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emilysarsam · 6 years ago

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Manana - ‘a bridge between Santiago and the rest of the world’

1 Quote by Manana founder, Alain Garcia Artola.(https://video.vice.com/en_uk/video/celebrating-manana-in-the-city-of-music/579f5cb7c9f628430d9d030d)

Santiago de Cuba, 2016.

When speaking about electronic music, the notion of internet is almost implicit. It grants us access to the genre and is relied on by most musicians who release their work on platforms such as Soundcloud, Bandcamp and Spotify. The widespread nature of the internet has enabled independent artists all around the world to produce music and share it globally, all from their bedrooms. What however, would the reality look like for music producers who live in a country where only 5% of the population has access to internet services in their own homes? Where wi-fi can only be legally accessed at one of 237 hotspots throughout the country?

This reality is Cuba.

How might we envision an electronic music scene in such a locality? Regarding the lack of internet on the island, how do Cuban artists manage to tap into the international electronic music scene and get their voices heard? With these questions in mind, this paper explores the Manana project, a music label and Cuba’s first Afro-Cuban Electronic and Folkloric Festival, which ran from the 4th until the 6th of May in 2016 in Santiago de Cuba. The project strives to combat the lack of international exposure which Cuban musicians experience and explores the opportunities that these artists could benefit from through better connection with and integration in the international electronic music scene and industry. With this incentive, Manana records is producing and releasing albums which result from collaborative projects between some of the most exciting jazz, rumba and electronic music artists from Cuba and abroad. The creators of Manana strongly believe that the project can facilitate the creative development of both local musicians in Santiago de Cuba and international electronic music artists through the sharing of knowledge and technology. For this essay, I obtained most of my information through an interview which I conducted with Harry Follett, the founder of Manana, and Kadambari Chauhan who represents Manana records, in January 2018, and through various articles, press releases and promotional.

An off-line nation

Three major factors have been identified to have caused the absence of wide-spread internet connectivity on the island. Firstly, the US embargo has played a crucial role in determining which resources Cubans can or can not obtain, such as materials like optical fibre cables which are necessary to transmit internet communication signals (San Pedro 2016). Secondly, the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 lead up to the “special period”, a time of extreme economic depression in the 90s which resulted in an economic crisis, and during which the government found itself faced with more acute issues such as rescheming its agricultural and industrial sector. The government in power also feared that foreign investment, which could have facilitated wide-spread internet access, would weaken national sovereignty. Thirdly, after the Cuban revolution in 1959, the government recognised telecommunication methods as tools to undermine authority. The availability of internet was considered too big a risk to the stability of the government (Press 2011). The Cuban telecommunications service provider ETECSA offers cards which enable hourly wi-fi connectivity for about $2. These cards are extremely pricey, considering the weak internet strength that they provide and the average monthly salary in Cuba which is about $25 (Perry 2017). In Santiago de Cuba, wi-fi antennas have been set up in four main areas around public parks and a back alley. During the daytime, these areas are filled with people leaning against walls and sitting on the ground and park benches, gazing at their devices. (Hjorth 2017, 347)

Creating physical networks

Cubans have created alternative strategies to obtain data from the internet without actually going online, as well as setting up clandestine internet connections. “El Paquete Semanal” (“The Weekly Package”), is a usb stick or hard drive containing about a terabyte of files such as music, tv-shows, movies and apps, which “Paqueteros” (“media smugglers”) regularly update and distribute (Martínez 2017). Some government employees, doctors, professors, and students who get onsite internet access through their jobs or universities, sell their connections. One could also say that internet access is a form of remittance, with Cubans abroad sending sim-cards loaded with internet data to their families and friends back at home (San Pedro 2016). The lack of internet availability has also lead to the creation of an entire underground user network. Together, they’ve set up what is called intranet callejera (“the internet of the street”), “Snet” or “Streetnet”. This network hacks in to wi-fi antennas and broadband cables through black market computers which are spread across the island (Estes 2015). In an interview with Vice magazine, Cuban-based artist Isnay Rodriguez, also known as DJ Jigüe and the founder of the Hip Hop collective “Guampara Productions”, speaks about the importance of internet access for the careers of emerging artists. He can often be spotted, sitting on park benches with his laptop at 4 a.m., when the internet isn’t being used by as many people as during the day and runs significantly faster. To advertise gigs and events, artists and DJs spread the news through word of mouth, mass text messages and posters. The electronic music scene in Eastern Cuba have also set up their own network of “El Paquete Semanal” distributors, through which they circulate mp3 files of the newest electronic music (Scruggs 2016). Regarding the availability and popularity of “El Paquete” across the entire island, the medium could offer an incredible opportunity for underground electronic musicians to disseminate their work, however the most prevalent hard disks carry predominantly reggaetón mp3s, which is indisputably one of the most popular music genres amongst younger generations in Cuba (Mallonee 2017). More than popularise their own music and genre, “El Paquete” has helped in shaping and growing a community of electronic music lovers that are connected through a constant sharing of music. Instead of utilising the internet to discover new music, individuals connect and share files physically.

