Don Barbarino and Rise Ashen met at the Mercury Lounge in Ottawa around 2012 when Don came to play at MELO-T’s Afropolitan series. The pair kept in touch and Don brought Rise to play his night at Au Pied Du Courant in Montreal. Then Don came to play at Capital Sessions and the pair kept chatting about making some music together. Last year, Rise sent Don a performance on an mbira, a beautiful Thumb Piano that his friend Lainie had gifted him. The music resonated with Don, who added some drums, synths and a mixed-bag of wild sounds, a BRIC A BRAC (a mixed bag, or a motley collection in French) and the Mbirabrac was born! The thumb piano calls to the listener mysteriously as it evolves and becomes more intense, haunting flutes call you to the dance, the deep pulsating rhythm and drones set the mood while the flute performance evolves and transports you to a borderless ancestral world of sound…
