FMM Sines – Festival Músicas do Mundo, the biggest world music festival in Portugal, is back to Sines and Porto Covo between the 23rd and the 31st of July 2010. The distribution of concerts across the four stages is the same that happened on previous years: three days in Porto Covo (July 23-25), two days of concerts in Centro de Artes of Sines’ Auditorium (26 and 27 of July) and four days of music on the Castle and Beach stages (28 to 31 of July).

The first news about the 2010 programme will be published on this website very soon.

PRAISE FOR FMM SINES 2009

“A very enjoyable festival, full of life and happiness. One of the best festivals I’ve been in for a long time”
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Jamaican legend (2009)

“The best festival in the world! (…) Best sound, best people, best food, best view. A great festival (…) It’s very rare to see that many great people in one place”
Olivier Conan – Chicha Libre (2009)

“Sines’ festival is one of the most important festivals in Europe”
Debashish Bhattacharya, Indian slide-guitar player (2009)

Mamer

Because of visa problems, Mamer (China) will not be able to play in Sines.

The concert was scheduled for the 22th of July (6:30pm), at Centro de Artes de Sines.

Refunds for ticket owners at Centro de Artes’ reception desk.

Public and Press
269 632 364 (Castle)
269 862 293 (Beach Stage)
sidi [at] mun-sines.pt
informacao.sines [at] gmail.com

Organisation / Production
Castle phone number not available yet
info [at] fmm.com.pt

Centro de Artes de Sines
269 860 080

If none works… (Monday to Friday)
269 630 600 (PBX Câmara Municipal de Sines)

Ramiro Musotto

The organisation is sorry to inform that, because of health problems, the Argentinean musician RAMIRO MUSOTTO had to cancel his summer tour and his concert at FMM, scheduled for the night of July 23, at the Beach Stage.

His spot in the programme will be taken by DAMILY, the great master of Madagascar’s “Tsapiky” style.

After the concert of Kasaï Allstars in the Castle, the trance induced by the African electric fever expands to the Beach Stage.

Damily

Like in the case of the Congolese group, guitar-player Damily makes electricity, but electricity connected to the earth.

Born in 1968, Damily is the great figure of Tsapiky, the dance rhythm from Madagascar’s Southwest region, full of East-African flavours that lovers of Mozambican and South-African music will recognise.

His guitar covered with the dust of Tulear, the city where Damily comes from, is the steering-wheel of a music deep-rooted in Malagasy people’s life, used in burials, weddings, circumcisions and all the most important social events.

Complete and pure Africa in a concert not to miss.

Workshops for children

Exhibition, documentary showings, workshops for children, meetings with artists, instrument workshops, DJ’s, meeting with writers & street entertainment… FMM parallel events’ programme is available here.

The gathering between Chinese group Hanggai and Chinese singer/songwriter Mamer, that we had scheduled for the 23rd of July, at the Castle, unfortunately will not happen.

But no, this is not a cancellation. All of them still come to Sines.

On the 23rd we will see Hanggai alone at the Castle and Mamer’s concert at Sines’ Arts Centre (July 22, 6:30pm) becomes an even more precious occasion to get acquainted with this year’s  most exciting newcomer in Asian music. Comedian and frenetic twitter Stephen Fry agrees with us.

Trader’s spots at FMM 2009 (Sines’ town) will be designated in a public auction scheduled to take place on the 7th of July, 2:30pm, at Sines’ City Hall.

All the information needed to apply is available here.

The full concert schedule for FMM Sines is now settled.

Thirty-seven concerts on 9 consecutive days of music will make Sines a European capital of world music between the 17th and the 25th of July.

The first three days of shows take place in Porto Covo, the village 13km south of Sines’ town. From July 20 to July 25, the shows are held at the town’s three stages: Centro de Artes’ Auditorium, the medieval Castle (the historical setting of the festival) and the Beach Stage (by the Vasco da Gama beach).

You can navigate the programme here or using the sidebar menu.

It’s one of the strongest programmes ever. We hope you enjoy it!

Cyro Baptista

Cyro Baptista ‘Beat the Donkey’ will be performing in Sines’ Castle on the 24th of July.

Since arriving in the U.S. in 1980 from his native country Brazil, Cyro Baptista has emerged as one of the premier percussionists in the country. Coinciding with the rise in the public’s interest of world music, Cyro has managed to record and tour with some of music’s most popular names. His mastery of Brazilian percussion and the many instruments he creates himself, have catapulted him into world renown. Cyro’s credits read like a “Who’s Who” of modern music. He toured extensively with Yo-Yo Ma’s Brazil Project, Trey Anastasio’s Band (of Phish), John Zorn’s Electric Masada, Herbie Hancock’s Grammy award winning “Gershwin’s World”, Sting and Paul Simon’s “Rhythm of the Saints”. With his own project, the percussion and dance ensemble known as ‘Beat the Donkey’ Cyro gives free rein to his imagination, mixing his tremendous musical skills, his natural humor and theatrical ways with instruments from Brazil, Middle East, Indonesia, Africa and US. The first Beat the Donkey album, (TZADIK) was picked by The New York Times as one of the ten best alternative albums of 2002. Readers of JAZZIZ and DRUM magazine voted it as “Best Brazilian CD of the Year” and named Cyro “Best Percussionist of 2002.” Downbeat Magazine’s 51st annual critics’ poll selected Cyro as “Rising Star” in percussion. He released his latest CD, “Banquet of the Spirits”, in 2008.

The new phenomenon of British indy jazz, Portico Quartet, will be at Centro de Artes de Sines on the 20th of July.

Living and playing together Portico Quartet describe their ethos as like an Indy band that plays post-jazz, and their unique sound has won them fans from Gilles Peterson to Radio 4 and Notion to BBC Music Magazine, and made their debut release “Knee-Deep In The North Sea” (2008) Time Out’s Jazz, Folk and World music album of the year and nominated to Mercury Prize. Portico Quartet are Jack Wylie (soprano Saxophone), Milo Fitzpatrick (double bass), Nick Mulvey (Hang and percussion) and Duncan Bellamy (drums and Hang), and it’s the mix of ethereal saxophone, flying saucer like Hang (imagine an otherworldly steel drum), clattering drums and earthy double-bass that gives their music it’s inimitable, beautiful sound. It was the chance purchase of the Hang by Duncan Bellamy, at a music festival, that inspired the young friends to start a band, and while their largely intuitive music references jazz and African music it’s the Hang inspired trance-like repetitive patterns of Duncan and Nick Mulvey that propel the band into stranger pastures: invoking Philip Glass and Steve Reich’s gamelan inspired minimalism.