“DEVIL-DANCING” – By Des Kelly

This was what it was called in the Ceylon I remember.

If someone got very ill, especially mentally, the Devil Dancers would be called on to perform their rituals in order to rid the devils out of the patient.This devil dancing would be carried out overnight, normally featuring two or three people, and it was a “Buddy Rich, eat your heart out” situation, when these drummers from Lanka started to do their thing. This, together with the dancing & chanting would, under normal conditions, make any devil want to get the hell out of there (pardon the pun), and, even for total disbelievers like myself, I once watched one of these rituals, and, at the given time of midnight, noticed the branches of a nearby coconut tree shudder and shake violently, as the devil made his exit, hopefully to drink a thambili or two, en route to where he/she came from. This is a true story, coming to you from one who was once in a cemetery at midnight, and was mistaken for a ghost, himself, but this will have to wait, for the moment. 

Desmond Kelly
(Editor-in-Chief)  eLanka.

Conjuring the gods in a musical frenzy – By Kerrie O’Brien

When someone is unwell in Sri Lanka and conventional medicine can’t provide a cure, it may be time to call in the drummers.

Though the practice is now in decline, drummers and dancers are occasionally still summoned to offer astrology-based healing rituals to beckon good spirits and restore health.

Other ceremonies are offered in the lead-up to childbirth, to bring on a bountiful harvest or even to cast out “demons” for people with psychological issues. The drumming and dancing is often joined by singing and the action can become quite frenetic.

Drummer Sumudi Suraweera, founder of the Baliphonics ensemble, says a decade ago several of these ceremonies were held each weekend; now they occur only once every few months. The decline is in part what inspired him to create Of Deities and Demons, a show by Baliphonics and the Australian Art Orchestra, coming to Sydney and Melbourne next month.

Baliphonics, a Sri Lankan group, perform music inspired by traditional rituals.

Part of the AAO’s Meeting Point Series bringing together musical styles from around the world, Of Deities and Demons features composer/drummer Suraweera, two dancers – brothers Susantha and Prasanna Rupathilaka – and Reuben Derrick on bass clarinet, together with members of the orchestra. In previous incarnations of Baliphonics, the dancers’ father performed with them; he was an astrologer and was able to read the stars to determine what kind of ritual was required.

Born in Sri Lanka and raised in New Zealand, Suraweera studied the rituals for his doctorate before returning to Sri Lanka a decade ago. Dismayed at the lack of music in the Sri Lankan school curriculum, with its emphasis on exams and strict, formulaic teaching, he set up the Music Matters foundation, giving children the chance to improvise and play in an ensemble from an early age. He also stages gigs at night, showcasing jazz and other forms of improvisational music.

The term “Bali”, he explains, has nothing to do with the country. “It literally means offering … It’s an offering for the deities associated with astrology – just as there are nine planets, there are nine deities associated with them. In a practical sense, for most Sinhalese, horoscope is quite a big thing. In my generation maybe less and less so, but up to the previous generation it was big.

“It gets written when you are born and can be consulted at any point, especially at the important moments in your life. When you’re going through a rough patch, if mainstream help doesn’t work, you might consult the horoscope.”

People would consult an astrologist to see if any of the planetary deities were in a bad place; during the ritual they would invoke these deities and make an offering, he says.

Peter Knight, artistic director of the Australian Art Orchestra, met Suraweera in Sri Lanka last year when he and his son, a keen drummer, visited. The show, he says, “has moments of melodic beauty but also moments of frenetic drumming, and singing over the top, which is beautiful and strange, and the dance is amazing. Beyond that, it’s new, so Sum and his group have never worked with such a large ensemble before.”

Working separately in Sri Lanka and Australia posed no challenge; Suraweera has created a “map” of sorts for all the musicians, which details the composition. But it is not to be followed religiously.

“The nice thing about the map is that you can leave that track for a bit, and go your own way and then come back to it and there are cues,” Knight says. “So there’s this nice sense of something holding the whole thing together and a freedom for us to work our way through it.”

