The Boy with the Headphones Story
…ink 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. At first glance the setting appeared to be spectacular, with the lush valley and terraced hills of local farms as a backdrop and the magnific…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…s for the whole group to perform, singing and dancing in front of ten microphones and three digital cameras.’ Video engineer, Patrick 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…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…moved in a big bowl) and Ndema (2 brass rings played in ringing and muted tones). In the Rift Valley, where the people are more pastoral, we really focused on their voices and I wanted some one to play the burkandit (a handmade guitar). In Nyanza, we focused on the Orutu, the Nyatiti and the Ohangla (drums). In Kisoro I didn’t know what to expect from the Batwa and was schocked by how musical they were – amazing vocal harmonies. In Nortern Uganda…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…ps. Watmon Cultural Troupe (Link to Music Map) Introducing the band… Nyeko Newton, 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 mu…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…r from Gulu up in Northern Uganda, and moved down to Kampala during the war. We love the instrument they played, the Nanga (below) so much we asked if they would join us in Entebbe to record more songs with Akello. We asked them to come with us to our next stop: our hotel in Entebbe, purely because we were desperate to have more time with the stunning musicians we met in the city. During the two hour drive to Entebbe we talked with Watmon and his…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…ouldn’t be jealous or worried – he remains part of the 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…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…rding to a clapper board and keep recording through the whole take. We learned to get all the computer and cameras on the same time signature. We learned the roles of each camera (1 is stationary, full group, 2 is politely called fingers/feet and faces and 3 is context and overcoming the weaknesses of 1 and 2’s position). We even sorted out after a while how to stop the groups from starting the song while our poor clapper board person (Nick) was s…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…s, with one of our best village visits combined with a long, nightmare journey to Kampala. The Macedonia Band We met the leader of the Macedonia Band at the Soroti Hotel and he led us to his village, Obuell-Lira, a 30 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 vi…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…t least three major steps. There’s the formation of the brick, typically done near the road, mixing clay and slapping big blobs into molds. Then there is the drying, where oodles of bricks are laid out along the road. And then there’s the firing, where brick are stacked up to about fifeteen feet and then ‘sealed’ into a clay oven that is constructed around them and cooked. We see these ovens in all states of repair from being built, to the firing,…
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
…of the circle? So, we vow to do more nighttime recording. Maybe with mosquito netting. Cieng Dwong Tonight’s group was fantastic, especially given the full day of travel. They had about 15 bul (drums) and 2 drummers and a smallish ndara (xylophone). Their lead male singer was about 6 foot five and commanded the whole group and the growing audience with a loud voice, great dance and fun drumming. They sang Myeli, Wuon Nyaci, Cwara Rac, Ngeta Romo,…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…nt imaginable: The Flute (yep, a flute) The Ndara (the amazing Ugandan xylophone) The Rigi-Rigi (similar to the Kenyan orutu) The Agwara (trumpets) The Adungu (the harp we’ve 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 an…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…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 Kisoro, Uganda!) We…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…y sang so softly and it was such a big crowd. But we gave her a lapel microphone and put a microphone directly on the Adungu and recorded. Afterwards, when we turned her up in the mix a magical voice and sound emerged – the ancient lady sitting on the blanket in the middle of this village, surrounded by 100’s had a beautiful, strong, pitch perfect voice. Incredible. She sang: Two Man Dong Lakee Cok Mon Alwak Munu Keya Here’s Two Man Dong: https://…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…d well in Acet. Here’s Balo Murali: https://youtu.be/psNObM1Qwdc Oriang’ Kinene After a quick ‘magic moment’ with the Ribbe Ber drummers again we then brought on Oriang’ Kinene who sang Dano Lworo Donce Lobe. Here’s the video for Dano Lworo: …and the video for Donce Lobe: Finally, Andy started our video on ‘We Are All One’ which will be our 2013 Fund Raising song. By this time, as mentioned earlier, we had about 350 or so people around us, so we f…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…ately we all made it to super-market where we loaded up with money, mobile phone cards and other sundries and headed out. The William car stopped to pick up Akello, a lovely Ugandan singer/songwriter, who is joining the group as our Influences artist. The Emmanuel car headed into Kampala to pick up our press badges. We then headed off to Gulu at around 2PM (yes, we tend to spend a lot of time getting mobile phone cards!) and headed out on a 360 km…