Akello sings ‘Influences’ songs for Singing Wells News
…y invaluable acting as a translator when we visited the Acholi communities in the area, but also performed some of her songs for the Influences series, accompanied by the local music groups. ‘Wan Wilobo’ performed with the Rubanga Kingom Awach Boys With just a few minutes to practice, Akello performed this song backed by the Rubanga Kingom Awach Boys playing the ‘likembe’ – a thumb piano. ‘Awinyo’ performed with the Adungu Cultural Troupe …
Hannah interviews Evelyn Ojok – Acet, Northern Uganda News
…as this community has served as a valued resource for the women involved. In the conversation we had below she tells their story.. Tell me about your group: Ume Udoko Mit started to sing together before the war, but we had to stop during the war because most of us were moved to IDP camps where we had little time to rehearse together and the conditions were too bad. Now we sing and dance together all the time, we are only women (our style of ‘…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…ostly because we are driving on the road in pitch black to Kampala and are using this blog to distract ourselves from the terrors occurring outside!). Behind the scenes, Singing Wells is all about finding the right 3 or 4 repeatable models that will drive our success. If we can get into the right routines, we can learn more and more from each trip and get better and better. For the March Pilot in 2011, simply getting audio equipment to work in the…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…’, an education song in English telling people to value and work the land, using it to solve their poverty. https://youtu.be/jvL-_gQ8BHA The fourth song was Yesu Alisema, essentially, ‘Jesus said’, which is another gospel song. https://youtu.be/h3PLpGb59A0 Their final song was Uganda, Land of Freedom, which was the song that saved the village multiple times. https://youtu.be/VRBYf6d8dp4 We loved the song so much we had them perform a ‘Magic Moment…
How music archives can help communities News
…a good time to reflect on the importance and relevance a project such as Singing Wells. Why should we record and archive traditional music? Our objectives are not about archiving music for the sake of it. We do not see ourselves as ‘fossil collectors’, merely recording the music and dance performances of traditional groups and then archiving it in sound libraries where it might become largely inaccessible to most audiences, including the…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…t of blankets with eggs, but sometimes sunglasses, nails, electic sockets, rusty tools, clay pots, cutting boards or meal grinding tools, etc… Behind the blankets are stacks of wood, bed frames, gates and other big objects, including massive pipes. Dogs, goats and pigs are everywhere rooting in the piles of garbage left over from yesterday’s market. God help you if yesterday was cabbage day (very pungent).. And then there’s the mud. We love Uganda…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…– our friend was a musician in a band, not some studio session guy ‘mailing in his over-dub.’ Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. https://youtu.be/IktMw1iNcq4 https://youtu.be/Hk5DlFHa8Lg And with that, brushed the bugs from our hair and clothes, pulled some beetles from the camera bags and had dinner. Tomorrow is a driving day as we head to our next location… Jimmy (Fort Murchison, near Pakwach)…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…lfour and the Kenya Tourist Board continue to be wonderful ambassadors of Singing Wells, introducing us to interesting and interested people who we can talk to about the project. Earlier this month I was their guest at the World Travel Market at Excel and I met representatives from a number of organisations and companies in the travel and tourism industry operating in the East African counties we are visiting during our field recording trips. I me…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…rea. Their leader is Cwinyaai Atya, Richard. Their first song was Tambara, in the Osegu style. It is all about a stubborn girl who doesn’t want to marry early. Here they are, dancing in glory: The second song was magnificent, called Oramba, the name of a hunter, in the style ‘Aliku’. This style is traditionally performed around the fire, as a celebration of the hunter’s coming back from a successful kill. The whole story is about the village not s…
Reporting back on recording trip to Kisoro, SW Uganda News
The Singing Wells project in Kisoro was a great success. Over three days in Kisoro, we recorded the songs and dance of six Batwa communities and in doing so learned a great deal about their history and their lifestyle in Uganda today. The following week, we invited ten of the Batwa performers to the Ketebul Music studios in Nairobi to record more songs, and in particular, collaborate with contemporary music artists to generate new material for ‘I…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…ording visit, this time to northern Uganda, Andy reflects on a typical day in the field as part of the Singing Wells team. Andy’s notes are also published in our new book ‘Singing Wells – The Story So Far’, newly available in hardback. Click here for more details. A typical field recording day A Singing Wells day in the field usually starts with an early breakfast after which the team assembles at the vehicles with the mobile recording equipme…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…who will also pound the tub for the kick drum and then use a little metal brush as a tom. There are then lots of men with big sticks with metal on them which sound like a snare. All the men sing back up and become a beautiful chorus. 20 folks playing Likembe give you the soft rhythms of Calypso, but as Tabu pointed out, it is more accurate to say Calypso sounds like the soft rhythms of a good Likembe band. Here’s a quick sound clip of the band… He…
UOBDU report on Singing Wells visit to the Batwa, Kisoro Uganda News
It’s exactly a year since we took the Singing Wells project to Kisoro to record the music of the Batwa. Since then we have been pleased to hear news updates from our friends and hosts at UOBDU about the Batwa communities we visited. This week UOBDU Coordinator Zaninka Penninah sent a detailed report to us with feedback about all the music groups who performed for the Singing Wells project. The good news is that being involved in the project seems…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…Samba drumming, in this case a tortoise sized shell that they hit with a brush of wire). In addition, one of the groups featured the Uvure, a wonderful horn. The Uvure in action… Omee Odokomit Our first group was Omee Odokomit, who played Apiri style. The group is led by Evelyn Ojok and was formed in 1981, disbanded for the war and reformed in 1999. The leader summons the band to practice by playing drums… They are all female dancers, with whistl…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…h Tati Kalveks and Rosie Balfour-Lynn to do this research. It was directed using WorldMap, an interesting way of visually displaying data. Here is a shot of the map below, the highlighted regions are the areas in which layers of information have been embedded. When accessing the map, this is what your screen would look like. The map, which you can access here, is a result of a platform developed by Harvard University. WorldMap is a great platform…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…Ghana. So Vicki switched seats with Jimmy and talked to Andrew about the Singing Wells project for an hour. We then all settled down to watch Ted before landing about 8 hours later in Entebbe. All bags were gratefully recovered and we took a taxi for an 8 minute journey to the Airport Guesthouse Entebbe, where we were greeted by our old friends, Jan Willem Van De Kamp (the owner of this hotel and the Travelers Rest in Kisoro), Charles and Simba (…