The story of Anyim Lac Story
…couldn’t miss the opportunity to capture the true sound. With a lapel microphone on our lead lady and another microphone directly on the adungu, we asked the group to continue. At the end of the session we played the recording back and a magical voice and sound emerged – the old lady, sitting on the blanket in the middle of this village surrounded by her whole community, had a beautiful, strong, pitch perfect voice. Incredible. Click here to go to…
Current Leading Figures News
…ation ceremonies to a crowd of over 40,000 people, and perform every Wednesday to each other during a recital hour. However, when asked if they record their own music, James says “We lack good equipment to record the music professionally but it is an idea that requires serious and immediate consideration. ” NACOFU, which he is a member of, is attempting to address this problem – to document folk music – but is currently looking for a partner to he…
Amone Watmon Matthew Story
This is Amone Watmon Matthew who we met on the final day of our December 2012 recording trip to Uganda. Our story with Amone Watmon Matthew We had spent 4 days in the north of Uganda, travelling back through Soroti and into Kampala, where, arranged by Jimmy of the Adungu Cultural Troupe, we arrived in the Naguru area of Kampala. Jimmy led us to another location for the recording, away from the road – a space in front of a house where Matthew Wa…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…Bloomington Campus of Indiana University and is open for listening from Monday-Friday: 10am-12pm then 1pm-5pm, except during the Summer when it is only open 1pm-5pm. 9. Centre de Recherche en Ethnomusicologie CREM (Research Centre for Ethnomusicology) is a French institution in Paris, which houses an extensive archive of world music; a vast and crucial resource for ethnomusicologists and PhD students. Collaborations with Government departments, ot…
Singing Wells in Numbers…. News
…Andy did a litte homework for this one: Number of recordings of groups: 374 (this does not include other recordings like Magic Moments, Influences, etc…) Number of groups recorded: 83 Number of hours of music: 27 hours and 30 minutes. …
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…. This is an annual event and we are going to support each decade for each day, for our five days, for our 50 year history. This will help solve our identity crisis, to give our people a sense of history. Our partners are Hivos, Phat Magazine, Kiss 100 (every Sunday they host two artists from us and talk about the music, etc..) etc… and we will be the main stand, talking about music through a set of panels. Everyone wants to be involved. One major…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…but we were a last minute addition to the program. I got there late on Tuesday night and got to the arena early on Wednesday morning to set up the stand ahead of the trade fair opening This was our stand after setup (note the obvious mistake in the nomenclature….): Conferences Attended I attended a few of the conferences arranged by the organisers. Revenue streams in the digital environment was the first of these and looked at different examples…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…the short distance to Mbale, the location of our recording session on Thursday morning. Day 4: Mbale & Nakisenyi – Music of the Bagisu and Basoga On this morning we will meet the Elgon Ngoma Troupe who perform Bagisu music. Steve met the leader of the group, Wolimbwa Julius, during the recce trip. Here’s an extract from Steve again: “We arrived in Mbale and proceeded straight to the headquarters of Elgon Ngoma Troupe. As we drove into the centre’s…
Clowns Story
…On our first recording day during the Northern Uganda Field trip 2012 we had the pleasure of working in front hundreds of children who slowly climbed a tree to watch the proceedings. They were delighted by the cameras and we had a lot of fun showing them their smiling faces. This little boy was the biggest show off….
Group of the Month – Otacho Young Stars News
…Luo in Western Kenya in December 2011. Up to that point, we had had a bad day – which included Andy taking the collected rainfall of the past hour, in the face from the roof of the tent…. We then moved from our original recording location to the DRC – not the Democratic Republic of Congo, but Dinky’s Resort Club, down the road in Rongo. We set up the recording gear at the back of what looked like an old dance hall – the grass at the rear of the h…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…ing 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 NTG-1 condenser Shotgun mics 1 Matched Pair of AKG C414 XL Microphones 1 Matched Pair of Rode NT5 Microphones 2 Rode professional boom pole 1 K&M telescopic mic stand/boom 1 Canon EOS 7D 1 Canon EOS 60D 1 Canon EOS 5D 1 LED video camera lights 1 Flip HD video camera Thin…
The Key to Sustainable Aid in Africa? Perhaps we should follow the music. News
…field report for Singing Wells was March 29, 2011, reporting on our first day along the Kenyan Coast. We were in a beautiful village, surrounded by dozens of African children (all brothers and sisters of different mothers), and listening to stunning music. We knew then that a strong community and village was the foundation for great music. We now believe great music is the foundation of a strong community and village. And this makes all the diffe…
Alice’s story Story
…here we went to record the music and dance of the Batwa. Alice spent three days with us, helping with interviews and translations and recording the meanings of the songs. We were delighted to be able to record the music of her own community, Gatera. Alice is unique within the Batwa community in Uganda as she is the first (and, to date, only) Batwa who has been to university. Her education started in 1993 at Gitovu Primary school but after Year 3 s…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…ds that are ready for prime time – someone just needed to give them a microphone. Here are the Otacho Young Stars…. Why aren’t they the biggest sound of Kenyan music? Has the Otacho ever sounded cooler? Is this a song in priase of Mr Manager? Or does it say something far deeper – why do we need to praise a leader simply for doing his job? What does it say that this needs praise? 8. Singing Wells is about discovering roots and recovering the great…
A story of Batwa traditions Story
…Sembagare, the leader of the Birara Batwa Dancers who we met on our first day in Kisoro, Uganda. In this photo, Francis is telling stories of the Batwa people and their culture and heritage in a song called ‘Inanga yabatwa’. During the song, the leader gathers the community together and tells stories of the old Batwa traditions before they had to move from their forest homes – the hunt in the forest and the celebrations and meal following the hun…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…ls YouTube channel……73,603 views and still counting! It’s not a meaningful number in itself (like a nice round 100,000 – our next target) but it does mean more and more people are finding us and enjoying what we are all about – bringing the more traditional sounds of East Africa to an enthusiastic audience. Thanks for watching! Our top 3 video hits In third place, this is the Nyerere Wa Konde Music Club from Sita Village, Gede in Kenya’s Malindi…