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For press inquiries, please contact: Carla Parisi / Kid Logic Media / kidlogicmedia@gmail.com / (973) 563-8204
“Worldly musical delights.” — NPR Weekend Edition
“Monster chops and imagination to match.” — Downbeat
“Driessen pours all he’s seen into his instrument; the result is both breathtaking and transformative.” — Rolling Stone
“One of the most brilliant bluegrass fiddlers in the world… This is the life we should wish for our best traditional artists, jetting around the world, melding minds with other masters.” — Folk Alley
“Casey Driessen revels in making his fiddle do things that seem not just left-of-center but downright improbable.” — PopMatters
PHOTOS
For press inquiries, please contact: Carla Parisi / Kid Logic Media / kidlogicmedia@gmail.com / (973) 563-8204
BIO
[DOWNLOAD]
Otherlands: A Global Music Exploration is a travelogue of on-location recordings, short films and essays that chronicles American fiddler and educator Casey Driessen's travels and musical encounters in Spain, Ireland, Scotland, India, Japan and Finland.
Produced, performed, recorded and filmed by Driessen, the 25-episode video series is paired with Otherlands:ONE, a 13-track recording of collaborations from each stop, with accompanying stories from each encounter.
The plan for Otherlands was deceptively simple: find musical peers steeped in their indigenous cultural traditions, listen, learn and play. Some of the encounters in Otherlands resulted in musical performances. Others naturally became musical lessons and cultural explorations. The 2019 to early 2020 timing of Driessen’s adventure was incredibly fortunate—nearly all his collaborations unfolded just before the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Witness lessons in Galician fiddle music in Pontecaldelas, northwest Spain, and Carnatic (South Indian Classical) drumming in Bengaluru, India. Eavesdrop in a marvelous encounter with 88-years-old fiddler Aonghus Grant, a Scottish cultural national treasure, and hear Driessen's collaboration on Japanese bluegrass with mandolinist Taro Inoue. Squeeze into the room for a fantastic family gathering-cum-jam session of Baul music in Shantiniketan, India. Marvel at the delicate performance by Reisui Ban, a master singer and biwa player in Kamakura, Japan, and wonder at the Finnish fiddle tradition and the improbable mash-up of American and Finnish melodies.
"Music is such a passport," says Driessen. "Even before anything is said, there's a common ground: we're musicians."
Driessen found the musicians he was meeting were just as open and curious. "The collaborations were challenging and inspiring—beautiful, unexpected ideas happen when people of diverse backgrounds come together. And like me, they were willing to open themselves to what a chance meeting might bring.”
Musicians Eilidh Shaw and Ross Martin reflect, “Otherlands instantly struck a chord as an ambitious and imaginative project, so it was a pleasure to welcome Casey and his family to a rain-swept West Lochaber, Scotland in December 2019 and play some music. Little did we know, at that point that everything we knew about the world of music, travel and social interaction was on the cusp of changing forever. We live for a day when collaborative moments and ideas such as Otherlands are possible once again.”
The musicianship and the commitment of all involved to listen to each other makes it all sound organic and lived-in. In Otherlands, the local musical traditions are not a backdrop or raw material to be appropriated for a visitor's music. These are exchanges between equals.
"That's part of my excitement about the project," explains Driessen. "I didn't want to insinuate myself in other people's music. I wanted to receive, I wanted to learn and synthesize, and sometimes, people wanted me to teach them a tune. There were many times where we developed arrangements that were, essentially, a medley of our traditions."
He recalls the thrill of working with guitarist Javi Gómez in their encounter in Sevilla, Spain, and fitting the old-time tune "Elzic's Farewell" over a flamenco bulería rhythm and morphing into a farruca. Other highlights include the rhythm lesson by khanjira percussionist Bangalore Amrit in India, and the transformative impact of a Carnatic rhythmic scale concept in their interpretation of "Garfield's Blackberry," an old favorite in the bluegrass fiddle world.
Once described by singer-songwriter Zac Brown as “a mad scientist with a five-string fiddle,” Driessen has made a career of experimenting, developing collaborations, teaching and traveling. He credits much of the approach and attitude that led to Otherlands to his experiences with musicians such as singer and multi-instrumentalist Tim O'Brien, with whom he first explored the musical traditions of Ireland and Scotland, and banjo player and vocalist Abigail Washburn on their first tours of China and Tibet. Driessen’s work with Béla Fleck on Throw Down Your Heart (an exploration of the banjo’s roots in Africa) is particularly influential. As a special guest on the record and accompanying US tours, it was Casey’s first time collaborating with African musicians.
Driessen has performed in 22 countries on four continents, including a one-person live looping show called The Singularity, and has released three solo records. His life made a shift in June 2015, when Driessen and his family settled in Valencia, Spain, where he spent the next four years as Director of the Contemporary Performance master’s program at Berklee College of Music’s first international campus.
In September 2019, the family traveled the world for a year to explore, connect and create Otherlands. “The idea was family, music and a life dream—so we tried it." (As part of her education on the road, Casey’s 11 year-old daughter blogged and earned A/V credits on Otherlands.)
The family made their way around the world and landed in Finland a day and a half before the borders closed, and spent their first COVID-19 lockdown in a remote cabin. Thankfully, the town was known for its fiddling tradition, and when it felt safe, the music continued. However, visits to Estonia, Norway, and Sweden, set for April 2020, were postponed.
Collaborators Maija Pokela and Antti Järvelä commented, "When the whole world was falling under lockdown, it felt very special and even slightly absurd to get the chance to share music and stories with Casey. According to statistics, Finland is the happiest country in the world—and we dare to claim having the Driessen family stuck in our home region made it even happier!"
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For press inquiries, please contact: Carla Parisi / Kid Logic Media / kidlogicmedia@gmail.com / (973) 563-8204
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