Slapping Skins with Aaron Meli

DrumcampWales2012 was a lovely weekend of drumming, dancing, singing, gonging and frisbee! Plenty of gongoma could be heard across the campsite along with frequent hang drumming and the lovely playing of  bazouki, guitar and other wonderous sounds. The weekend was packed with workshops and performances from drumming groups from Bridgend, Cardiff, Swansea, Llanelli, Ammanford, Cardigan and Llanidloes.

It was the biggest collection of drumming groups this year and it was absolutley lovely to see all of the different rhythms being played and performed infront of very enthusiastic audiences.

The weather wasn't too kind to us but we had plenty of cover to keep warm and dry and the tipis provided us with great spaces to keep our instruments dry!

Visiting tutors Roberto from www.gongomaplanet.com and Jackson Lapes from the Bristol samba scene provided great workshops and tasty melodies and rhythms throughout the weekend.

We had a beautiful day for the sound journey. The sun shone as Andy, Barry and myself set up our gongs and singing bowls and other textural percussion. Tim played didg. for us and we managed to create a beautiful sound journey for relaxation.

Sam led wonderful singing workshops every day followed by lovely yoga sessions. I must say that I wish I could be woken everyday by the singing of lovely folk. Some lovely guitar and bazouki too this dcw! So nice to hear beautiful music in beautiful settings!

Watch this space for news of DCW2013!