A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…. Here’s the Field Report from that day in Uganda. 2. Singing Wells is actually all about Tiny Moses: We went to Kisoro Uganda to record the Batwa. The Batwa were one of the forest tribes that were displaced from their forests to protect the mountain gorilla. They are the sound track to unintended consequences – marginalised, abandoned, living on the worst land at the margins of Ugandan, Rawanda socieities. But, oh what a soundtrack! Tabu, co-foun…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…recorded the wonderful Batwa people. The music is performed by Kamuntu ‘Tiny’ Moses accompanied by our Influences artist Winyo. And in first place with over 21,700 views is ’71 Hours to Monday’- a global track from Abubilla Music featuring musicians from Sao Paulo, Nairobi and London which was produced to support the launch of the Singing Wells project in 2011. Keep watching! …
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
…ro when 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…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…atrick Ondiek, adds, ‘I love producing the final videos and getting phone calls from my friends asking me ‘how did you find these musicians?’ I feel like I’m on the cutting edge of music, bringing these talented musicians to my Nairobi friends.’ In addition to our field visits, we have developed an online Music Map of East Africa that charts the tribes of the region, their music, their instruments and influences. The map also shows where we have t…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…group (Adungu Cultural Troupe). And we really captured wonderful, traditional vocal harmonies with Anyim Lac, the beautiful old ladies who sang so softly. And there were some real positive surprises. We were very lucky to record the Nanga with the Watmon Cultural Troupe and we had two great examples of the Ndara. But we were also able to recording amazing dancing… this is by far the best dancing we’ve seen. Q: Any observations as you compare this…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…the youngest, is a 19 year old student and Acholi, born and raised in Kampala. He talked of his life at high school, playing rugby and studying ICT, Finance and History. He played percussion and the Likembe (thumb piano) very well during the course of the evening, and has enjoyed playing music his whole life. He accompanies Watmon’s group which plays Acholi style music (as they are from the North). Whilst talking to him I asked him about popular…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…uare carved into a hill, with rows and rows of streets below us, and an equal number of streets and houses piled up above us. There were cars, motorbikes and taxi’s driving past and planes flying overhead. Everything was for sale by everyone who walked by. No sleeping cattle. No flower beds. But, as always, there was wonderful music. The first group was the Adungu Cultural Troupe, masters of the Adungu. We had interviewed their leader on our ‘recc…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…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 road check. He asked how the road was. We explained it was very dark and very scary and too many things were happening on the shoulder and we didn’t like all the trucks coming at us in ou…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…ake it strong for my children. This music is critical to our village near Malindi, Thalatha Meli. I started learning it from my grandfather formally when I started at Takaye Primary School. In the group, my role is percussionist and I play the four drums of the Sengenya. I also dance and wear the shakers . And also I play the Chapuo, this is the small drum and the Upatsu (cymbol). I don’t feel ashamed to play this music. I don’t feel ashamed that…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…r support the rebel side. They said over and over again the music was neutral and only had alligience to Uganda not to one side or the other in the war. There were lots of scary moments when rebels would try to force them to declare alligence or die. But by miracle the rebel leaders let them live and play music as neutrals. In 1992, the Uganda Army then re-took control of the area. One of their first acts was to go to each village and accuse them…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…ep holes that swallow you. They are lined with bikes and motorcycles that fall from the shoulder in front of you. They have trucks zooming by you, typically with one headlight so they can pretend to be motorcycles and disguise the fact that they are mostly in your lane. Everything that could happen in life is happening on the shoulder in pitch dark only to be revealed at the last second – roadside picnics, car repairs, haggling about goats, egg se…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…their guest at the World Travel Market at Excel and I met representatives from a number of organisations and companies in the travel and tourism industry operating in the East African counties we are visiting during our field recording trips. I met Nigel Vere Nicoll, Chief Executive of the African Travel & Tourism Association and explained a little about Singing Wells and our aims to record and celebrate the cultural music heritage of East Africa…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…r second group of the day, Cieng Dwong, to travel to us from their village Alebtong. All well and good, but our poor travelers didn’t arrive with us until about 1900, by which time it was pretty dark – okay, very dark. The good news is we have good lighting equipment. The bad news, good lights attract bugs. These are Nile bugs, mind you, so in addition to the millions of little moths you’d expect, we had bat size critters, from very big grasshoppe…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…e encountered every day now) The group was formed in 1993 and is professional, touring Kampala and other parts of Uganda, sponsored by NGO’s and typically campaigning for things like HIV Awareness, Cultural preservation, etc… Except for the fact they wear clothes under their animal skins, they work very hard to be as traditional as possible. The performers are picked from the top villages around the area. Their leader is Cwinyaai Atya, Richard. Th…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…up in place. We have two mobile recording units, each capable of recording from four microphones plus other sources at a high resolution to Apple MacBook Pro laptops. The benefit of the systems we have chosen is that they can run off the battery power of the laptops if we are in the situation where we do not have a generator (or there is a power cut mid-session which happened to us when we recorded to the Batwa at the Travellers Rest Hotel in Kiso…