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| find: | Music | U.K. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BAFA © 2008. All material here is copyrighted. See conditions above. Conrad Lambert singer, songwriter, U.K. |
Conrad Lambert, 2003, London. Photo: James Muldowny. |
...My parents bought me a snare drum for my eight birthday and thereafter I became a drummer, then a bass guitarist, guitarist, pianist and singer. My musical reference is always rhythm as a result of becoming a musical producer from rhythm training and not melodic training.
I started working for a theatre company that my mother was performing with when I was 13. As the type of theatre was a speciality field I became a useful employee for different companies who were aware that I had become accustomed to this field from an early age. At 18 years I had my first major role as musical director for a theatre company in London. Up to this point I had had no school or college qualifications in music, only private instrumental lessons. SvK: What effect does being a Bahá´í have on this work? Well, in fact I gave up this work when I was 19 to do a year of service at the Bahá´í World Centre in Haifa. To outward seeming I was giving up a prospective career to become a gardener for a year: that puzzled a lot of my associates. In reality I was becoming part of a model world community or village. Entering the world community as a musician, I suddenly had access to almost every culture and musical tradition in the world. One of my flatmates was a Navajo Native American, another a descendent of the New Zealand Maori. I learnt Ethiopian wedding songs, Kenyan guitar styles, and South American rhythms, among others... |
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So, while spending my days labouring in the holy gardens, the rest of my time was spent learning songs, dances and traditions from all my fellow workers, thereby expanding my knowledge of music and realitites. It was here in Haifa that I became involved in musical projects based in Africa and in the South American music and dance group El Viento Canta. These projects eventually gave me the opportunity to serve the Faith through music in 38 countries in the world...
Excerpts from an interview with Sonja van Kerkhoff in Arts Dialogue, March 1992, pages 9 and 10. 2003: Since the late 1990s, Conrad has been recording and performing under the name of Merz.(www.merz.co.uk ) and has released one album and several singles through Sony. In 2001 Merz gave a private show at The U.K. Bahá'í Academy for the Arts. He played 19 songs, two sets of encores, included 6 guest musicians, an acrobat, a couple of celebrity guests and a song featuring 15 mobile phones. |
| heathrow one revisited, 1994 list of tracks | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This compilation is a documentary of five years of travelling around the world as a musician and as a Bahá´í, some of the songs were picked up along the way, some of them written along the way. it is a gift back to the Bahá´í community for all the hospitality shown to me. ta! janong!
The songs are written / composed from 1987 to 1993. Order the Heathrow CD from: seventh valley music, 27 Rutland Gate, London, SW71PD, U.K. Info about his latest CD, Merz at: www.merz.co.uk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Arts Dialogue, Dintel 20, NL 7333 MC, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands email: bafaOMIT THE TEXT IN CAPITALS@bahai-library.com |