HIGHER GROUNDS HORIZON

Ceejay Sagarino

Lieu Magazine has partnered with the Bakunawa Moonlandings: Higher Grounds Horizon for the 6th issue launching last Friday night, October 18, 2013 at Albertino’s Bar and Resto. The night began with Davao acts and filled the air with feel-good songs with some covers of John Mayer, The XX and the Arctic Monkeys, to name a few. As the night progressed, the live beat sets began with acts coming from all over the country. Skymarines from Davao, FXXXYBLNT, Floating Sound Nation and Similarobjects from Manila were among the artists of the Buwan Buwan Collective.

Michelle Medel, vocalist of Boutique All, a band that opened for the even expressed her sentiments about the beats

‘Their beats and mixes are unpredictable - you find yourself bopping your head to different beats simultaneously - which doesn't make sense but it's all very familiar because you understand it. How? No idea. That's what's so beautiful about it.”

Jorge Wieneke V of Similarobjects also voiced out his experience with the Davao crowd

‘I was very humbled by how open people were and how people were just taking it in and absorbing whatever vibe it is that we radiated during the evening. Subtle crowd but very warm and welcoming. It was really nice to be able to feel that warmth and to be able to connect with the people of Davao on that level.’

For the artists of the BuwanBuwan Collective, it was equally inspiring for them to inspire the people of Davao. To be able to radiate the good vibes and warm wavelengths and play music they sometimes only create for themselves is refreshing and inspiring.

Part 2 of the Moonlandings happened the next day at The Blue Room featuring more performances from Floating Sound Nation, Similarobjects, FXXXYBLNT from Manila; Against the Light and Snow Fox Apprentice from Cagayan de Oro and Davao's very own Skymarines!

So Who/What is the BuwanBuwan Collective?

Buwan-Buwan is a traditional Filipino game that enacts the lunar eclipse. Players draw a circle on the ground representing the moon, and must stay inside this circle. Meanwhile, one player acts as the Bakunawa, the mythical giant sea serpent who would eat the moon: he may not enter the circle, but must touch another player who is inside it in order to switch places.

Buwan-Buwan has been all but forgotten by a generation of young, Filipino urbanites weaned on gadgets and mass media, but BuwanBuwan, a Pinoy beatmakers and electronic musicians collective, appropriate the concept of a game they in fact never played as children, transforming it into a framework for their perpetual creative exchanges, a take-off point for defining their indentity as Filipino artists, and above all, a common ground where they can all play.
http://www.buwanbuwan.com/

Below are photos of the BAKUNAWA MOONLANDINGS : "HIGHER GROUND HORIZONS" (DAVAO) Pt. 1