In a Lisbon Band, Echoes From Africa and Beyond
多文化色彩的里斯本樂團
By Rachel Donadio

LISBON – On a warm, moonlit fall night, the band Buraka Som Sistema took the stage at an outdoor festival here. Andro Carvalho, known as Conductor, shouted out lyrics while Blaya, the band’s high-octane frontwoman, leapt around in sparkly short shorts. “From Portugal to the world!” Kalaf Angelo, another vocalist, called out to the crowd, which ranged from pre-teenagers to retirees, all dancing to the intense beat.
在一個溫暖有月光的秋夜，「布拉卡音樂系統」樂團在一場戶外音樂節登台。藝名「指揮家」的成員安卓．卡瓦賀嘶吼著歌詞，充滿爆發力的女主唱柏拉雅穿著閃閃發亮的超短熱褲，在台上四處舞動。另一名主唱卡拉夫．安吉羅對眾人大喊：「從葡萄牙到全世界！」台下聽眾下自孩童少年，上至退休族，無不隨著強烈的節奏起舞。

Founded in 2006, the band mixes Kuduro, a strain of Angolan dance music born in the late 1980s, with electronic music and some Caribbean inflections. In a country better known for its mournful fado music – and for the general gloom induced by the euro crisis – the band reveals a side of Portugal and of Europe as a multiethnic musical melting pot. This is post-colonialism you can dance to.
這個樂團成立於2006年，融合源於1980年代的安哥拉庫都洛舞曲、電音和加勒比海音樂。葡萄牙以哀傷的法多民歌聞名，且有歐元危機造成的陰鬱氣氛，這個樂團展示的卻是葡萄牙和歐洲身為多種族音樂熔爐的另一面。這是可以隨著起舞的後殖民主義。

“They’re the opposite of fado,” said Vitor Belanciano, a music critic at Público, a Lisbon daily.
里斯本日報「共和報」樂評維克多．貝蘭西亞諾說：「他們和法多正巧相反。」

This five-member group released its latest album, “Buraka,” in September.
這個5人樂團9月剛發行最新專輯「布拉卡」。

When they were growing up in Amadora, a lower-middle-class suburb of Lisbon, the band’s Portuguese founders, João Barbosa, 34, who goes by Branko, and Rui Pité, 36, who goes by DJ Riot, used to hear African beats coming out of car windows. As teenagers, they fell into Lisbon’s club scene, coming of age in the Europe of open borders and low-cost airlines that made it easy to travel to hear new sounds, and in the world of Myspace, YouTube and now SoundCloud.
樂團創辦人是兩個葡萄牙人：34歲的喬奧．巴柏薩，藝名布朗克，還有36歲的胡伊．彼特、藝名暴動DJ。他們在里斯本市郊低中產階級的阿馬多拉市長大，常聽到來往車輛傳出非洲音樂。青少年時期，他們流連里斯本的舞廳，成年時期正逢歐洲開放邊界和廉價航空興起，旅行各地聽新音樂是很簡單的事，況且還有Myspace、YouTube及現在的SoundCloud等各種網站。

They named the group after Buraca, a working-class section of Amadora with a large population of immigrants from Angola and Mozambique, former Portuguese colonies, and spelled it with a K because it seemed cooler. (The group’s full name means Buraca Sound System.) They found new sounds through friends and bootleg Kuduro CDs. “The sound was generated in the city,” said Mr. Angelo, 36, the vocalist, who moved to Lisbon from Angola to study when he was 17. “Even though this is very local, it has a global appeal – it’s communicating and it’s talking to different scenes,” he added. “The Rio de Janeiro scene via the Jamaica scene – all those movements somehow made sense on a big scale.
樂團以阿馬多拉一處工人階級地區命名，此處住了大批來自葡萄牙前殖民地安哥拉和莫三比克的移民。他們把Buraca的c換成k，覺得這樣比較酷（樂團全名意為布拉卡音樂系統）。他們從友人處及私下流通販售的CD發掘新音樂。36歲的主唱安吉羅17歲時從安哥拉搬到里斯本求學，他說：「我們的音樂是在這座城市誕生的。」。「即使這音樂非常在地，也有全球性賣點。它有感染力，在不同的地方都能讓人接受。」他接著說：「從里約熱內盧到牙買加－音樂的軌跡在這樣的大規模下反而更有意義。」

