Performers from places including Madagascar, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea and Taiwan are sharing their ancestry and language through a tour that stops in Palos Hills.
Small Island Big Song brings its multimedia concert, which features seven musicians and a spoken word artist, to Moraine Valley Community College’s Fine & Performing Arts Center’s Dorothy Menker Theater on April 1.
“It’s really about uniting the voices of the Pacific and Indian oceans to let the audience see the spirit and the heart of these places, which are often seen through stereotypes or as victims,” said Tim Cole, who cofounded Small Island Big Song with his partner, BaoBao Chen.
“This show is really celebrating a lot of these places — our islands, our homelands — with big, strong powerful images of waves crashing around you, of nature, of things to celebrate.
“There are times we do touch on our concerns and the reality of oil spills, of plastic pollution, of the effects of climate change, which are very real, but we’re not here to point fingers. We’re really here to connect with like minds and hearts.”
Cole of Australia is music producer, filmmaker, front of house engineer and video jockey for Small Island Big Song while Chen of Taiwan is manager and project producer.
“In 2015 we heard an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report talking about how climate change is affecting islands across the Pacific and Indian oceans. Immediately we thought about creating this project and quitting out jobs,” Chen said.
“Within one month we started this journey and filming and recording with these musicians across the islands for three years.”
Small Island Big Song debuted a live concert at South by Southwest in 2018 after recording and filming with more than 100 musicians in nature across 16 island nations of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
“These musicians represent the voice of their islands and the musical and cultural lineage of their islands. They all are united through their contemporary musical tastes but also concern for the environmental impact of different elements across islands,” Cole said.
“These are themes of the album and the songs but it’s all interwoven in a mood and the feeling, which is mostly uplifting just because of the nature of the music and the energy these artists bring to it.”
Chen and Cole’s travels from Madagascar to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and Taiwan to Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait) also produced the 2018 “Small Island Big Song” album and the 2019 film “Small Island Big Song — An Oceanic Songline.”
Footage from the film is projected during Small Island Big Song’s performances, which also promote the fair trade and climate action-driven project’s second album, “Our Island,” which was released in January.
“This album actually took around two and a half years during the pandemic. We couldn’t meet in person. We met every two weeks online and we shared our concerns and stories,” Chen said.
“It’s really different than the last album. This time the musicians were connected right from the start when they created the songs.”
Small Island Big Song’s concert, which features oceanic grooves to island ballads, connects audiences with the cultures of the performers, who sing in the language and play the instruments of their homeland.
The tour includes Marshall Islands poet and activist Selina Leem, the youngest speaker at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference that adopted the Paris Agreement, and Sammy Andriamalalaharijaona, former leader and artistic director of Madagascan band Tarika Sammy.
“The environment shapes our culture and our culture is our point from where we interact, which shapes our relationship to our environment, to nature,” Cole said.
“We are able to explore different ways of looking at that relationship from artists that know how to live sustainably on small islands. Also, these musicians touch your heart. The next time you hear about something happening in the Marshall Islands, you’ve got a more personal narrative to it.
“We feel closer. We make our choices from a bigger picture point of view.”
Chen said she hopes for continued growth for Small Island Big Song, which has toured to 17 countries across four continents.
“We’re really trying to make an impact for the next generation, for the community,” she said.
Small Island Big Song
When: 7:30 p.m. April 1
Where: Moraine Valley Community College’s Fine & Performing Arts Center’s Dorothy Menker Theater, 9000 W. College Parkway, Building F, Palos Hills
Tickets: $35 general public; $28 veterans and active military; free for students
Information: 708-974-5500; morainevalley.edu/fpac
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
