Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…uced rate, but is unable to distribute to those tribes and communities for free, due to their levels of funding. There is currently a campus wide initiative at Indiana University to digitise their archive, which includes the ATM though the archive digitises recordings on a daily basis. There are several folk music recordings from Uganda and Kenya that are housed at the Archive. It is located on the Bloomington Campus of Indiana University and is o…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…n. Makadem has also toured all over, Croatia (where he met the President), Germany, and Denmark. Olith Ratego has been to Germany almost every other month where he is very successful. Gargar, our Somalia women, won a major award in France. They’ve yet to go and receive it. Later this year they are travelling to Kuwait. Bado is our latest talent that we discovered during the first Singing Wells project. Rapasa is a new artist. I am also looking to…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…d at both the African and Indian markets and how the markets are evolving. India was a particular suprise here – in a population of 1.2 billion, 50 % are under 30 and consuming music. In Africa – 60% have electricity whereas 86% have a mobile phone. This is again another area in which the Singing Wells project may be interested in the future – mobile phones and ring back tones as a method of delivery for music. Mike and I also attended the African…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…Map is a great platform for a project like this for several reasons. It is free and open source which means any researcher can work with the source code to extend and improve its functionality, so it is constantly developing and improving. It’s also web-based so it’s easy to access and share, which is exactly what we want in order to carry on building the Singing Wells community. Rosie has made some ‘how-to’ guides on how to add to a map yourself…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…The Music Elimu Cultural Promoters Our first group was the Elimu Cultural Promoters from the Tugan tribe. They are a collection of women from little villages scattered around the Kabarnet area and they want to promote good values of culture and education. They were all dressed in brown, almost terracotta, outfits looking like the red clay we love so much. They make all their own costumes and sew on all their own beadwork. They wear a belt of 5 ro…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…ng location. This time we are on the site of a UN refugee camp, thankfully free of refugees. The group from the adjacent Batwa community are assembled at the top of a small hill and, as we get out of the vans and head towards the ‘stage’, they begin a rousing welcome song. Once again, I have the Canon 60D in hand and concentrate on the ‘behind the scenes’ footage. We are soon surrounded by an audience of women and children. Many are reluctant to h…
How to Map 2: The Map Outline News
…al data at http://www.diva-gis.org/. To get your spatial data you click on Free Spatial Data in the top-right corner. On the Free Spatial Data page click on country level data. On the Download Data by Country page, select the country you need and make sure the Subject is Administrative areas. There is other data available for free download from this page, such as elevation and population density, but for our purposes we’re only interested in admin…
How To (Arc)Map News
…t more here. You can also check out their non-profit organisations’ scheme, which allows registered charities access to software for free. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FIRST POST…
Day 1: The very first field recording day for Singing Wells Story
…kilometres from Malindi, which is on the Kenyan eastern coast, against the India Ocean. It has a long history, is mostly Muslim and has been ‘discovered’ by everyone including Chinese Emperor’s in the 1400’s. Sita is a very small village with about 200 people; we recorded in a subset of the village, where all of Bado‘s brother’s and sisters lived with their families. Bado is the fourth son of Nyerere Wa Konde, who runs the Nyerere Wa Konde Music C…
Nick Abonyo (the ‘clapper-man’) News
…being in his parent’s village. He liked village life because everything is free there. They grew their own food including maize, sweet potatoes, arrowroot and kale. They fished in the local lake and would sell some for pocket money and eat the rest. They also had chickens for eggs and meat. The water is pure so you don’t need to buy it. People are very friendly in the village and there is still honour and politeness. They respect their elders, alw…