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ABOUT SECRET PLANET
Secret Planet was started in 2012 by Olivier Conan (Brooklyn’s Barbès) and Jim Thomson (DC’s Electric Cowbell). The idea was to showcase independent artists from around the world during APAP week.
APAP is an annual rite that, every January, brings musicians and music industry professionals to New York City. It is the largest event of its type in the world and brings people from every secret corner of our planet to the New York winter.
The weeklong gathering can be grueling. The focus is on conferences meetings and agency showcases and music can often feel like a footnote or a commodity.
Secret Planet, rather than an industry showcase, prides itself in focusing on music, creativity and conviviality, and the event feels more like a festival than a showcase.
Artists come from close and afar. From regions and neighborhoods not necessarily represented on the US stage. Regardless of their cultural or geographical origin, all Secret Planet artists, tend to follow their own vision and not be held back by genre, rules, language, commercial appeal or concerns of authenticity. They all have in common a creative impulse never impeded by stylistic or cultural boundaries.
In the past two years, the concept has evolved into a growing network of like-minded presenters in North America, starting with Jim Thomson’s DC and Richmond’s chapters with active promoters in Pittsburgh, Northampton MA and State College PA as well as new associates in Philadelphia, Connecticut, Vermont and NY state.
The purpose of the network is to facilitate access to the US market for independent foreign artists who do not fit in the well funded commercial networks who have monopolized the concert world in North America.
Over the years, our yearly Secret Planet has presented close to 80 different artists,
including Chicano Batman, Combo Chimbita, Mdou Moctar, Son Rompe Pera, Hailu Mergia, La Perla, Janka Nabai, BCUC, No BS Brass Band, Flor de Toloache, Mourning [A] BLKstar, Underground system, Las Cafeteras, Alash, Bulla en el Barrio, Anbessa Orchestra, Innov Gnawa, LADAMA, Dos Santos, Underground System, The Debo Band, Innov Gnawa, Alsarah & the Nubatones, Sunny Jain, Sofiane Saidi, Kaleta & Super Yamba, Yonatan Gat, Slavic Soul Party, Nickodemus, Discolocas, Chicha Libre, Combo Daguerre, La Mecanica Popular, Cochemea, Mafer Bandola, Banda Chuska -
and quite a few more.
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