Ithaka - On The Road
Ithaka Darin Pappas is from Los Angeles, lived in Lisbon, spent a season in Africa. For all intents and purposes, it could have been Portuguese. Now, it's back with the Ithaka's third album, Somewhere South Of Somalia.
They started out as the Ithaka, a Portuguese-American project that signed one of the most interesting albums of Portuguese hip-hop, "Flowers And The Color Of Paint". Then each one went his way. Grizzly dedicated himself to the dance music. Darin Pappas went on a trip. In all senses. He kept hip-hop on the horizon and made it to the road. Now, back in Los Angeles, provisionally established base of operations, has released the third chapter of the Ithaka saga. It's called Somewhere South of Somalia. It's a hip-hop record "on the road." It's a travel album. Like almost everything, it also began in Africa. But its geographical boundaries extend to the boundaries of memories, to the atavistic need that hip-hop and its interpreters have to intervene and denounce and tell stories. After Lisbon and Nairobi, we were to meet Ithaka Darin Pappas eight hours away in the capital of California. We did not talk about jet lag, nor did we invoke Pessoa. We thought of Kerouac, then the artistic tri-dimensionality of our interlocutor. We mixed it up, quite eloquently framed in a philosophical tone, by the way, and tried to get a picture of the set. "The sculptures, the photographs and the music are intimately linked, they are part of the process of telling a story.In the background, it's all the same energy.Music is the most important thing for me, but I still do all the others. I can stay for a week making music, then I need to stop, not to drink a mai tai and to take a scald, but to make a sculpture.This is how I have lived.To change from one project to another. my style of life is this, traveling.All my artwork and music are a kind of derivative of it, from my travel experience. My inspiration comes from all that, from walking on the road. It does not have to be anywhere distant, but to put ourselves in new situations, implies changes, adaptation and a greater knowledge of ourselves. "Open the map. Close your eyes, cast the dice, choose. Somewhere south of Somalia. It was not like that, but it could have been. Given the sheer weight of the Afro heritage (and even the word as a mere prefix) in American culture, and in any self-respecting musician, this seems to be a better fate than any other. Curiously, a few days ago, Naughty By Nature just stripped the skin of ambassadors and finished a short tour with concerts in Lagos, Ibadon and Benin. Last year they were in South Africa and have already secured their return to the motherland in 2002 with live performances in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal. Objective: to promote and implement hip-hop. Is there any relation here? "I was not there to try to import any kind of pop culture, I went to rest, to observe and to settle ideas, it's a place where I wanted to go a long time ago. hip hop, I had some contacts in Nairobi but it was not easy, it's a complicated place to just show up, but I think that's the way it is all over Africa. " But there are other ironies of fate. "I have been there before the attack on the American embassy in Nairobi, but there was a lot of talk on the streets of Osama Bin Laden because of the things that happened in Somalia in 1993. It is a reaction / allusion to the lack of geographic knowledge that Americans and people in general have of the world, usually they only know a place after there has been a war. If we ask someone where it is which is Zanzibar, Tanzania, Kenya, the best response you get is 'somewhere south of Somalia', and they know Somalia because it has appeared on the news because people are dying publicly there. Could it be called "Somewhere over the rainbow"? No. The disc speaks for itself. Of the Western strangeness, or of the clash of civilizations; the colonial reminiscences and the arrogance of the rich white; abuse, war, disease, poverty and wealth. It reflects a daily life made of simplicity, the wonder with the nature and the people, and the surrounding musical environment. "I think that when you are far from any urban environment, and when many of the sites do not have electricity and the like, music comes from nature. You are not thinking about what kind of music you want to listen to or listen to, Music comes from the earth, from the conversations, from the noises. " Darin Pappas adds that his musical maneuvers on African lands were rather sporadic and of little relevance. Remember that at the time, the most interesting thing that was happening was a kind of reggae movement mixed with storytelling, akin to rap, from Mombassa. There was a group called Mushrooms, but they did not even keep a pirate k7 for later recall. Recently, she's been listening to Ursula Rucker's "Supa Sista" - "the lyrics are great" - some dub / reagge