Martin Cradick

Martin Cradick is a musician, composer and ethnomusicologist. He has been working with a group of Baka Pygmy hunter-gatherers living on the Cameroon-Congo border for over 25 years. After his first visit in 1992 he produced 2 albums, Spirit of the Forest (under the name Baka Beyond), based on music he had played with the Baka, and Heart of the Forest, Baka traditional music. In order to get the royalties from these 2 albums back to the Baka he set up the fair trade charity Global Music Exchange (GME), using money raised to both help the Baka cope with the changes the modern world is bringing to their lives and to fight for their rights to maintain their traditional lifestyle in their forest home. He has pioneered multi-track field recording and released several albums of the Baka’s music recorded in their remote rainforest home. He spends between 1 and 3 months with the same family group every year learning more about their music and furthering the work of GME.