73,603 views on YouTube News
…st video we uploaded to YouTube following our field visit to the Coast Region to record the music of the Mijikenda tribes. Is second place is a video from our field visit to Kisoro in south west Uganda where we met and 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…
A new type of city Story
…ere and make-shift houses, which starkly contrasted to the taller office buildings you could see in 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 backgroun…
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…
Meet our ‘Influences’ artists News
…e artists who have created Influences songs for Singing Wells…… Winyo Shiphton Onyango adopted his artistic name ‘Winyo’, which is a Luo word (a tribe from the Lake Victoria region of Western Kenya) for “a bird”. The reason for this becomes apparent once you hear him sing. His voice has been likened to that of a singing bird. He is a singer/songwriter of great sensitivity and an acoustic guitar player, backed by his 5-piece band of accomplished mu…
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
…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 music…
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
…near Mombassa ). We recorded three songs with the band at Ketebul studios tonight. These are: Ndege Ya Panda Mlima (Sengenya Style) : Written in 1988, this literally means ‘Music’ Strengt’h (Ndege) can climb up (Ya Panda) mountains (Mlima) and is about the power of music to heal and transform. Howenaya (Ngarawa Style) : This is about ‘asking back’ – the singer is promising the power of his music to the audience and wondering what he will now get…
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
…cond 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 grasshoppers t…
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…
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…