and a lot of hip-hop, "because there's been a lot of good hip-hop right now." In the current context, where American hip-hop is in the process of mutation and in fact there have been several bouts of fresh air within the genre - and also in fusion operations with soul, r'n'b and others less predictable misrepresentations -, Pappas is confident. "I think people are ready for a change. We've been through a long era, about 10 years of gangsters and bitches, people are interested in discovering and doing different things, and this is already happening in the underground, I've played with a bass player, drummer, keys, guitar and a girl singing and it's 'cool' .We hope to soon be able to take it this show to Portugal.I'm not stuck in LA and I hope to return soon to Lisbon.It is a place where I felt at home. "Before taking the opportunity to open the memoir album, we wanted to know how the contribution had happened with a song for the movie "Replacement Killers," a blockbuster with Mira Sorvino and Chow Yung Fat. "I sent some CDs here to LA and some went to the director, Antoine Fuqua, who was friends with a friend of a friend ... (as in the song" Snakes in the rafters "). the city of angels "because the song fit the theme of the movie well. It was interesting because in some ways the cinema works as a very strong medium of distribution of music internationally. And it was crazy, I received thousands of emails on my mp3 site, from people from all over the world, from the strangest places, trying to get the song. "As Jorge Palma would say," Ai Portugal, Portugal, from what you are waiting for ... "" I was in Portugal for six years, and it was one of the places where I discovered myself as an artist. I've always done art all my life, but it was in Portugal that I took a giant step to know myself and discover. Before I went there I did not make music. It all happened by chance. I was able to participate in a radio program, one thing led to others, and the music became another way of expressing myself. At that time, there was a very special period. It was very nice, for many reasons, there was a special energy, there was a kind of freestyle movement, very cool. Yen Sung, General D., Boss Ac ... I have not been to Portugal in a long time, I do not know what is happening now. It's very difficult to find certain discs here. I miss it so much ... "Ithaka Darin Pappas é de Los Angeles, viveu em Lisboa, passou uma temporada em África. Para todos os efeitos, podia ser português. Agora, está de regresso com o terceiro álbum dos Ithaka, "Somewhere South Of Somalia".
They started out as the Ithaka, a Portuguese-American project that signed one of the most interesting albums of Portuguese hip-hop, "Flowers And The Color Of Paint". Then each one went his way. Grizzly dedicated himself to the dance music. Darin Pappas went on a trip. In all senses. He kept hip-hop on the horizon and made it to the road. Now, back in Los Angeles, provisionally established base of operations, has released the third chapter of the Ithaka saga. It's called Somewhere South of Somalia. It's a hip-hop record "on the road." It's a travel album. Like almost everything, it also began in Africa. But its geographical boundaries extend to the boundaries of memories, to the atavistic need that hip-hop and its interpreters have to intervene and denounce and tell stories. After Lisbon and Nairobi, we were to meet Ithaka Darin Pappas eight hours away in the capital of California. We did not talk about jet lag, nor did we invoke Pessoa. We thought of Kerouac, then the artistic tri-dimensionality of our interlocutor. We mixed it up, quite eloquently framed in a philosophical tone, by the way, and tried to get a picture of the set. "The sculptures, the photographs and the music are intimately linked, they are part of the process of telling a story.In the background, it's all the same energy.Music is the most important thing for me, but I still do all the others. I can stay for a week making music, then I need to stop, not to drink a mai tai and to take a scald, but to make a sculpture.This is how I have lived.To change from one project to another. my style of life is this, traveling.All my artwork and music are a kind of derivative of it, from my travel experience. My inspiration comes from all that, from walking on the road. It does not have to be anywhere distant, but to put ourselves in new situations, implies changes, adaptation and a greater knowledge of ourselves. "Open the map. Close your eyes, cast the dice, choose. Somewhere south of Somalia. It was not like that, but it could have been. Given the sheer weight of the Afro heritage (and even the word as a mere prefix) in American culture, and in any self-respecting musician, this seems to be a better fate than any other. Curiously, a few days ago, Naughty By Nature just stripped the skin of ambassadors and finished a short tour with concerts in Lagos, Ibadon