ŜANĜO

Imagine a world without aggression or war, a world where we all speak one tongue. It sounds like pure idealism, or just another Shangri-La story….but the idea is alive in the album Ŝanĝo de la Vibrado de la Terglobo by multi-instrumentalist collective Ŝanĝo, where every song is sung in the language of peace: Esperanto.
Esperanto, the world’s most successful constructed language, was created in the late 1870s by the physician Ludwik Zamenhof, who was fascinated by idea of a world without war. Zamenhof believed that this could happen with the help of a new, politically neutral, international language. At the heart of Esperanto is the concept of transcending nationality and fostering peace and understanding across the globe. Ŝanĝo carries these ideas into the 21st century, not only through its use of Esperanto but also by drawing on musical influences from cultures all around the world. The group avoids a purist or curatorial approach to world music. They are as open to new technologies as they are to traditional ethnic instruments, and even invent their own instruments such as the Kosmonolit, which can be heard in the song Grandega Sango.
Astrologers claim that we as are entering a new global cycle, the Age of Aquarius. Ŝanĝo awaits this change in the earth’s vibration by creating a worldwide community united by the force of music. Their soundscapes of mesmerising folk music variations are spiced with African polyrhythms, Middle Eastern mantras, Fado and free-jazz. Ŝanĝo’s music combines tribal mysticism and modern ambient synth. Original instruments from distant corners of the world are brought together on one stage….on Ŝanĝo’s stage. Esperanto means ‘one who hopes': Let us put our hopes, then, in Ŝanĝo, and enter the new astrological age with them on stage.