Words from Didjaman
Interview conducted by Natacha Boussuge
• Hello Didjaman
• Hi!
• For how long have you had this passion for the
didgeridoo?
• Almost 10 years now.
• How did it start?
• Well, in fact, I got fed up with Paris and the general
state of mind in our country…so I packed my bags and hit the road,
with the intention of never coming back.
• Wasn't it too difficult to leave the way you
did?
• It's my arrival in Australia which has been quite tough.
I was far from being fluent in English. In fact, I was mostly attracted
by the surf, the legends, the mythical places. This is what made me
go there; but I had to deal with the language barrier.
• How did your encounter with the didgeridoo actually
occur?
• On my first day in Australia, at Darwin (North-Central),
I was in a “backpakers”, when I heard that vibration. I asked a woman
there what it was, where it came from. She answered and pointed out
a shop where I would be able to buy one…
• Did you go there right away?
• Actually, I had no idea what that instrument was. I didn't
even know the Aborigines for that matter!! Imagine, the pointless guy!
(he laughs.) But the very sound that I had heard had already gone through
my body!
• So, you got to that shop…
• The shop was run by Aborigines. When I entered, I just
saw one of them doing a demo to another person there; and I felt enthralled
by the sound! That person went out, leaving me alone with the Aborigine,
a very calm man, very kind too. He gave me the name of the instrument,
explained me in which occasions it was being played (rituals, etc.),
for how long, etc. I can remember that he insisted on the fact that
it was a noble instrument, very respected by the Aboriginal people:
Those words didn't leave me indifferent!!
• Did you try to play it right then?
• The man made me try it indeed. But a quite bad vibration
came out of it.. Yet, I had been literally transcended by it!! It was
as if all the cells of my body had identified themselves with the sound;
as a child who sees his parents again, after a long separation: a come
back to life in a way!!
• Then?
• Well, I left the shop with the didge in hands, and quite
happy with that purchase! I could tell that the Didgeridoo would have
a tremendous influence in my life: I knew it. But I didn't know when…I
didn't feel in such a hurry anyway.
• You first moves with the Didge?
• Oh, that's a different matter. As far as the initiation
is concerned, I am certainly not a model to follow, because I wanted
to approach the Aborigines right away, asking them questions such as “How
do you do this, and that?” I found myself in a weird situation.
• Can you give us a precise example?
• Do you really want one?
• That would be nice, yes.
• Ok, I was at Alice Spring, downtown. I had my Didge with
me when I saw a group of Aborigenes sitting on the grass. I go to them,
and in the most natural and innocent way ask them if they can inform
me about some places where I could meet players, etc.
• So?
• Well, then, they all started gazing at each other; then
they looked at me, speechless…for at least one or two minutes, I can't
tell. Let me tell you that this is the kind of situation when you feel
very lonely!! (burst of laughter.)
I had got the point: I had made a blunder, a mistake!
• You have told me that after that experience,
your way of perceiving things had changed. In which way?
• Well, if you want to know, I started by observing and
wondering who they were, what were their relationships with society;
and later on, their very relationship to the instrument. At that precise
moment, I felt like going further…and that is when the adventure began
for me ! (to be continued…)
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Didjaman: A passion for the Aborigine (by Jean-Claude
Decalonne)
The magic of the didgeridoo
FEELING MUSIQUE : Please, Didjaman: How has your adventure
with the didgeridoo begun?
DIDJAMAN : It's because I was fed up with the urban
life that I decide to plan my first trip to Australia. This country's
map is so huge that it had always attracted me since Elementary School:
A true child's dream. Some people have the “American Dream”; for others,
it can be interplanetary; mine was Australian. And the opportunity
was there. I had no excuse not to live the adventure at the time. I
left it all here and hit the road…just to see…
How did you deal with your “coming back home”?
I came back here after six months, and it was out of the question
not to benefit from what I had discovered. I felt like meeting the
people who were starting practising the Didge in Paris and in many
cases, I felt disappointed, confronted with players who were far from
the spirit of the instrument which, on its land, far away from here,
is worshiped and respected.
It is generally admitted that the most beautiful dream is
the one which comes true…Was that right?
In my case, it was. And it has kept since then. As soon as I got there,
I was stunned by the colours, the vastness of the landscapes, the infinite
straightness of the roads, and in all “living places”, that music,
so present, with above all the continuous bass and its enchanting rhythm.
And when in a native's shop, an Aborigine gave me my first initiation
to the “Didg”, I understood that it would take a lot of place in my
life.
I set down rapidly to working what is called “circular breathing”;
but the most stunning was that extraordinary sensation of feeling all
my body cells being penetrated while vibrating. An indefinable impression
of well-being, once the rhythm melts to the note, endlessly, modulating
multitudes of extraordinary harmonics. I felt then ready to experience
a genuine initiative process, spending entire days, endlessly blowing
in the sacred tube.
