If you listen and buy drums in Sri Lanka, come to Hikkaduwa!

 

The curfew in Sri Lanka lasted intermittently for three months since March 2020 last year.
To relieve too much stress and physical torpor, we went on a trip to the southern coast in early July!!!
The full reopening of school was also delayed, and from July last year until early January this year, we lived almost exclusively on the coast.

Then, for a month in September, we were able to go to school every day, but at the beginning of October, the school was closed again due to the corona epidemic.
We returned to the coast as soon as the school was closed. Living away from the coast for a month was tough. That's how much I was attracted to life on the coast.

I wanted to go to our usual beach first, but we stopped at Hikkaduwa, which was only supposed to be a one-night stay, but due to a number of things, we ended up staying two nights.

 

And a wonderful  encounter made in the meantime! It seems that my stay in Hikkaduwa was precisely to meet this person.

Walking along the beach road, a signboard for a 'drum shop' caught my eye.

 

 

Although there are many souvenir shops, it is rare to find one specialising in drums, so I went inside just to see if there were a few additional drums in addition to the souvenirs...

Everywhere, drums everywhere! It's pretty amazing.

 

A man who appears to be the owner was sitting at the back of the room. As I was looking at the drums and talking a little, the man suddenly, started playing the drums.
As I was listening to that...　

Oh? Isn't he too good on the drums?

"Are you a professional drummer?" When I asked him if he was a professional drummer, he said 'Yes'.

I listened to his drumming for a while, thinking, "Wow, he's a professional drummer, isn't he?"
It wasn't so much that he was good, but something that really resonated with me, in my opinion. Passionate.

In the meantime, after talking with him for a while and listening to his explanation of drums, I looked at the CDs hanging on the wall and found one among them that I recognised.

This one!!! This is the CD that was on sale on the SriLankan Airlines plane on my return trip from Sri Lanka when I came here on my own about ten years ago, and I bought it!
(My memory is hazy, but I thought so at the time, maybe, I'm sure it was.)

That's this, the Elephant Foot CD, almost exclusively drums.

"This!!! I have it!!! I bought it ages ago and listened to it over and over!" I told him, and to my surprise, the member (leader?) of Elephant Foot was the owner of this drum shop!
I was so surprised! He was also pleased that I had listened to their CD many times.


Oh, well, so he must be good at drumming... Even though it was on CD, it was full of groove, which I thought was I remember it was full of groove that I thought.

It was as if I had suddenly met again someone I had longed to meet some one who had long since passed away (^o^);;;, and I was quite moved by this coincidence that felt like destiny.

And I had wanted to buy a darbuka for my son for quite some time (actually, I had a pretty good one in ,y country), but there was no way I could find a good drum at an ordinary music shop in Sri Lanka. Just as I was wondering what to do, it was a coincidence that I met him by sheer necessity.

And all the drums also sound great... I'm in love with them.
I guess it must be because they are his original productions.

Originally, my son loved drums as much as he did when he was little, and there were many kinds of ethnic drums in my parents' house in my country. He used to beat them as he liked, to his own rhythm. Recently, he has not picked up a drum for a long time, but he still knows a good sound and wants one very much.

In the end, I had a hard time deciding, but I bought one darbuka for him to practise on.

He said that because of the COVID situation, there were few tourists and sales were not good, so he discounted the price considerably (here's a happy spirit!). We were lucky to get a discount, so that was another deciding factor.
With this good sound, what, 8000 Sri Lankan rupees! Cheap! (Although, that was just barely enough for me at this time of the year.)

LAL (the owner) started to play live music on the spot as we were looking at all the drums with great interest. Is it suddenly a recital already? He seriously plays forever. It's too amazing.

There is a real variety of ethnic drums in the shop. Sri Lankan drums too. Of course, LAL also played these drums while singing a song with Sinhala lyrics. (But I still like the sound of the Arabic drums).

In fact, what I really wanted was this rather large frame drum, not a darbuka.

It has a very deep, deep, healing sound.
It's too good for me... His frame drums have such an amazing depth of sound that I feel like LEMO's frame dram sounds like of flimsy paper.

But... I don't think I have the time to practise drums at the moment, while my son is saying, "I want a darbuka! I want this!" So this time I bought one of darbuka. I'll work hard, save up money and come back to buy this frame drum next time! I decided to buy a frame drum next time.

I don't remember exact price of this frame drum at this point, but I remember it was about 20,000 Sri Lankan rupees (my memory is hazy). I heard that they usually sold them at a higher price.
A professional would have bought it immediately, as it was an impossible price for this quality.
For me, it was too good to be true and I decided to give it up this time.

Another deciding factor is that the frame drum is strictly forbidden from coastal sea breezes and water. This might be a bit tough for those of us who will be living on the beach every day from now on. The darbuka, on the other hand, can be used anywhere, even on the beach, and are perfectly safe even when wet.
From the next day onwards, we went to the beach every day with our darbuka.

I hope that one day I will be able to play the frame drum every day with elegant mood...

Anyway, it seemed to me, as an amateur, that the quality of the sound of the drums was of such a high quality that a professional would definitely want to have them.
If you're ever out in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka, take a peek!
He can also ship abroad, he said.

LAL's drum shop is a short walk southwards from Hikkaduwa's train station and central bus station, along the beach.

Elephant Foot：
http://www.elephantfootsrilanka.com/
（Youtube）：https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGaSHJe0EcQg4c28vTnk3kQ
（Facebook Page）：https://www.facebook.com/elephantfootsrilanka

 

 I would definitely like to go to any Elephant Foot gigs in Sri Lanka, but after this, it seems that concerts, gigs and other events that attract a lot of people are basically banned in Sri Lanka. It's real sad...

Music, sound, is vibration. They are vibrations that come through the air.
It can't just be 'online', which is popular in the COVID situation.

LAL is cheerful and friendly, but when he starts playing the drums, something enters into him as if he is possessed and his mood changes. His passion for drumming is palpable. A remarkable man who is not just a man!
When I meet someone with this kind of passion, it really makes me happy!


And my son had the gougeous chance to get a darbuca lesson directly from LAL the day after we bought the darbuca! (I used to accompany him to my drum practice when he was little.)


You can also get drum lessons directly from LAL of Elephant Foot, which is a great deal!

 Contact details are as shown on the poster pictured above.