The New Singing Wells website News
…East African Traditional Music. Here are some of the added features of the new site: Stories Most of what we do is story-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 avai…
Group of the Month – Watmon Cultural Group News
We are pleased to announce a new project at the Singing Wells. Group of the Month sees us take one of the 50 groups we have recorded in the field since the beginning of the Singing Wells project, and feature recordings, stories, videos, interviews, and other content we have gathered in East Africa. Our first group of the month is the Watmon Cultural Group. We have videos from our Uganda 2012 trip, as well as recordings made in both Naguru and at…
Kampala traffic jam Story
…gths to plan the itinerary for our field recording trips so that we make the best use of the limited time we have. Steve K from Ketebul Music is our Africa Project Manager and he does an amazing job in the weeks prior to the trip, contacting music groups, booking local accommodation and arranging vehicles and drivers to transport us to some very remote destinations. But even Steve’s meticulous planning could not help us avoid the infamous Kampala…
The Beat of Kenya News
…from the post-World War II period to the present. In particular, her interests are focused on the relationship that forms between immigrants and their receiving society, and how newcomers adapt and negotiate their way, as individuals and as a group, through the changes they encounter in their new lives. …
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…
A new type of city Story
…hat the capital would be like; this image speaks a lot about the city. The number of ‘proper’ buildings were few and in only the small centre. It was hilly and most of the roads were not built for vehicles. The shops were small shacks mostly and at night stayed open, lit by candle light. There were animals everywhere and make-shift houses, which starkly contrasted to the taller office buildings you could see in the distance. Despite this unconvent…
The Boy with the Headphones Story
…hen we travelled to the Mperwa Batwa community. Consisting of just a small number of families, the Mperwa have settled on a small area of borrowed land just a few kilometres from the town. At first glance the setting appeared to be spectacular, with the lush valley and terraced hills of local farms as a backdrop and the magnificent Virunga volcanos in the distance. But we were quickly struck by the impoverishment of this small community. As we a…
The Influences Series from Singing Wells News
…ll refresh the origins of East African music and make it discoverable to a new generation of music fans. Newly released Influences song – Missing March 2013 saw the release of an original track from Abubilla Music, re-mixed for the Influences series. The song is called (The only thing that’s) Missing and it was first recorded for the Abubilla Music album Misery Marmalade and other Spanish Jams. Here is the video of the new ‘Influences’ version, fe…
The First Singing Wells Influences Session Story
…, and village) sang with his father on one of the son’s tracks. This was a new concept for the group. Bado had always sung in the family music group – and in doing this had sung the songs of his family and heritage, but now they were collaborating on one of Bado’s songs. Bado sang the main line of the song ‘Love Is’ and his father sang between the lines, and the rhythm began to take hold. I also at this point learnt my forth Swahili word (Asante,…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…a few Skype calls, we agreed to start the Singing Wells project. We both knew we wanted to do something to preserve the music but it took us a while to define exactly what to do. Finally there was a eureka moment – the best thing we could do was to go the musicians, to their villages, to their homes and record them with their families. We would record them singing their songs to their children, three generations dancing together in their village….
Hannah interviews Sabina – Acet, Northern Uganda News
…ur first song, ‘Welo Obino’ is sung to welcome visitors, a celebration for new comers in the village. That is why we sang it for you first. We then sang ‘Dug Gang’ which is to celebrate the end of war, to call the people over to tell them we are in peace. ‘Alocaloca’ was our final song: it is all about change. It is mainly sung to mark the end of a dispute or a war. These songs now mean more to us as the hardship in Northern Uganda is slowly comin…
Returning to Uganda in Autumn 2013 Story
…ba dance by the Alur Kingdom And provide one of our ‘Magic Moments’ with a dancer that captured the hearts of a few of our female film crew! This is Ker Kal Kwaro. 5. Inspiration: And, of course, this music inspires our younger artists and motivates them to try new and different styles. Here’s Akello with Amari (featuring the Watmon Cultural Troupe): That’s it. We just wanted to drop you a note to say we’re coming back and to thank you for your su…
Day 10: File Management at Ketebul Studios Story
…d don’t leave enough time for file management. So, we have established two new ‘non-negotiables’: a) no driving at night, and b) all travel plans must assume an average speed of 50 kph. It is simply impossible for two vans and 10 people to travel faster. Keep a running table of groups, songs and audio takes and camera times. This worked very well this trip and by circulating the table to everyone we could keep making corrections to everything as w…
‘Missing’ – Singing Wells fundraising song for 2013 News
…March 2013 saw the release of an original track from Abubilla Music, re-mixed for the Influences series. The song is called (The only thing that’s) Missing and it was first recorded for the Abubilla Music album Misery Marmalade and other Spanish Jams. Here is the video of the new ‘Influences’ version, featuring musicians from Kenya, Uganda and the UK collaborating in this a unique song to celebrate and support Singing Wells….
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…em. Their musicality is amazing and the lead was able to introduce a whole new melody over Stanley’s song and deliver it as Bishop reported with pitch/timing perfect. By this time Nyerere Wa Konde wrote a new part requiring a different bass and guitar for part of the song. They rushed into the control booth to offer something (remember, the leader is someone we discovered in the coast and recorded for the first time in March 2011 and now he is re-…
Meet our ‘Influences’ artists News
…Uganda’s own Michael Ouma’s debut album, still in the same light she joined Miss Tshila in a girls band called “Tshila and the Diamond’s”, still in this journey she worked with Miss Lilian Mbabazi in a band called “Lillian and the Sun downers”, among others. Akello now begins a new journey of composing and writing her own music which she chooses to call “Hybrid”, a simple cross between urban sounds and local tunes back home. Akello joined the Sin…