and Benin. Last year they were in South Africa and have already secured their return to the motherland in 2002 with live performances in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal. Objective: to promote and implement hip-hop. Is there any relation here? "I was not there to try to import any kind of pop culture, I went to rest, to observe and to settle ideas, it's a place where I wanted to go a long time ago. hip hop, I had some contacts in Nairobi but it was not easy, it's a complicated place to just show up, but I think that's the way it is all over Africa. " But there are other ironies of fate. "I have been there before the attack on the American embassy in Nairobi, but there was a lot of talk on the streets of Osama Bin Laden because of the things that happened in Somalia in 1993. It is a reaction / allusion to the lack of geographic knowledge that Americans and people in general have of the world, usually they only know a place after there has been a war. If we ask someone where it is which is Zanzibar, Tanzania, Kenya, the best response you get is 'somewhere south of Somalia', and they know Somalia because it has appeared on the news because people are dying publicly there. Could it be called "Somewhere over the rainbow"? No. The disc speaks for itself. Of the Western strangeness, or of the clash of civilizations; the colonial reminiscences and the arrogance of the rich white; abuse, war, disease, poverty and wealth. It reflects a daily life made of simplicity, the wonder with the nature and the people, and the surrounding musical environment. "I think that when you are far from any urban environment, and when many of the sites do not have electricity and the like, music comes from nature. You are not thinking about what kind of music you want to listen to or listen to, Music comes from the earth, from the conversations, from the noises. " Darin Pappas adds that his musical maneuvers on African lands were rather sporadic and of little relevance. Remember that at the time, the most interesting thing that was happening was a kind of reggae movement mixed with storytelling, akin to rap, from Mombassa. There was a group called Mushrooms, but they did not even keep a pirate k7 for later recall. Recently, she's been listening to Ursula Rucker's "Supa Sista" - "the lyrics are great" - some dub / reagge and a lot of hip-hop, "because there's been a lot of good hip-hop right now." In the current context, where American hip-hop is in the process of mutation and in fact there have been several bouts of fresh air within the genre - and also in fusion operations with soul, r'n'b and others less predictable misrepresentations -, Pappas is confident. "I think people are ready for a change. We've been through a long era, about 10 years of gangsters and bitches, people are interested in discovering and doing different things, and this is already happening in the underground, I've played with a bass player, drummer, keys, guitar and a girl singing and it's 'cool' .We hope to soon be able to take it this show to Portugal.I'm not stuck in LA and I hope to return soon to Lisbon.It is a place where I felt at home. "Before taking the opportunity to open the memoir album, we wanted to know how the contribution had happened with a song for the movie "Replacement Killers," a blockbuster with Mira Sorvino and Chow Yung Fat. "I sent some CDs here to LA and some went to the director, Antoine Fuqua, who was friends with a friend of a friend ... (as in the song" Snakes in the rafters "). the city of angels "because the song fit the theme of the movie well. It was interesting because in some ways the cinema works as a very strong medium of distribution of music internationally. And it was crazy, I received thousands of emails on my mp3 site, from people from all over the world, from the strangest places, trying to get the song. "As Jorge Palma would say," Ai Portugal, Portugal, from what you are waiting for ... "" I was in Portugal for six years, and it was one of the places where I discovered myself as an artist. I've always done art all my life, but it was in Portugal that I took a giant step to know myself and discover. Before I went there I did not make music. It all happened by chance. I was able to participate in a radio program, one thing led to others, and the music became another way of expressing myself. At that time, there was a very special period. It was very nice, for many reasons, there was a special energy, there was a kind of freestyle movement, very cool. Yen Sung, General D., Boss Ac ... I have not been to Portugal in a long time, I do not know what is happening now. It's very difficult to find certain discs here. I miss it so much ... "Ithaka Darin Pappas é de Los Angeles, viveu em Lisboa, passou uma temporada em África. Para todos os efeitos, podia ser português. Agora, está de regresso com o terceiro álbum dos Ithaka, "Somewhere South Of Somalia".
