The Birara Batwa Community Story
…music relevant to today’s artists and audiences. We want to celebrate and promote the music heritage of East Africa in a contemporary context. We are doing this with ‘Influences’. We were staying at The Traveller’s Rest Hotel in Kisoro and the staff kindly allowed us to set up the studio under the verandah and it was there that we recorded our first ‘Influences’ session – a fusion of Batwa music from the Birara singers and contemporary music from…
The New Singing Wells website News
…to read more about it. Instruments Library We have been collecting East African instruments since our first trip to the Kenya coast in 2011. Click here to read about the traditional East African instruments we have recorded being played. Responsiveness We recognise that a lot of our visitors may be viewing the device on iPads, iPhones, tablets, netbooks, Samsung phones etc, so a lot of work has gone into making our site accessible on these device…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…we recorded… 4. Singing Wells is about bringing the tribal music of East Africa to the latest generation of singer-songwriters, like Winyo: However important it is to capture music before it is gone, this is necessary, but not sufficient. We are not fossile collectors. The second part of our mission is to bring this music to the next generation, to inspire them to look to their heritage for inspiration before they look elsewhere. We do this with ‘…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…sed in different file sizes for ‘road posts’, formal trip reports and then latest versions of the Singing Wells book. And finally, we need to be able to archive EVERY THING. We feel it is very important that if someone later has a particular interest in a group or an instrument that they will find all we’ve recorded on that topic, even if it doesn’t feature initially into our ‘output.’ So, learning how to do all this in the middle of a field trip…
How music archives can help communities News
…The curator of the music archive is Dr. Sylvia Antonia Nannyonga-Tamusuza who we will be meeting while we are in Uganda next week. Click here to link to the Klaus Wachsmann Music Archive. References Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond Published in 2012 by Fountain Publishers, Kampala. Editors: Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza and Thomas Solmon Available in print from African Books Collective: click here …
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…s open source we were able to use a map of the distribution of tribes in Africa created by a Harvard professor named Suzanne Blier. By using her research we could create a map of only the tribal borders of East Africa, from a layer she had created. Once we had a map that only represented these tribal groups we then attached further information on each tribe to this layer so there would be extra information about each group, anyone can access this…
The Batwa Trail News
…anda Wildlife Authority) office. I read more about the Batwa people in the latest Bradt guide. I am worried about the Batwa people destiny. The Batwa are the mankind example of how people can live in harmony with nature. Something that the Batwa did much longer than all other populations! I am an amateur film maker and I was pleased with the explanation about the living, the medicinal plants, hunting methods… that the Batwa use(d). When I think ab…
Jimmy reporting on Kenya Rift Valley field trip (March 2012) News
…Back in Nairobi after the latest field trip, Jimmy files this report via Skype. Jimmy reflects on the recording trip and the weekend ahead in the studio with Ben Kisinja and the Otacho Young Stars. Jimmy reporting via Skype from Nairobi Date: 9th March 2012 …
Singing Wells Project News Update News
…OCTOBER 2011 NEWS: Here is the latest news and itinerary for Phase 4 – the Batwa and Luo music recording trip in November. Click on the image to download the PDF: …
Abubilla Music release fourth album News
The latest album from Abubilla Music has been released and there’s a launch party on 2nd October in Richmond when The Saturday Morning Canasta Club will play tracks to a (hopefully) admiring audience – more news about that to follow. Click on the cover for a sneak preview – the track ‘Breathe’ performed by the Singing Wells Project’s very own Andy Patterson……. Importantly, the album also includes the global remix of an origi…