This notion of reciprocity also lies at the very heart of Manana, which in many ways has filled a gap between the local and international music scene, which could be considered a result of the lack of internet on the island, amongst other factors. The project was founded by Harry Follett, who is a London based consultant, Alain Garcia Artola, member of the hip hop group TNT la Rezistencia and artist from Santiago de Cuba, and Jenner del Vecchio, a digital producer currently based in Vancouver. ”Manana" is a word used by some Cubans to describe a spiritual connection between artists and their audience. According to Alain, Manana was originally the name of the wife of Máximo Gómez, a Dominican general who came to Cuba to fight in the war of independence. While the couple was separated, Manana would send her husband letters which were signed with, “with passion, Manana”. This name was picked up by early Rumberos who would use the it to articulate their emotions while playing, emphasising that when they played, they did it with as much passion as Manana felt when she wrote these letters to her husband. (As explained by Alain in “Where does the world 'Manana' come from?” (https://youtu.be/lUDsxTrElAQ)

Harry initially travelled to Cuba in 2014 with the intention of studying percussion with the batá master Mililian Galis in Santiago de Cuba, which is where he also met Alain. Santiago de Cuba boasts Afro-Cuban culture and is home to a large Jamaican and Haitian community, the latter descending from immigrants who fled Haiti in 1791 following the slave revolt. Music flows out of every corner of the city where son, trova, rumba and salsa concerts are hosted almost daily at state-run music halls such as the Casa de la Trova and Casa de la Tradiciones (Garber 2016). Harry and Alain immediately bonded and sought to set up an open door studio, where local musicians could drop in, record and experiment with electronic music. Only a small number of recording studios can be found in the city, such as the National Recording Studio (EGREM studio) and are not equipped with the hardware necessary to produce electronic music. In their makeshift studio, the two friends planned to record an album which would represent the contemporary musical landscape of Santiago de Cuba, which blends rumba, trova, son, bembé and other forms of Yoruba and Haitian music with contemporary influences and soundscapes. The format of an album proved to limit the musical potential and dynamics of the city, thus Manana was born. The two friends found themselves wondering, how the current music situation in Santiago de Cuba relates to international electronic music and artists and how a bridge can be built between them. It was the challenge of facilitating a fruitful collaboration through the sharing of knowledge and technology across genres and cultures which intrigued them most and which they were convinced could benefit all participants involved. The festival that came out of this collaborative project was one of the first major festivals in Cuba to have a focus on electronic music and feature international as well as local musicians. The political situation during this period was absolutely crucial to the festival’s successful execution. Barack Obama was the first US president to visit the island since 1928 and under his administration, travel restrictions related to the embargo between the US and Cuba, which was first imposed in 1958, were eased (Garber 2016).

Manana festival recognises and builds on the potential of electronic music and the international scene that is linked to it, to promote Santiago de Cuba’s local musicians and Afro-Cuban heritage.

The founders also believe that, “Cuba’s powerful blend of rhythm, flow and feeling will enrich the development of electronic music and its community.” (http://www.mananacuba.com/about-manana-cuba-2016/) Officially speaking, Manana isn't a festival, but a "cultural exchange" between foreign and Cuban musicians, which is managed by the Santiago Province Culture Office, “Cultura”. Alain, who is a popular rapper in Cuba and has good connections with the government, was able to pull some strings and win the project’s approval. The government’s institutions have almost complete control over cultural activities across the island and during the 10 months that lead up to the festival, the team had to maintain contact with them on a weekly basis and make sure they met the expectations of the Culture Office. It was also a challenge to convince the government to support a project which focusses on promoting Afro-Cuban religious music and rumba, as opposed to genres like son and salsa, which are commonly marketed as local music. Finally, it was the project’s approach of targeting an international audience and drawing publicity and tourists to the island which sealed the deal with the government in February 2015. By this point, Harry Follett had returned to London and recruited his friend Jenner Del Vecchio, who became the project’s third co-founder (Scruggs 2016).

The festival took place in May 2016 and was made possible through a successful crowdfunding campaign which was launched in October the previous year and helped the organisers raise about half of the costs necessary to execute the festival. There was a limited number of 500 tickets for international guests which could be purchased or obtained by donating to the crowdfunding campaign. For locals, tickets were adapted to the average monthly salary and priced at $4 (Scruggs 2016). Harry tells me that of all festival goers, about 70% were locals and 30% were international visitors. The Cuban government heavily subsidised the festival’s main location, the Teatro Heredia, and offered its state-employed musicians. Manana was run entirely through the help of passionate volunteers and received free logistic consultation and audio equipment from companies such as Elektron and Vermona and organisations like “No Nation”. After the festival, Manana donated much of this equipment to Egrem Studios and other privately owned studios in Santiago. Perhaps the most important part of the festival, were the workshops which took place before the festival and facilitated collaborative processes between international and local artists during which they could meet, jam and create music through an exchange of knowledge, talent and technology. The music that was produced during these sessions was performed during the festival. The festival itself stretched out across various venues in the city with parties taking place in courtyards, private homes and in the streets. Better known international artists included the British DJ/producer A Guy Called Gerald, Quantic, the Peruvian duo Dengue Dengue Dengue, and Nicolas Jaar, who all played the event in exchange for travel, room, and board.

