Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…tive map – something like the Singing Wells map we have for groups – which, as you can see from the above picture, is incredibly densely populated, demonstrating the extent of the CREM collection. It is worth noting that some of the items are listed in French and some in English. This article has tried to cover as wide a range of places and sites to access East African music – however, it is by no means a finite list. …
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…of the remote villages we are heading for. We are adding to our equipment lists all the time as we refine our methods, learn new techniques and face new challenges. For our next field recording trip to Uganda (November 2013), this is the list of everything we will be taking with us: 2 Apple MacBook Pro 2 MOTU Traveler MK3 Audio Interface 4 Headphone amps 8 Sony MDR-V600 headphones 2 Shure mics & stands 2 Rode Lavalier omni-directional mics 2 Rode…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…the village can support the communities and the communities can become a channel for aid and development. These monies are used so we can find a special artist, like Tiny Moses that reach an wider audience with his music. After all, its all about the music. Here’s Tiny Moses: Thanks for Listening Jimmy …
The New Singing Wells website News
…ry-telling, in the music that we record, the pictures we take, the people that we meet and the journeys that we make – so we have split our stories into easy to read and find sections. Find them via the menu bar. Podcasts Our podcasts are now displayed with the full track lineup and listen, watch and group links where they are available. Click here to listen. Featured Content At the bottom of each post and story you’ll find a list of related posts…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…. Our driver has reported we have crossed the Nile. Let us try to explain what that felt like. Darkness ahead. Darkness behind. Darkness to the left and right. Very clear view of guard rails on the road. And the only other sign is that Andy reported over the walkie talkie that is it always better to cross the Nile than to be ‘in denial’ (In The Nile, get it?). In fairness, how often can you use that joke? It is 20:37 and we just passed a police ro…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…n five and ten years. Then there are the charcoal makers and sellers. The thatch ladies ensure that the roads are dotted with thatch pillars. The charcoal makers burn the charcoal and then fill five foot high white bags of charcoal that line the roads in groups of 4-5. We often mistake them for nuns walking along the road in their beautiful white dresses. The white bags are typically crowned with a grass hat to keep them dry. Near Pakwach, this is…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…set the mic gains and the record levels. We then name our audio files so that the take numbers continue from the last performance. We are careful that each take has its unique and concurrent take number on the off chance that audio files become separated from their record location. This way we can always work out exactly where each audio file has been recorded and when. At the end of the day it is important to backup the files. Each night, back a…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…their differences and forgive. Given the recent wars in Uganda and given that we are in formally held Kony territory, this song is pretty important. https://youtu.be/_u4-hVbcVV0 In the same vein, their second song was Lweny Dong Pee, a message to the government to bring back the children of conflict, many of whom remain displaced or imprisoned. https://youtu.be/eH1v-kwvvaQ Their third song was Songa Mbele, a song about ‘moving forward’ symbolized…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…don’t really see in Western music. There were also particular instruments that were surprisingly common that I would not have associated with African music, such as the Sansa, a type of thumb piano: Distribution of the Sansa Pokot Tribe (highlighted) Writing a profile for all of the different tribal groups was also fascinating. There are such a wide variety of different customs and beliefs in one area, and some tribes, such as the Pokot tribe from…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…ly issue was, the more animated he became, the slower we went. So we knew that the more interesting the trip the longer it would take and tried to get the balance right between good questions to Tabu and long silences to let him drive faster. 80kms later we rediscovered a beautiful tarmac road that led us directly up into the hills. Long, winding roads taking us up and down hills. Every acre was farmland, even those acres on steep hill sides. Ever…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…010. First time he came to studio he was very business like. He had a checklist that he wanted to go to. He wanted to get his to do list out of the way. He was very business like. Then in the evening we went to slippers to watch Winyo. We pumped some Tuskers into Andy and then relaxed a bit. He opened up more and we liked him. Andy now jumps in with a little more detail… AP: To be clear, that was the first time I’d been out of Europe and I was def…
£25K donation from Abubilla Music Foundation News
…en allocated by the trustees to the Singing Wells project. This has meant that all expenditure on the development of the Ketebul Music website has been covered and we are now able to go ahead with the purchase of the all mobile recording equipment which will be needed for the village recording sessions. Our resident technical expert and sound engineer, Andy Patterson, has sourced everything we need and will be using it for the first session later…