“Rymoka String Band” (1985) – Rymoka String Band * Produced by Gef Lucena * Recorded by David Fanshawe * LP: Spirit of Melanesia* Label: Saydisc
The sound of Papua New Guinean string band music lolls and rolls with acoustic guitars and ukes favoring 6th chords. How to characterize the cultural ear for that sound? The effect on me is that life is “all sixes,” six of one and a half dozen of the other, so why get uptight? Listen to what I mean in this track on SayDisc’s Spirit of Melanesia compilation.
It’s credited to the Rymoka String Band, whom the late British composer and ethnomusicologist David Fanshawe captured as part of his enormous archive of worldwide field recordings. The liner notes explain that the performance happened at the 6th anniversary celebrations (July 28, 1985) for Passam National High School, where a string band competition took place, and that Trudi Egi and Vincent Raka, students from Tubusereia, organized the group.
They won, and Fanshawe writes that “this number, one of my favourites, was especially recorded in the cool of the evening in the chapel.”
And now, permit me to get uptight. This particular track, sung in Tok Pisin, a mixture of Pidgin and English, surely sounds like what Fanshawe’s talking about. (The only recognizable word is “1985,” sung in English.) But on another compilation, ARC Music’s Music of the South Pacific, a different track appears, which is also titled as—and credited to—“Rymoka String Band.” This one’s lyrics are sung in English and they also sound appropriate for an anniversary.
Such untitled/anonymous treatments pop up plenty in field recording collections, as though we’re expected not to take any individual song too seriously and view them more as phenomena than compositions. So I guess I’ll just call them “Rymoka String Band (2:20)” and “Rymoka String Band (2:40).”