I’m working on a number of parallel projects at the moment. My work in the area of independent music collectives in Brazil is occupying mental space with a book I’m writing about Music in the Digital Age, and another about Radio in the Digital Age – and I’m seeing lots of overlap between them.
I was reading an article about Fora do Eixo that is in development by a Brazilian academic (who had kindly translated her work into English for me) and it happened to mention that the local collectives in the network organise their own online media, as well as connect through the central systems such as Toque no Brasil and the FDE main site.
She said that some of these local collectives have aspects of online radio as part of what they do – and it got me wondering why there isn’t a nationwide independent music radio station online, run as part of the Fora do Eixo network – and borrowing some of the best principles and techniques of independent radio production and management from US College Radio, the Prometheus project, grassroots community radio and pirate radio in the UK.
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Tagged: radio
- Published:
- January 10, 2012 – 6:02 pm
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- By dubber
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I was reading an article by Micael Herschmann (kindly translated for me by a friend of mine in Rio) about the ‘new Festival Era in Brazil’. It’s taken from a book he edited about the Music Industry in Change.
The article concerns the relatively recent phenomenon of a rise in independent music festivals, and this is contrasted with the 1960s festival boom, which was dominated by artists on major labels and fuelled by corporate and major broadcast organisations.
One of the big issues that was discussed was the formation of ABRAFIN (Portuguese acronym for the Brazilian Association for Independent Festivals), which works collectively to ensure the ongoing success, growth and sustainability of these smaller festivals.
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Tagged: Festivals, Micael Herschmann
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- January 9, 2012 – 7:37 pm
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- By dubber
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I thought it was time to return to the extended Skype interview I did with Felipe Atenfelder, who is the main organiser of Fora do Eixo.
I’ve been transcribing it this afternoon, and I thought this section about how they developed their own currency – and how it works within the independent music sector was of particular interest, in the context of a conversation about ‘Solidarity Economy‘.
This is the stuff that people always ask about whenever I start to tell them about the network of independent music collectives in Brazil – so I thought it’d be good to post it here in Felipe’s own words.
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Tagged: bank, complementary currency, solidarity economy
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- January 8, 2012 – 5:43 pm
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- By dubber
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I conducted a Skype interview recently with Felipe Altenfelder, who is the primary organiser of the Fora do Eixo network of independent music collectives in Brazil. That’s him talking on the microphone above.
I’ve been transcribing the interview this afternoon, and this section about the political context within which the Fora do Eixo sprang up struck me as particularly interesting.
Gilberto Gil, who was (is) a famous pop star in Brazil, was the Minister of Culture from 2003 to 2008. His radical, progressive initiatives, his enthusiasm for Creative Commons licensing, open source software and a policy of cultural (rather than simply economic) regeneration is well known outside of Brazil.
I asked Felipe to talk about the impact of Gil’s Culture Ministry.
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- November 15, 2011 – 4:47 pm
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- By dubber
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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had some more conversations with members of Fora do Eixo via Skype and e-mail. I’ve also been talking to some academics at a couple of different universities in Brazil. Not only has nothing ever been written in any depth in English about Fora do Eixo, it seems that very little has been written in Portuguese either.
However I’ve managed to put a few different people in touch with each other, who knew about each other’s work in some instances, but who had previously never made the connection. Brazil is a huge place.
One of the most interesting conversations I’ve had recently was with Felipe from Casa Fora do Eixo. He told me not only about how they work and the sorts of things that they do but also about the philosophies behind the collectives; their political and ideological bases.
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- Published:
- November 1, 2011 – 11:36 pm
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- By dubber
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