Album cover from Small Island, Big Song. Features a collage of photographs of the artists and natural and cultural artifacts. The group's name is scrawled in blue text beneath the collage.

Small Island Big Song

Posted on by Kate Shanks

Small Island Big Song is a project blending music, film, and live performance featuring over a hundred musicians across sixteen island nations of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, weaving contemporary, relevant testimonies from a region on the front line of cultural and environmental challenges. The album & film were composed, recorded, shot, and overdubbed in nature, on the artists’ custodial land. On the website, students and teachers can navigate through some of the works of this project, read performer bios, engage with maps, and watch a film. Teachers can also track tours for live performances from the group.

Small Island Big Song is a multi-platform project uniting the seafaring cultures of the Pacific and Indian Oceans through songs, a contemporary and relevant musical statement from a region at the frontline of the Climate Crisis.

Small Island Big Song explores the cultural connections between the descendants of the seafarers of the Pacific and Indian Oceans through the Austronesian migration. Working with artists who have made a choice to maintain the cultural voice of their people, to sing in the language, and to play the instruments of their land. These unique lineages mixed with their diverse contemporary styles – roots-reggae, beats, grunge, RnB, folk & spoken-word, establishing a contemporary musical dialogue between cultures as far afield as Madagascar, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Taiwan, Mauritius, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Tahiti and Rapa Nui (Easter Island), creating “One coherent jaw dropping piece” as described by Rob Schwartz – Billboard. (Source)

Founders: BaoBao Chen & Tim Cole

Founded by Taiwanese producer BaoBao Chen and Australian music producer and filmmaker Tim Cole in 2015, the two have been recording and filming with over a hundred musicians in nature across 16 island nations of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The outcomes include an award-winning album, a feature film, outreach programs, and a live concert that has toured around the world across four continents reaching over 170K+ live audiences since the world premiere at SXSW 2018.

Graphic from Small Island Big Song honoring their candidacy for the Environmental Music Prize. Features outline portraits of two performers with environmental scenes as the background. Each is depicted with an illustrated crown of natural flora and fauna. The text reads "What will we tell our children if we fair to protect our planet?" The Environmental Music Prize logo is at the center of the page.
Graphic from Small Island Big Song honoring their candidacy for the Environmental Music Prize. (Source)
Photo of Small Island Big Song performing. There are two performers on stage, both standing at microphones. One is positioned in the foreground, singing with their eyes closed and their hands lifted up. The other is positioned in the background with their eyes closed, quiet.
Photo of Small Island Big Song performing. (Source)
Photo of Small Island Big Song performing. There are six performers on stage playing a variety of instruments, most of which are native to the islands they are from.
Photo of Small Island Big Song performing. (Source)
Photo of Small Island Big Song performing. There are 8 performers on stage who are positioned in a line with interlinking arms. They are bending over at their waists and dancing together. Some have expressions of joy, others of pain, and others are looking at the ground.
Photo of Small Island Big Song performing. (Source)
Go to Resource

Leave a Reply