2020 Lotus Festival Artist Lineup
New-to-Lotus Artists
Ak Dan Gwang Chil, South Korea
Ak Dan Gwang Chil (ADG7) is a multi-award winning Korean traditional music group, featuring six Korean traditional musicians and three powerhouse female folk singers. ADG7 performs repertoire from the sacred, shamanic, and secular gut (ritual music) and minyo (folk song) traditions of the Hwanghae-do region, nowadays a western province of North Korea. Their powerful engaging performance will immerse audiences into a spiritual experience and bring blessings of positive energy originating from gut and minyo.
Ley Line, US
Ley Line is a multilingual folk and soul band from Austin, Texas, influenced by music from North and South America.
Nation Beat, Brazil/US
Nation Beat’s live shows have taken on an almost mythological aura for their ability to lift the souls, and the feet, of their growing cross-cultural audience. Bandleader, drummer/percussionist Scott Kettner has long been at the forefront of merging different musical elements together, from the earliest days of Nation Beat’s Brazil meets North American music.
In 2017, Scott connected with arranger Paul Carlon (tenor sax) and the band entered a new phase in their cross-cultural explorations where brass band and percussion explode in a jazz-infused, funkified New Orleans-meets-Brazil carnival sound.
Fanfara Station, Italy/Tunisia
Fanfara Station is a celebration with a brass band, an entire North African rhythm section, and contemporary electro Dance beats. It’s a dance party created live by only three musicians thanks to the use of loop stations for live over-dubbing. Fanfara Station’s stage is filled with instruments: percussion: scascika, tar, bendir, darbuka, and tabla sit next to trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and Tunisian woodwinds: nay, mizued, and zocra. Then there are dozens of wires connecting loop stations, controllers, and an array of effects pedals. A myriad of acoustic and electric sounds dialogue and sustain the voice of singer and songwriter Marzouk Mejri.
The Friel Sisters, Ireland/Scotland
The Friel Sisters, Anna, Sheila, and Clare Friel are young traditional musicians born and brought up in Glasgow, Scotland with their family roots firmly entrenched in the Donegal Gaeltacht in North West Ireland. They play a mixture of music interspersed with songs in English and Irish, many from their family
repertoire. Being siblings, they achieve a close blend on fiddle, flute, and uilleann pipes. They have released 2 albums thus far, to massive success, playing all over the world in various venues and festivals and have appeared on stage or toured with acts such as Altan, The Chieftains, Lúnasa, Sharon Shannon, The Máirtín O’Connor Trio, Cherish the Ladies and Solas. The girls have won many prestigious titles and competitions over the years, most recently Clare receiving the huge honor of TG4 Young Musician of the Year in Ireland.
Nohe & Sus Santos, Honduras/Mexico/US
Nohe & Sus Santos (Nohe and Her Saints) is a four-piece band replete with the musical vibes of Central and North America. Incorporating Alt-Rock en Espanol, Quirky Cumbia, and Pop Grooves (and beyond!), Nohe & Sus Santos delivers a Latinx vibe full of soul, passion, and a good dose of attitude, accentuated by stabbing and sensual electric guitar, supple bass, fluid percussion – and that voice! Celebrated Honduran vocalist Nohelia Sosa completes a group of fabuloso musicians that can only be described as excitingly fresh, possessing a distinctive style that is all its own.
Tuuletar, Finland
Fierce energy, beatbox rhythms, and other-worldly harmonies: TUULETAR (Goddess of The Wind in Finnish mythology) is taking Finnish music abroad with a novel approach. The band’s virtuoso singers create a sonic landscape, where beatbox rhythms meet global influences and Finnish poetry tradition. With freshly invigorating original music, Tuuletar enchants audiences globally with their heartfelt, tribal, and captivating spirit.
Lotus Archived Artist Performances
Cimarrón (Colombia) 2010
Guy Davis (Blues/US) 1998
Habib Koite (Mali) 2001
Huun Huur-Tu & Carmen Rizzo (Tuva) 2009
Kevin Locke (Native American/US) 2001
Lo’Jo (France) 2002
Movits! (Sweden) 2014
Paris Combo (France) 2002
Ricardo Lemvo (Conga/Cuba/US) 1998
The Wailin’ Jennys (Canada) 2005
Väsen with Mike Marshall and Darol Anger (Sweden meets US) 2004