Along with Knight playing trumpet and electronics, the show includes fellow Art Orchestra members Reuben Lewis ( trumpet and electronics),  Carl Dewhurst (guitar) and Mary Rapp (cello). Some of the orchestra worked with Suraweera when he came to their annual workshop in Tasmania in September, but the idea was not to rehearse endlessly.

“When we get a bit closer, we’ll all be listening to it and then we’ll meet in Sydney and we’ve got two days to pull it all together,” Knight says. “There is a sense of slight danger, a bit of creative risk there. I like that feeling where you haven’t dotted all the Is and crossed all the Ts, there’s a bit of room.”

It’s been a busy few months for Knight and his fellow orchestra members. Ten members of AAO recently returned from Europe and China. After a week-long tour in China, they headed to the Berlin Jazz Festival, where they spent a week as ensemble in residence, playing to big crowds.

“There’s a real audience for more esoteric musical work in Europe; when I take my music there or when we go there with the Art Orchestra, people get it straight away,” Knight says.

Even so, he argues there are things we do in Australia in quite a sophisticated way; the Meeting Point Series is an example of what can be achieved  through cross-cultural collaborations.

“It’s about creating meeting points between different musical ideas and particularly different cultures. We most recently did a concert with a Korean taegum [Korean flute] soloist from Seoul. All of us are improvisers. Improvisation is also a key aspect of a lot of non-Western musical traditions, and so we think of improvisation as … an inter lingua, that’s beyond language … also, in terms of hierarchy, it’s pretty equal, it’s not one person telling another what to do, [it’s] having a conversation and seeing what rises.

“I’m all about opening up conversations – get people together, get them to play, you don’t have to do much – you just have to create a space.”

Of Deities and Demons is at Annandale Creative Arts Centre, Sydney, December 7; and The Pavilion, Arts Centre Melbourne, December 8.

Arts Centre Melbourne and Australian Art Orchestra present : Meeting Points Series: Of Deities and Demons featuring Sumudi Suraweera and Baliphonics -Presented as part of Mapping Melbourne 2019

8 December 2019 | The Pavilion

Sunday 8 Dec

5:00 PM

More information – https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/2020/festivals-and-series/meeting-points/of-deities-and-demons

Ecstatic music and dance from Sri Lanka

In a rapturous celebration of ancient Sri Lankan culture, Baliphonics and Australian Art Orchestra bring age-old rituals to life through traditional dance, chanting and music.

In a spectacle of dance, music and light, this unique group draws upon an astrological healing practice known as Bali Ritual, in which deities are invoked and demons exorcised.

On a recent trip to Sri Lanka, Peter Knight (Artistic Director, Australian Art Orchestra) formed a friendship with leader of Baliphonics, Sumudi Suraweera. This friendship formed the start of an exciting collaboration combining the yak bera (demon drum), clarinets and other traditional instrumentations with the signature experimental jazz stylings of Australian Art Orchestra.

This Meeting Points Series exclusive will thrill audiences through an intense and visceral experience, bringing together the powerful artform of Sri Lankan ritual music with Australia’s leading contemporary ensemble.

About Meeting Points Series

A contemporary concert series for the curious.

Meeting Points Series is an intimate collection of concerts curated by Peter Knight, Artistic Director of Australian Art Orchestra. Returning for its third year, this program brings together musical styles and performers from across the globe in a series of unexpected collaborations. Experience a mesmerising series of never-before-seen works and cross-cultural compositions in our most exciting line-up yet.

Artist Line-Up

Meeting Points Series is a creative collaboration between Arts Centre Melbourne and Australian Art Orchestra.

Sumudi Suraweera – composer, drummer and music producer
Susantha Rupathilaka – dance and voice
Prasanna Rupathilaka – dance, yak bera and voice
Reuben Derrick – clarinets
Peter Knight – trumpet
Reuben Lewis – trumpet
Carl Dewhurst – guitar
Mary Rapp – cello