a piece with lots of notes on the score was realised into a fully-fledged quartet. I was greatly appreciative of the help David Pye gave in making the parts all workable across two marimbas and 8-mallets. Gnome Anne's Land was my response to an invitation to write a 1-minute piece commissioned by Nova, whilst Tangola for R.B. a dedication to friend, pianist and accordionist, Ross Bolleter, a lover of tangos. Listen for Paul Tanner's expressive marimba solo midway into the piece. (Photo above: Paul Tanner)

The Flying Carpathians were regular and very popular performers during the early days of the Gypsy Tapas House in Fremantle. Recorded live outside at a house party, this album captures the spirit of the band in concert. Embroidered by klezmer, Balkan, Carpathian and gypsy musical threads, this is music for another present era, where life is a dance and tradition never stands still.

Voted best World Music Act at the 2008 WAMI Awards, The Flying Carpathians. Influences from Balkan dance floors and beyond, this versatile quartet features violin, cello, guitar, saxophone, as well as electric bass, mandolin and percussion.  They also introduce traditional instruments such as the Macedonian gaida (bagpipe), Turkish zurna (oboe) and Catalan.

The Flying Carpathians:  Tony Lane - fiddle & mandolin; Danielle Pender - guitar & percussion; Sarah Peet - cello & electric bass; Mark Cain - saxophones & ethnic reeds.

Purchase: Flying Carpathians cd/mp3

I played with Steve and Ros Barnes in Toucan Tango throughout the early to mid-90s along with bassist, Bob Thompson. We recorded the album, Patterns in the Sand in 1992. The track, "Tripod", which highlights Ros' incredibly accurate annunciation of lyrics sung at fast tempo (and in bebop rhythm), features my close friend and colleague, Ross Bolleter on accordion. Summer Breeze has a more languorous feel. Steve and Ros have remained close musical colleagues since with Steve playing in Eastwinds. 

Language was quartet formed in the early 90s led by Sienna--born guitarist, Deocleziano (Diego) Bosco. The group also featured local Noongar didgeridoo specialist, Derek Nannup, percussionist, Neil Craig, myself and a fine Italian electric bassist (and soloist here) whose name has been lost in the annals of time.

Rita Menendez lived and studied music in Mexico before migrating to Australia. An accomplished and versatile singer, she was one of the leading performers in the era of the North Perth Ethnic Music Centre (1983 - 95).. I was part of Rita's group in the latter 80s along with my friend and guitarist, Tim Chambers, who at this time was also playing with the Andean folk band, Los Chasquis along with bassist, Phil Kakulas, with whom I had played in a group called Wanderlust Trio. Together we recorded a couple of cassette albums: Drumming Hearts (featuring "Los Hemanos" and Arafura Sunset. During this time Rita was funded to work with the WA Union movement (the Clothing Trades Workers Union) on a songwriting,  performance and recording project concerning themes in the workplace, particularly from a migrant woman's perspective. "Blossoms of Your Heart" is from the resultant collection.