The band has toured the world, including Angola, Mozambique, Latin America – where it played its largest concert yet, to an audience of 150,000 in Bogotá, Colombia – Russia, Japan and the United States. They search the web for new sounds from South America and Africa.
該樂團巡迴世界各地，包括安哥拉、莫三比克、拉丁美洲－他們在哥倫比亞的波哥大舉辦該團最大的演唱會，吸引15萬人－也去過俄羅斯、日本與美國。他們也上網尋找南美及非洲的新音樂素材。

Buraka Som Sistema “is a typical example of world urban music, music being created, being mixed and developed in suburbs of big European cities,” said Marc Benaiche, founder of Mondomix, a Paris-based online magazine. “It’s a very genuine and very new mix and it’s why, in a way, it works very well,” he added. “It’s a music which is talking more and more to young people because young people themselves are more and more of mixed ethnicity.”
這個樂團「是世界都會音樂的範例，在歐洲大都市的郊區，音樂被創作、混搭和發展」，巴黎網路音樂雜誌Mondomix創辦人馬克．伯奈許說。「這是很真、很新的混搭，或許因此而相當成功」，他接著說：「這種音樂越來越接近年輕人，因為越來越多的年輕人是多元種族。」

The members of the band come from a generation generally at home in its multiple identities. Mr. Pité’s father, who is half Indian, is from Mozambique, and his mother is Portuguese. Mr. Carvalho’s father is Angolan, and his mother is Cuban; now 34, Mr. Carvalho spent part of his childhood in Cuba and moved to Lisbon at 18. He’s now obtaining a passport from Cape Verde, where his wife is from. “He’s like the third-world Jason Bourne,” Mr. Barbosa said, teasing him.
樂團成員來自對於多元種族身分感到自在的世代。彼特的父親是來自安哥拉的半個印度人，母親是葡萄牙人。卡瓦賀的父親是安哥拉人，母親是古巴人。34歲的卡瓦賀幼時住過古巴，18歲搬到里斯本，妻子來自維德角，他因此即將取得該國護照。巴柏薩揶揄他說：「他就像第三世界的傑森包恩（電影神鬼認證的男主角）。」

The band’s three albums and one EP have sold more than 100,000 copies combined, but most of the members’ income comes from live performances. Mr. Pité, Mr. Barbosa and Mr. Carvalho work as D.J.s on the side. Mr. Angelo writes a newspaper column for Público and is also writing a novel.
該樂團的三張專輯和一張單曲共賣出超過10萬張，但成員收入多半來自現場表演。彼特、巴柏薩和卡瓦賀另外兼差當DJ，安吉羅為共和報寫專欄，也正在寫小說。

Blaya, 27, whose name is Karla Rodrigues, teaches classes in her high-energy dance moves. After the outdoor concert, many teenage girls sought her autograph. “You’re so pretty, and you dance so well,” one star-struck girl said to Ms. Rodrigues, who is Brazilian and has pictures of her grandparents tattooed on a well-toned thigh.
27歲的柏拉雅本名卡拉．羅德里奎茲，開班教授充滿熱力的舞蹈。那場戶外演唱會後，許多少女請她簽名。一個追星女孩說：「妳好美，而且妳好會跳舞。」來自巴西的羅德里奎茲，膚色均勻的大腿上有祖父母的肖像刺青。

From the world to Portugal.
從全世界到葡萄牙。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/arts/music/buraka-som-sistema-reveals-lisbons-musical-melting-pot.html

2014-11-18聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 莊蕙嘉譯 原文參見紐時週報十二版上