'Casa Murilo' and 'Chirkutt' with the organisers.

In the Centre of Things

Promiti Prova Chowdhury

Years back, when two English men met two Norwegian girls in Brazil, they all lived in the same house together, with a man called Murilo. Eventually, they left Brazil behind and moved to Norway. Here, the two Englishmen started a band which they named after their friend Murilo. The word 'casa' means house in the Spanish language. In other words, 'Casa Murilo' means 'Murilo's house.' This Norwegian-English, Oslo-based indie powerhouse, quickly built a reputation in the Oslo underground scene with their wild, energetic live shows. They held concerts all over the country, and was described as 'Norway's Best Band' by 'Plan B Magazine' after a show at Oslo's biggest outdoor music festival in 2011.

With fresh music and a view to create a cultural link, this 'best' band of Norway, arrived in Dhaka on November 15, 2012 and performed at various venues in Dhaka over the last week. The band performed live, as well as on TV along with local artists, held workshops and performed in school concerts. Casa Murilo also headlined the 'The Wireless Sessions,' the largest unplugged music festival in Bangladesh. The six-day-long festival spanned from November 15 - 20, 2012, ending with a grand open air show at Rabindra Sarobor titled 'Wireless 5000.' The local acoustic-fusion band, Chirkutt, was also there, performing their popular tunes.

Dan Hesketh, the vocal and guitarist of Casa Murilo, says, “What we do in our show is, we try to make a connection with people. We try to take a group of people from the crowd, who are skeptical, may be even negative, with zero knowledge about the kind of music we do and turn them into a group of people having a great time, sharing and experiencing altogether, at the end of the show. We want people to sing with us, to clap and to dance. In Norway, we have been doing it for a long time. We have done it in England, Germany and many other countries in Europe. The ground of Bangladesh is pretty unfamiliar to us. But we hope to create the same aura here.”

About what they expect to learn from the Bangladeshi music scene, to which Dan says, “The music scene here has a lot to say. To m,e one of the biggest attractions of this initiative is the band Chirkutt who will be performing with us. They are really great people, and also the sort of energy, spirit and, attitude they possess, is actually quite similar to what we are and what we do. In our earlier press conference, the lovely lady Shumi (vocal of Chirkutt) said how the band thinks big. That is exactly the way Casa Murilo talks and thinks. We have been watching a lot of videos of them before coming here.”

“I cannot come up with names but I have watched many more bands from Bangladesh online. We watched some live TV musical shows on Youtube, where we saw Chirkutt and some other bands of Bangladesh performing. They are fascinating and the technical standard is very high and impressive,” adds Dan.

Casa Murilo and professional musicians from Bangladesh met for workshops at Chhayanaut on November 17, 2012 and had sessions on western and eastern styles of music. Hence workshops, concerts and showcases were not only limited to entertainment, but also to sharing knowledge and experience. “In the workshops we tried to provide crash courses, highlighting the role of different instruments, different genres, how to arrange different things within a band and much more.” said, Fredrik Baden, Drummer, Casa Murilo.

The members of Casa Murilo shed some light on the Copyright law in Norway. “We have a number of unions to look after our rights. We are very sorted about that. The rights of a musician come back to him by law. If we play outside Norway, we still get our rights. Hakon Moller, our piano, organ and banjo player, is very good with maintaining the legal sides, the contracts. Musician Union's organisations in Norway give us free legal advice. They fight for our rights.”

To share cultural expressions between Bangladesh and Norway, LiveSquare, the music management firm, is cooperating with Concerts Norway with the support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Dhaka. Concerts Norway is a governmentally run music organisation whose main task is to communicate and provide live music experiences to children and young people. “We are very happy and excited to have the opportunity to give young people of Bangladesh live music experiences in schools, and it is especially exciting that a young band like Casa Murilo is the one to start off a hopefully long series of school concert events,” says Solveig Korum Manga, Head of International Projects at Concerts Norway.

For more information on the band visit facebook.com/casamurilo.

DID YOU KNOW?

Xabi Alonso

Xabier 'Xabi' Alonso Olano was born on 25 November, 1981 (turning 31 today!) into a family known for its footballing prowess. His father, Periko Alonso, won the La Liga twice in successive seasons with Real Sociedad and a third time after he moved to Barcelona. He also featured in the national team, winning 20 caps over the course of his career. Born in Tolosa, a small Basque town, Xabi Alonso lived in Barcelona for the first six years of his life and moved to San Sebastiánthereafter. It was here that his passion for football began as he whiled away his childhood playing at Playa de la Concha (Shell Beach). On the Basque sands Alonso befriended a fellow resident of Calle Matia, Mikel Arteta, and the two would battle each other in exhibitions of technical ability. He was immersed in football and his father would often bring him and his older brother, Mikel, to CE Sabadell's training ground to practise together. Alonso was influenced by his father's playing, taking more pleasure in passing the ball well than shooting at goal. At an early age he decided to play as a defensive midfielder: a role which helped him learn how to distribute the ball well. This talent would later prove to be an integral part of his club and international career.

When he was 15, Alonso went to the Irish town of Kells, County Meath on a school exchange programme to learn English.

Information Source: Internet