Is such a deference necessary to the practise of the Didgeridoo?
As far as I am concerned, I have committed myself to use the Didgeridoo
with the deference and the respect that it deserves. I have never had
the feeling of having reached its limits. Every single day of practise
brings me a new bit of knowledge.
Was it a second initiation journey?
Not only. I had also planned to “cut the wood” myself. The eucalyptus
wood which really renders a good sound is not necessarily available.
The Aborigines or Australians of the soil have been used to keeping
the “best pieces”. It often required to go far away on tracks with
4x4 to find the right spots. In order to really feel the spirit of
the Didge, I had made up my mind and travelled back to its origins,
living in the ancestral manner, collecting the material and practising
the instrument. I therefore made no concession. During that second
trip, I had the opportunity to meet the greatest Australian players,
Aborigines as well as “whites”. Back home from that second trip, I
could feel that the philosophy of the instrument would be a good way
to be in communion with the elements and nature in general. The practise
of the Didgeridoo allows –once you have reached a decent level of expertise-
to reach that degree of bliss close to that of the yogis, I guess.
Some people reckon that didges are granted astonishing qualities!
I have indeed sharpened my technique, month after month; and the eucalyptus
trees have revealed some of their acoustic secrets to me. I do think
that I now “feel” the material. I blow in these pieces of wood and
the energy that I provide with some of them comes back to me enriched
when I have worked them the right way. I am always in search of that
response with each one of my didgeridoos and my work is never totally
completed as long as I have not found that response of energy.
A CD has been recorded. It mixes exoticism with very modern
rhythm.
I wanted to prove that the Didgeridoo is not limited to prehistory.
More and more musicians use it for modern rhythm and styles. We will
undoubtedly discover many other ways to exploit its harmonic resources
in the future; and once we have been used to its many tones, it will
become inescapable. It's a magnificent continuous bass; and contemporary
music couldn't count without it. My CD has been recorded but should
not be available until next September. It will be entitled “Didjaman”,
just like me.
Had those few months spent in Australia provided you with
a complete initiation?
Not really. After having met the people who practised the Didgeridoo
in Europe and having been impregnated of its different possibilities
and uses, I thought it might be possible to go further. What I could
feel at certain extreme moments, when the cohesion became total between
my breathing, the harmonics, the rhythm was close to ecstasy. Let me
make it clear that I have never resorted to any kind of artifice to
reach that state. Concentration leading eventually to a certain kind
of unconsciousness brings you an impression of well-being absolutely
impossible to define, very, very pleasant. But that is a quite rare
experience. I thought I needed to go back to the sources if I wanted
to push my knowledge further.
A lot of wood has been brought back from that trip. For which
purpose?
I just felt like sharing the knowledge. But first I had to work those
eucalyptus branches. I do think that I have discovered some of its
secrets; the ones that only great users know and keep for themselves.
You also teach and train students, don't you?
For the past few years, for some of those who have discovered my didgeridoos,
who listen to me play or have wanted to work with me, I teach them
the basic technique: circular breathing, this wave which allows you
to be in communion with the didge. But I still encourage them to perform
the most important part themselves. It remains that the personality
of the player must end up being expressed. I just give them a signal
to start; each student will find the outcome by himself. It is crucial
that it happens in such a way. I have had the privilege to get to know
the Didgeridoo and to teach its practise to great musicians from the
classical music or jazz world. Some of them need and use it at their
performances (Tony Tuba); while others feel sure that the practise
of it can improve the mastery of their own instrument.
Any other plans?
A new trip to Australia for the Laura Festival which will
take place from June 12 to June 25, 1999. The Aboriginal tribes gather
there and it is as a 20.000 year leap backwards that I will accomplish,
this time accompanied with my students.
Is that immersion absolutely necessary?
For the person who wishes to reach the final step of knowledge, it is necessary
indeed. One may have fun, relax and even practise the didge at a decent
level without having to do such a long journey, but I don't consider
with much esteem those who teach it without knowing Australia! In this
domain, just like in others, charlatans do exist. It is quite easy
to identify them by their lack of humbleness with their instrumental
technique. They pretend to know it all having nothing else to learn…!
This new journey should allow me to prepare a new TV show on the Didgeridoo.
Eventually, it will also be the opportunity to bring back some wood,
because the demand is more and more important.
By next September, I would like to be able to teach the Didgeridoo
in Music Academies. This first wind instrument of the History has to
be known by students. A meeting with the professional musicians is
planned on October 23, 1999 at “Feeling Musique” in Paris.
This is the second time that “Feeling” offers me to attend such an
encounter; and I am anxious to see some of my most beautiful Didgeriddos
exhibited in that place.
Thank you for all these precious revelations Didjaman, and
bon voyage!
Interview realised by Jean Claude Decalone.