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Ithaka pela estrada fora
Ithaka pela estrada fora
21 de Dezembro de 2001, 0:00
Começaram por ser os Ithaka, um projecto luso-americano que assinou um dos discos mais interessantes do hip-hop português, "Flowers And The Color Of Paint". Depois, cada um seguiu o seu caminho. Grizzly dedicou-se à música de dança. Darin Pappas seguiu viagem. Em todos os sentidos. Manteve o hip-hop no horizonte e fez-se à estrada. Agora, de regresso a Los Angeles, base de operações estabelecida provisoriamente, lançou o terceiro capítulo da saga Ithaka. Chama-se "Somewhere South of Somalia". É um disco de hip-hop "on the road". É um álbum de viagens. Como quase tudo, também começou em África. Mas os seus limites geográficos estendem-se às fronteiras das memórias, à necessidade atávica que o hip-hop e os seus intérpretes têm de intervir e denunciar e contar histórias. Depois de Lisboa e Nairobi, fomos encontrar Darin Pappas a oito horas de distância, na capital da Califórnia. Não falámos de 'jet lag', nem invocámos Pessoa. Pensámos em Kerouac, depois na tridimensionalidade artística do nosso interlocutor. Misturámos tudo, de forma bastante eloquente emoldurada em tom filosófico, diga-se de passagem, e tentámos obter uma foto tipo-passe do conjunto. "As esculturas, as fotografias e a música estão intimamente ligadas, fazem parte do processo de contar uma história. No fundo, é tudo a mesma energia. A música é a coisa mais importante para mim, mas continuo a fazer todas as outras. Com isso mantenho-me equilibrado. Posso estar uma semana a fazer música, depois necessito de parar, não para beber um mai tai e apanhar um escaldão, mas para fazer uma escultura. É assim que tenho vivido. Mudar de um projecto para outro. O meu estilo de vida é esse, viajar. Todo o meu trabalho artístico e a música são uma espécie de derivados disso, da minha experiência de viagens. A minha inspiração vem toda daí, do facto de andar na estrada. Não tem que ser qualquer sítio distante, mas colocarmo-nos em novas situações, implica mudanças, adaptação e um conhecimento maior de nós próprios."Abrir o mapa. Fechar os olhos, lançar os dados, escolher. Algures, a sul da Somália. Não foi assim, mas podia ter sido. Tendo em conta o peso da herança afro (e até da palavra enquanto mero prefixo) na cultura americana, e em qualquer músico que se preze, esse parece ser um destino melhor do que outro qualquer. Curiosamente, há poucos dias, os Naughty By Nature acabaram de despir a pele de embaixadores e terminaram uma pequena digressão com concertos em Lagos, Ibadon e Benin. O ano passado estiveram na África do Sul e já garantiram o regresso à "motherland" em 2002, com actuações ao vivo no Gana, Costa do Marfim e Senegal. Objectivo: divulgar e implementar o hip-hop. Haverá aqui alguma relação ? "Não estive lá a tentar importar qualquer tipo de cultura pop. Fui para descansar, observar e assentar ideias. É um sítio onde eu queria ir já há muito tempo. Uma das razões, é o facto de África ser o genuíno local de nascimento do hip-hop. Tinha alguns contactos em Nairobi mas não foi fácil. É um sítio complicado para apenas aparecer por lá, mas penso que é assim em toda África." Mas há outras ironias do destino. "Agora que o fundamentalismo islâmico ocupa as atenções dos media generalistas, é estranho. Estive lá antes do ataque à embaixada ameriana em Nairobi, mas falava-se muito nas ruas de Osama Bin Laden, por causa das coisas que aconteceram na Somália em 1993. Escolhi o título do disco a partir daí. É uma reacção/alusão á falta de conhecimento geográfico que os americanos e as pessoas em geral têm do mundo, normalmente só conhecem um sítio depois de lá ter havido uma guerra. Se perguntarmos a alguém onde é que fica Zanzibar, Tanzania, Quénia, a melhor resposta que se consegue é 'somewhere south of Somalia', e conhecem a Somália porque apareceu nas notícias, porque as pessoas morrem publicamente lá." Poderia chamar-se "Somewhere over the rainbow"? Não. O disco fala por si. Da estranheza ocidental, ou do choque de civilizações; das reminiscências colonialistas e da prepotência do branco rico; dos abusos, da guerra, das doenças, das pobrezas e das riquezas. Reflecte um quotidiano feito de simplicidade, o deslumbramento com a natureza e as