“All the members of our band met at the Canary Islands and the legendary, mythical name of San Borondon Island inspired us to choose this name for our group. According to legend, San Borondon Island appears and disappears from time to time and we, as travelling musicians, also appear and disappear in different countries, cities and places to perform for the people, entertain and interact with them,” Marek, one of the members of San Borondon Cyclo Fanfaria travelling music band, told me when I asked why they selected this unique and artistic name for their band.

According to indigenous folklore, San Borondon is a mysterious and mythical island among the Canary Islands in Spain located at the north-western coast of Africa. A beautiful, sunny, paradise like Canary Islands, is an amazing tourist destination for global tourists especially during summer. San Borondon Island, which according to local folklore is a ghost Island which appears and disappears from time to time, was discovered by Saint Brendan (a Canarian name) during his voyage. The mythical and mysterious characteristic of San Borondon Island attracts tourists to the place, while its legendary history rooted into the Celtic culture and folklore is an inspiration for artists and musicians.

San Borondon Cyclo Fanfaria — the band which took its name from the island — is a travelling music band that includes six musicians from Slovakia, Poland, Italy and Spain who travel on bicycles and play music as street performers and at various events. The word ‘Fanfaria’ is traditionally used in the Balkan states for ‘music / art for happiness’. I had the chance to meet Marek Valent and Sylvia, two pioneering members of this band, in Bern, Switzerland, where they were performing at the Clock Square, near Bundesplatz, the Swiss Parliament building. Marek plays guitar and sing traditional, folk songs of different European and South American languages. Sylvia and another female member of their group accompanied by Marek were playing the Accordion (a box-shaped piano / harmonium-like instrument with its origin in European instrument musicology). The other members of the group play flûte traversière, trumpet, ukulélé and charango.

On bicycles from one country to another, they collect and spread songs

Marek and his band are involved in a very novel, creative, artistic cultural practice in music which is used in ethnomusicology or anthropology of music to document the intangible cultural heritage of music. He along with other members of the band have collected and preserved folk songs while travelling from place to place in Europe and South America. Marek said, “We love traditional folk songs and it’s our passion to collect and sing folk songs of different languages wherever we go and perform. We have collected and preserved plenty of folk songs in different languages in various countries where we have been travelling since last many years which include Poland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Hungry, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Croatia, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Serbia, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Morocco Turkey, Peru and Ecuador.”

From December to April for the past 12 years Marek and other members of the band travel on bicycles throughout Europe, South America and the Canarian Islands to play music for tourists at various places. Marek explained, “We play music in bars, streets, special events, weddings and anniversaries in villages and places in different countries that we visit. In the markets during weekends everybody comes for happiness and fun, and it’s a good time and place for us to perform as street musicians and receive money. People invite us for performance in their festivities; it all depends on different kinds of people we meet and interact with.”

Sometimes, members of the group travel and perform separately considering the mood, choice, circumstances and availability of tourists at different destinations. Marek said that at the moment, the other members of his group were in Greece because winter has not started there yet. Before their departure to Greece, we travelled together to Boden Zee Lake on the border of Switzerland, Austria and Germany. “The place is full of tourists from the three nations in summer; it’s a good place for musicians because people want to hear us and pay us. We have friends there in bars and local musician friends also who provide us accommodation. Marek also explained, “Boden Zee Lake is also an attractive place for other artists like portrait -makers, painters, jewellery-makers, clown / jugglers and circus shows.”

Famous tourist destinations especially the lakes, islands and coastal areas during summer are the best time and opportunity for San Borondon Cyclo Fanfaria band and other street performers in the European socio-cultural landscape and life. “Summer is easy for us, living is easy, everybody is happy, everybody goes on holidays, people want to enjoy and spend some free time. We reach there to entertain people who want to have parties and fun, and have time to listen to music,” Marek explained the scenario of street music and tourism.

Marek and Sylvia reflect upon an artistic sensibility and love for nature and the people they see and interact with at different places. They love to play diverse traditional music; the collection of folk songs from different regions they have travelled to is a kind of connection between them and people for whom they aspire to perform. They like to visit and explore new places, meet up new people and new musicians from whom they learn traditional songs and then transfer these to new places and street audience. Marek’s culturally sensitive approach through his very creative idea of travelling music has strong potential and passion for the preservation and promotion of traditional music for the people. “We are interested in performing for others, we collect songs from different cultures in Europe, we collect diversity from Europe,” he explained.

Significantly, in the collection of songs, local people help them to write, memorise and learn. Talking about the collection and learning process of folk songs of other cultures and languages, Marek said “We learn by writing, people help us; we learn the melody of the songs, words and lyrics. Our learning of the songs of other cultures becomes easy when we interact with the people.”

San Borandon Cyclo Fanfaria has released three CDs of mixed folk songs of different languages based on the group’s travels to these countries. Marek and his group plans to perform in festivals next summer which needs a lot of management for his group. Travelling on bicycle and street performances are easy and less expensive for Marek and Sylvia. “We chose bicycle because it does not need fuel, and is free and green energy. You go slowly, meet with people, see nature, and learn the folk songs from people easily while interacting with them,” explained Marek.

For Marek and Sylvia, this is a new and amazing idea to learn, promote, preserve and transfer the diversity of traditional music from place to place, people to people in Europe and beyond. They are very happy and enjoy the experience of travelling on bicycles which has been made easy for them by border free regime in Europe.

The writer is an anthropologist and doctoral student in University of Bern, Switzerland

Email: rafique_anthro@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, November 1st, 2015

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