Performing artists were evenly split between collaborators, DJs, and local Cuban musicians.The dynamic line-up offered the audience a chance to preview the experimental collaborative projects, discover the various styles of the Cuban musical landscape, or simply dance to their favorite local musicians.

Manana in the future

The Trump administration has tightly restricted travel to and business with Cuba, making the continuation of the festival extremely difficult. For now, the team is focussing on creating more collaborations within the country, recording and releasing new music and hopefully touring it abroad. One year after the festival, the Barbican hosted Manana for “a night of Afro-Cuban Collaborations”, which brought some of the festival’s best collaborative projects to London. The show featured Obbatuké who were grouped with the electronic music duos Soundspecies and Plaid, Ariwo, and DJ Tennis who performed with Tito (Obbatuké) and Alayo (Alain’s pseudonym).

Manana has proved to be a sustainable project by maintaining its long term collaborations as well as facilitating new ones. Its record label has released three of these collaborations as albums through the label !K7. Among these productions are “Obbatuké”, a five track album by the like-named rumba group, an album by “Ariwo” which is a Cuban/Iranian collective that brings together Pouya Ehsai, Hammadi Valdes, Yelfris Valdes and Oreste Noda, and a collaboration between the UK’s Soundspecies and Ache Meyi which blends Afro-Haitian rhythms like bembé with electronic dance music. The project has found ways for Cuban artists to circumvent the lack of internet and still gain international exposure and recognition. It has also allowed these artists to explore technological possibilities to further develop their music by linking them with the electronic music scene. It goes without saying that international electronic musicians can gain much through such collaborative projects, both creatively as well as financially. What is important for the future of this project is that it maintains its strict reciprocal nature and continues to respect and guarantee the creative ownership of the actors involved.

Hector from Ache Meyi, Santiago de Cuba 2016.

Henry and Oliver Keen from Soundspecies, Santiago de Cuba 2016

References

Estes, Adam Clarke. “Cuba’s Illegal Underground Internet Is Thriving,” January 26, 2015. https://gizmodo.com/cubas-illegal-underground-internet-is-thriving-1681797114.

Garber, David. “Wi-Fi Cards, DIY Parties, and Food Rations: I Went to Cuba’s First Major Electronic Music Festival.” Thump, May 17, 2016. https://thump.vice.com/en_au/article/kb53yz/wi-fi-cards-diy-parties-and-food-rations-i-went-to-cuba39s-first-major-electronic-music-festival-au-translation.

García Martínez, Antonio. “Inside Cuba’s DIY Internet Revolution | WIRED,” July 26, 2017. https://www.wired.com/2017/07/inside-cubas-diy-internet-revolution/.

Greg, Scruggs. “Why This Festival Could Spark Cuba’s Electronic Music Revolution - Thump,” May 5, 2016. https://thump.vice.com/en_us/article/ae87qb/cuba-electronic-music-festival-manana.

Hawthorn, Carlos. “A Guy Called Gerald, Gifted & Blessed Head to Cuba for Manana.” Resident Advisor, February 8, 2016. https://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=33303.

Hjorth, Larissa, Lecturer in Digital Art in the Games Program Larissa Hjorth, Heather Horst, Anne Galloway, and Genevieve Bell. The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography. Taylor & Francis, 2017.

Lula, Chloé. “The Festivals Fighting To Preserve Latin American Music.” Telekom Electronic Beats (blog), February 27, 2017. http://www.electronicbeats.net/conversation-comunite-manana/.

Mallonee, Laura. “How Reggaetón Exploded All Over Cuba Without the Internet | WIRED,” 2017. https://www.wired.com/2017/03/lisette-poole-reggaeton/.

Pedro, Emilio San. “Internet Access Still Restricted in Cuba.” BBC News, March 21, 2016, sec. Latin America & Caribbean. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-35865283.

Perry, Kevin EG. “Manana: The Festival Helping Contemporary Cuban Music Go Global.” the Guardian, May 19, 2017. http://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/19/manana-festival-helping-cubans-forge-dance-music-connections.

Press, Larry. “The state of the Internet in Cuba.” The Internet In Cuba (blog), January 2011. som.csudh.edu/cis/lpress/cuba/chapters/lpdraft2.docx.

Scruggs, Greg. “How Do Cubans Make Electronic Music Without Reliable Internet?” Thump, July 26, 2016. https://thump.vice.com/en_us/article/yp45w7/cuba-electronic-music-technology-internet.

Photographs

All images were used with the permission of the photographer, Theodore Clarke. http://www.the0dore.com/

#manana #cuba #electronic music #festival #santiago de cuba #community #afro-cuban

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