pessoas, e o ambiente musical envolvente. "Penso que quando se está longe de qualquer ambiente urbano, e quando muitos dos sítios não têm electricidade e coisas do género, a música vem mais da natureza. Não se está a pensar no tipo de música que se quer fazer ou ouvir, porque a música vem da terra, das conversas, dos barulhos." Darin Pappas acrescenta que as suas manobras musicais em terras africanas foram bastante esporádicas e pouco relevantes. Lembra-se que, na altura, a coisa mais interessante que estava a acontecer era uma espécie de movimento de reagge misturado com 'storytelling', aparentado com o rap, originário de Mombassa. Havia um grupo chamado Mushrooms, mas nem sequer guardou uma k7 pirata para mais tarde recordar. Recentemente, tem andado a ouvir "Supa Sista" de Ursula Rucker - "as letras são excelentes"-, algum dub/reagge e muito hip-hop, "porque tem saído muito hip-hop bom agora". No contexto actual, em que o hip-hop americano está em fase de mutação e, de facto, têm surgido várias lufadas de ar fresco dentro do género - e também em operações de fusão com a soul, o r'n'b e outras mestiçagens menos previsíveis -, Pappas está confiante. "Penso que as pessoas estão prontas para uma mudança. Já atravessámos uma longa era, cerca de 10 anos, de gangsters e 'bitches', as pessoas estão interessadas em descobrir e fazer coisas diferentes, e isso já está a acontecer no 'underground'. O meu disco saiu agora nos Estados Unidos, a resposta tem sido positiva e ao vivo as coisas têm funcionado bem. Toco com baixista, baterista, teclas, guitarra e uma rapariga a cantar e é 'cool'. Esperamos, brevemente, poder levar este espectáculo a Portugal. Não estou preso a L.A. e espero voltar em breve a Lisboa. É um sítio onde me senti em casa."Antes de aproveitar a deixa para abrir o álbum de memórias, quisémos saber como é que tinha acontecido a contribuição com uma canção para o filme "Assassinos Substitutos", um "blockbuster" com Mira Sorvino e Chow Yung Fat. "Mandei alguns CDs aqui para L.A. e alguns foram parar às mãos do realizador, o Antoine Fuqua, que era amigo de um amigo de um amigo... (como na canção "Snakes in the rafters"). Ele gostou do 'Escape from the city of angels" porque a canção se adequava bem ao tema do filme. Foi interessante porque de certa forma o cinema funciona como um meio fortíssimo de distribuição de música internacionalmente. E foi uma loucura, recebi milhares de e-mails no meu site de mp3, de pessoas de todas as partes do mundo, dos sítios mais estranhos, a tentarem arranjar a música."Como diria Jorge Palma, "Ai Portugal, Portugal, de que é que tu estás à espera...". "Estive em Portugal durante seis anos, e foi um dos locais onde me descobri como artista. Sempre fiz arte durante toda a minha vida, mas foi em Portugal que dei um passo gigantescto para me conhecer e descobrir. Antes de ir para aí não fazia música. Aconteceu tudo por acaso. Tive a possibilidade de participar num programa de rádio, uma coisa levou a outras, e a música tornou-se mais um meio de me exprimir. Naquela altura, houve um periodo muito especial. Foi muito agradável, por muitas razões, havia uma energia especial, existia uma espécie de movimento de freestyle, muito cool. Yen Sung, General D., Boss Ac... Já não vou a Portugal há muito tempo, não sei o que está a acontecer agora. Aqui é muito dificil encontrar certos discos. Sinto saudades de tantas coisas daí..."
https://www.publico.pt/2001/12/21/jornal/ithaka-pela-estrada-fora-165601
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Links:
https://www.discogs.com/artist/468212-ITHAKA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIZXy50yj_t9UuHqeOQhpGQ
http://planetithaka.blogspot.com/
https://genius.com/artists/Ithaka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaka_Darin_Pappas
http://ithakaofficial.com/
https://www.facebook.com/IthakaBlue/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ithaka/69363540
https://store.cdbaby.com/artist/Ithaka2
https://www.instagram.com/_ithaka_/?hl=en
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5225987/
https://thehundreds.com/blogs/content/ithaka-interview
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaka
http://upmagazine-tap.com/en/pt_artigos/ithaka-2/
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