Remi Balogun’s Sacred Drumming Spellbound The Audience At Sunderland

By Michael Kolawole

The percussionist Remi Balogun professionally known as Remi D Percussionist, alongside the Sacred Drummers, delivers a soulful and sacred performance at the Sunderland Stages One Big Summer, a large-scale outdoor festival held at Keel Square, Sunderland. The festival, one of the most significantly publicly funded cultural events in the Northeast, receives support from major regional institutions, including the Northeast Combined Authority, the University of Sunderland, and Sunderland City Council.

The drumming ensemble playing of the Djembe drums is pacifying, spellbinding the teeming crowd as though they are at Ifa’s divination and prayer sessions. The drumming pattern, however, isn’t Ifa’s. It’s Konowoulonfonli and Tasaba, which originated in the Guinea Republic.

As one of the most respected ceremonial rhythms in the Djembe traditions, Konowoulonfonli and Tasaba are usually performed to honour warriors and hunters for their valour. Playing the revered drumming style at the festival is a subtle way of conferring bravery and honour on the audience for their service to the community.

With no melody to ease the audience in, no lyrics of a song for them to follow, the audience’s minds are captivated by the drumming, and they respond by nodding their heads and dancing to the rhythm.

Coherently playing their drums to the pleasure of the intrigued audience, the percussionists tap the edges of drums to provide a crisp, tok-tok sound. Some members of the audience who have been drifting react to the changes in the tunes, moving vigorously dancing to the beat.

As the drummers wave their hands as they play the Fura rhythm (also known as Suku in Mali or Soli in Guinea), as though invoking blessings on the spectators. In response, some of the spectators wave their hands, as though accepting the blessings.

For all its early precision and spiritual inclination, the performance reveals a structural weakness that is difficult to ignore as the set progresses.

The continuous drumming without a change in tune, and the absence of a song to jazz things up, make the crowd’s engagement visibly thin. By the final sequence, what should have felt like a true sacred moment, felt like a mere hammering of the drums with no intention but to make a noise.

Judging by the performance’s early impression, one senses that the Sacred Drummers are capable of more adventurous rhythmic conversation that will hook the crowd to the end. But it’s glaring that the ensemble hasn’t yet learned how to sustain what they incredibly begin to the end.