French Musicians Hold Workshops With JIS Students
By James Kon

Bandar Seri Begawan - Six members of the French electro band X Makeena are currently in Brunei to exchange ideas on modem music with locals through five days of musical workshops.

The French visitors are Nicolas, Stephane, Says, Karlton, Bastian and Xavier. The initiative to fuse traditional melodies with modern music came from Alliance Francaise with support from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, as well as sponsor Unitek.

According to Cyrielle Bazin of Alliance Francaise, the X Makeena is on tour in Asia and has stopped by Brunei to conduct two workshops on beat boxing and music assisted by computers.

The workshop's purpose is for musicians to learn from each other, which is also in line with the aim of Alliance Francaise to promote cultures.

According to Nicolas, "We have been to a lot of countries. We love to do concerts and conduct workshops for a more fruitful exchange with the local people and musicians."

On Brunei's traditional music, he said, "We haven't had any opportunity to listen to the traditional music but tomorrow we will be working with some local artistes to get a better perspective."

He added, "The point of the workshop is for local artistes to mix some traditional music with modern, techno or electro beats. Mixing both genres together has a huge potential, such as the music scene in India."

The band has produced two independent albums that have received rave reviews from the public. They also hope to hold a concert in Brunei in the future, as well as incorporating or sampling some of the country's music for their new album.

Twelve students from JIS with three officials from the Ministry of Culture, Youths and Sport's Culture Section attended yesterday's workshops.

The students were also accompanied by their Head of Music Paul Edgeler. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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