By Ben Wheeler
4 Quarters, Suva’s hardest working band, will be playing live on the closing night of The Fiji Fringe Festival this Saturday 5th April at 6pm.
They will be jamming in the Civic Centre, which has been a hub for wild acts, stunts, pop-up book stores and art galleries, mock dance competitions, the best vocal and musical acts around, physical theatre that links traditional Oceanian stories with current affairs, and much, much more this week.
Ben Masirewa is full of excitement for the gig, and praise for this new iteration of 4/4.
“Philip Tigarea is a funk machine, man – a crazy, beastly bassist. He loves gospel soul, and he can improvise extremely well and he really brings that solid, dirty groove to our jams.”
“Francisco Bhagwan adds really crazy synths and sonic textures. Cisco is a virtuoso keyboard player, but beyond that he is a producer and he’s got an ear like no other. He fills up the sound of the band with everything I can’t reach with my guitar.”
Tigarea and Bhagwan bring new layers to Masirewa’s incredible guitar skills and Naiqama ‘Qams’ Lalabalavu’s smooth yet layered percussion. These two have jammed together for many years, in and out of 4 Quarters, and it shows in a kind of musical symbiosis that is hard to find.
But there’s more. They are bringing a strong visual element to the performance with artist, storyteller and philosopher Fonu Bain-Vete – whose work includes the stunning Cries from the Moana – live painting on stage.
“Fonu brings a richness of visual curiosity and that is really awesome. This year we will be mic-ing up the canvas and see what kookie, crazy sounds we can employ.”
“There’s this piece somewhere in the middle of the show that I can’t wait to perform for you all, where she and the canvas are kind of like the focal point. I don’t wanna spoil too much, but it’s going to be a beautiful moment and I can’t wait to share that.”
Most of all 4/4 are embracing The Fiji Fringe Festival as a space for experimentation and exploration, to give the audience here in Suva something we have never seen before, a gift to music lovers and those who enjoy arts scenes of all flavours.
But the real paydirt is a collection of new original material that ranges from dub reggae to jazz fusion, “the kind of music,” Masirewa explains, “that just doesn’t get the shine that it deserves.”
“I think progressive instrumental music is not given much love here in Fiji. Not only is it difficult to write, it’s difficult to perform. But mostly we’re just excited to create moments and create atmosphere and share our music.
“Expression and freedom and improvisation is at the heart of what music should be, and we’re excited to play the material that we lovingly wrote and nurtured.”
This is so achingly in line with the ethos of Fringe Festivals around thew world that, along with the wildly diverse output The Festivals Company has provided this week, it brings The Fiji Fringe into that space of exploration of new realms of artistic expression that for which it has always aimed.
This year has been an incredible success, and there can be no better way to celebrate that than by hanging with Suva’s finest, who somehow make this traversing of the new and exciting all look so easy and feel so accessible.
You will be in the safest of hands. All ten of them.
4 Quarters are playing at Civic Centre Lower Auditorium at 6pm Saturday 5th April. Tickets are available here.
