Artist Profiles: Pinikpikan

Pinikpikan’s story started during the first Baguio Arts Festival. Participating artists from Manila had joined up with members of the Baguio Arts Guild at a dinner at Cafe by the Ruins after the festival’s opening. As they sat around the Cafe’s Dap-ay (a circular rock and stone installation found in tribal villages in the northern Cordillera where elders hold their council and rituals) someone picked up a couple of pieces of pinewood meant for the fire raging at the center. Another picked up some bamboo segments. Rum and beer bottles were used. So were covers of pots and pans. Rocks were pounded. Sticks flailed. A rhythm was born. Very Igorot in its influence.

Then the rock band The Blank joined with lead and bass guitars. A keyboard was set up. A couple of guys brought out their saxophone and flutes. Grace Nono wailed and the Bisaya and Ilonggo connected it with their melodies. The Wandering Chink called it Rock n’ Runo (a reed found in the highlands similar to bamboo). Manong Bencab called them the Pinikpikan, after a Mountain Province chicken dish which is prepared with an Igorot beat.

The Pinikpikan Band was never ever “officially” formed, yet it exists. From a Baguio cafe’s Dap-ay to a living room on Protacio in Pasay, from the beaches of Puerto Galera to the mountains of Sagada, the music has incessantly rocked and rolled. Different places, different groupings, but always the percussion and the jamming. The members have never been the same, yet the members always are.

Diokno Pasilan calls the concept a “collaborative idea for artists who consider it a lifestyle based on an intuitive notion of coming together and sharing the moment with the creative impulses of music and art according to the participants’ own understanding.”

Interactive, as one would say these days. An art Interface through musical rhythms.

One of the unusual characteristics of this “band” is that the participants aren’t all career musicians. Most are visual artists, installationists, filmmakers. And one or two even consider themselves as Art Objects (in more ways than one: Object ng object sa Art ‘yung iba).

As such, the music you hear is nowhere in the class of Boying Geronimo, let alone Nana Vasconcelos. Also, the “best” music the group has ever put together was created at parties or some such occasion. This is because of the spontaneous, trance-like celebratory aspect of the participants’ lifestyles.

Discography:

Atas (Tropical Music, 2001)
Kaamulan ‎(TAO Music, 2003)

Author: Angel Romero

Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.