The Boy with the Headphones Story
…SW Uganda where we recorded the music and dance of the Batwa people. The story of the Batwa can be read in detail by following the featured link below, but for now we will tell you about this little boy with the headphones. It was on our second day in Kisoro 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. …
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…aims for Singing Wells, we realized that we couldn’t just be fossil collectors, finding and cataloging music that will soon die out, leaving videos and songs in the archives. We also had to work to make this music relevant and important to contemporary artists. A key part of a field visit, therefore, is to bring contemporary African musicians with us to perform with the tribal groups and to write new music influenced by these sessions. Winyo, a w…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…airport we had to stop and all get out of van and go through a metal detector. There was a large sign telling us not to bring in pistols and rifles. The van was then searched. At airport, we had to unload bags at departures, take them by trolly to bottom of stairs. Take all bags up the stairs. Find new trolly and proceed to next stage. All this would be fairly straightforward except we had 34 bags. There was then a line waiting to go into airport…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…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 Ugandan music, as we’d heard alot during the week (usually being pumped out of local store…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…n 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 ‘recce’ trip earlier. Here’s the band: We’ve had the odd adungu here and th…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…village, but others need to hear his music. It is now almost midnight and we’ve recorded some fantastic music. The hotel restaurants are closed again, so we will be taking this group out for some food and then open up the studio tomorrow for the last day of this trip. We have asked the leader and his grandson back tomorrow for more discussions given they represent exactly what Singing Wells is trying to achieve. Until tomorrow then… Jimmy (Ketebul…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…be heading south right now and we must be being rewarded for bringing the story of Macedonia to you. You’re most welcome. But we digress. A group of us is in file management mode and this is worth a brief discussion (well, mostly because we are driving on the road in pitch black to Kampala and are using this blog to distract ourselves from the terrors occurring outside!). Behind the scenes, Singing Wells is all about finding the right 3 or 4 repea…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…minute drive down rich clay roads. On the way, Joshua told us about the history of the group, which was founded in 1982. The group and its song Uganda Land of Freedom is legendary in the Teso region (the name for the collection of villages around us). Joshua While you read the rest of this, why don’t you play the Magic Moment of the band as a good soundtrack to their story? During the civil war these villages were under rebel control from 1989-199…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…market, what is a building under construction and what is a building being torn down. We’re not quite sure anybody is 100% sure.. So the road becomes our DIY store, with little teams of thatched pillars, grass crowned white nuns and brick pyramids. But it is also our grocery store. If you see a big tree in the distance, you are pretty sure that you will find under it 6 or 7 ladies selling pyramids of potatoes, green oranges, etc… The fruit and veg…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…r! Thank you ATTA – we will keep you posted on our travels in East Africa with news, photos and wonderful music! Victoria…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…instruments. The song Apako Oranga had an amazing Ndara riff and we wanted to capture it on its own. But the subsequent magic moment session lacked something – our friend was a musician in a band, not some studio session guy ‘mailing in his over-dub.’ Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. https://youtu.be/IktMw1iNcq4 https://youtu.be/Hk5DlFHa8Lg And with that, brushed the bugs from our hair and clothes, pulled some beetles from the camera bags…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…celebration of the hunter’s coming back from a successful kill. The whole story is about the village not sure if the brave hunter will come back, but he does and he frightens everyone around the fire with his stories. Really fun. The final song was Aywanga, in the Agwara style. It is the celebration of the chief. It features the spectacular Ndara, the Bul and Agwara and involves a lot of rolling around. We loved it so much we recorded a ‘magic mom…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…eam. Andy’s notes are also published in our new book ‘Singing Wells – The Story So Far’, newly available in hardback. Click here for more details. A typical field recording day A Singing Wells day in the field usually starts with an early breakfast after which the team assembles at the vehicles with the mobile recording equipment. Typically the team is ten people – a mix of technicians from both Nairobi based Ketebul Music and London based Abu…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…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 by all the performers swaying their h…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…oes and sausage and then headed off to Gulu (via a trip to pick up a generator, a bunch of electric cables and Big Jimmy our Acet Coordinator, below). It was a beautiful day with stunning blue skies and we drove for about 80 kilometers in glorious sunshine through village after village until we reached Acet, where we will meet Acholi musicians (hundreds, in fact). We landed in a field, pock marked with cement block buildings. Not the best site. Bu…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…ted about 5 ‘brushes with death’, any one of which would be a lifetime of stories for London. We drove. We ate our packed lunch. We drove. We drove. And we raced faster and faster to make it to Gulu before DARK, our true horrible enemy on drives. Darkness just fell as we hit Gulu, which was fine, as we slowed right down and joined the chaos of the Gulu city center. We pulled into our hotel at around 1910, only 10 minutes or so after our target tim…