“Easily one of the most joyous and exhilarating concerts of the year” ****The Times
Following a sold-out show at the Barbican’s Transender Weekender and a 30-date national tour last year, the thrilling Sudanese/Egyptian collective, Rango, visit Band on the Wall for this very special concert.
Rango play trance-inducing music from Sudanese Zar mystic healing ceremonies, hip-quaking Nubian wedding melodies, ritualistic tales of an Arabian Dracula and songs recounting the mysterious disappearance of sardine rations in the Egyptian army – all performed on vintage 190-year-old rango xylophone with spirit manifesting gourd resonators, simsimiyya & tanbura lyres fitted with electric pickups, and shakers made from recycled aerosol cans.
The band take their name from a vintage xylophone known as the Rango which first appeared in Egypt during the 1820’s following Mohamed Ali’s conquest of Sudan. Although popular at Sudanese wedding celebrations and street parties in the first half of the last century, it became all but extinct by the late 1970s due to religious intolerance and the growing dominance of Arabian pop music.
“Like Clint’s 45 Magnum, this music will blow your head straight off” London Lite
“Rango music has its roots in slavery, subjugation and powerful spirits, and is a pounding and relentless form of musical entrancement and invocation” The Guardian
“With a mix of ritual, trance, invocation, exorcism and celebration, few assaults on the senses will be as thorough” The Independent
This concert will begin at 8pm