Mandala at michael lambe

This chap on the left is Eric of Mandala who gave a wonderful live performance of ethnic music fusion at Pagode on Thursday evening. Eric told me the first musical instrument he learnt to play was the recorder. By the age of eleven he had moved onto the guitar, followed by the mandolin, the banjo, drums… Then he started travelling and now he can play pretty much anything, including the goni he is holding in the picture which he picked up on a recent trip to Ghana.

Eric employs a loop pedal in his performances. With this he can record segments of sound with his foot, then change to another instrument while the recorded sound loops back. By this means he can play with himself (so to speak). So he might start off with a guitar riff and then add a little djembe…

…followed by some indonesian xylophone…

…invite friends like Akira to participate…
…do a little singing…
and then some dancin…

and the result is magic!

Representin’ France, Canada and Japan: Philippe, Eric and Akira after the performance. Good Times!
More pictures can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46253270@N00/sets/72157594164482825/