Health and Safety? Story
…eam to avoid it at all costs), but after the accident we had to drive back to Soroti to get it fixed. It was there we were able to find an engineer purely through word of mouth, and had a guy weld our wheel back together on the street while we waited in the car. He was standing right next to the car’s engine, wearing flip flops and no mask during the job (as pictured). But thank goodness for him! We were back on the road in no time. Who needs heal…
Victoria’s reflections on field trip to Northern Uganda News
…gine your world through your soulful eyes Their silence speaks volumes, a story to tell We’ll re-tell your story, we are Singing Wells We travel a road to a world far apart Your country, Uganda, it captures our heart Your eyes are a window that’s opening wide To tell us your story that’s hidden inside So sing us your story and dance us your life Share with us your memories and don’t let them die Sing us your history and dance us your life And your…
A new type of city Story
…n the distance. Despite this unconventional type of city,I loved it. There was certainly a lot going on and during the week Akello told us many stories of the vibrant buzz in Kampala. Every night there’s music to listen to somewhere in the packed hub of 180,000 people . The image above of the tin houses and the Uganda House of Commons in the background was one of the first pictures I took on the trip….
The Boy with the Headphones Story
…oys who were intrigued with all our recording equipment. Andy invited them to listen to a playback of one of the songs through his headphones and this particular boy overcame his shyness to have give it a try. We could see how hard life is for the Batwa, living on small pieces of borrowed land on the fringes of society but the performance of the Mperwa Dancers did not portray this – it was full of pride and happiness. Once again, we witnessed ho…
Man on the Pier Story
…was sitting with his bike. Jimmy asked his permission and took his photo. …
The First Singing Wells Influences Session Story
…fluence’ session was born. The recording is here for you to listen to, and to buy on the Mijikenda of Kenya album The father, Nyerere wa Konde was very gracious and offered us coconuts as a thanks for visiting and recording, which he, with the help of other villages prepared for us, using his knife. He was pleased and proud that we had journeyed to his village to record his music with his group. After which, the team packed up the equipment, loade…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…t 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 wonderful singer/songwriter with Ketebul Music, is one of our Influences artists and has been with us on three Sin…
Hannah interviews Sabina – Acet, Northern Uganda News
…, it is never for just entertainment. Our 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 hard…
Day 10: File Management at Ketebul Studios Story
…’ of all and then work with Camera 2 to keep a log of all songs/takes and times. This also requires us to keep all watches and computers/cameras on same time. Agree to do an audio mix in the field and bounce immediately for videos. The ‘field’ audio becomes the input recording for videos (they need to be topped and tailed but no other editing) – we then will go back and do more detailed mixes on audio that we want to include in DVD’s and CD’s. Thi…
Day 9 (AM): Ketebul Studio – Influences session for Cheri Story
…we worked with Mwenzele-Nyerere wa Konde Music Club on five studio songs. Today, we brought them back in to work with Stanley on his song Cheri, featuring Macadem. Here’s how the process worked today: Jaybee first worked with Stanley, Bishop and Johnnie to get the basic song structure down and put on a vocal ‘Chorus.’ Stanley wants the song to be a classic love song and the his vocals are really beautiful and sincere. We then asked Nyerere Wa Kon…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…the offending husband would kill the adulterer. Whenever the song is sung today in the villages, some audience believes the song is pointing at them, accusing them… Kirori: This is the band leader’s song and is a song in three verses about a girl he met in early days. In verse one, he tries to flatter her but she dismisses him as a little man of no consequence. In verse 2, they meet years later and our hero has a little money. He’s able to buy th…
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…with the Singing wells visitors. From their savings the group have managed to buy bed sheets and source pans and have kept or reserved UGX 180.000/= which will be used or spent in future. In addition to the Batwa cultural performance activity, the group members make contracts with other local people to work for them in the fields for a better pay. Gatera group’s plan is to register their group at the sub county and have a group name which will all…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…ened: the rebels arrived to his village and asked him to show them the way to town. In a way this was a blessing, because his family was saved (often, on abduction, the rest of the child’s family would be killed, so they’d feel angry, distant and unable to return home). Once they arrived at the town they wouldn’t let Odika go and it was clear he was a prisoner. He only managed to escape once the rebels believed he was one of them, and stopped watc…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…kum, not far 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 Watm…
Hannah interviews Evelyn Ojok – Acet, Northern Uganda News
…(our style of ‘Apiri’ in Acholi is typically only performed by the women). Today the reason there was a man playing the drums is because one of our women is sick, normally there are no men in the performance. In Gulu when I want to meet with the other women I play drums and they all come, usually in the evening. I want to push the music to it’s highest level so that we can get some sponsorship from NGOs or from the Ugandan Government. I have opene…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…, linking files to songs and songs to groups and groups to sites and sites to days. We average about 20 songs a site and just over 1.5 sites per day. Just getting the right spelling on to a clapper board of a song and getting that recorded elsewhere against a take list takes time to master. Third, we then need to very quickly produce 3 camera videos. So during our car rides, we’re linking a group and song to the ‘bounce’ (final audio) and the thre…