This track is part of:
TIMEZONES
Nairobi's next generation music Producers and performing artists speak out.
In recent years, small-scale studios in Nairobi have begun producing music locally, and some of their output reaches millions of listeners in Kenya, or create buzz and noise in international niche music scenes. Their producers and musicians are turning old hierarchies upside down, often calling for social and political reforms. But they’re also facing a lot of resistance.
Full Podcast:
norient.com/thomas-burkhalter/timezones-episode-1-nairobi
Featuring:
Baby Elephante, Blinky Bill, Boutross, Coco.em, DJ Raph, Hitman Kaht, Kamwangi Njue, Karun, Janice Iche, Jinku, Joseph Kamaru (KMRU), Manch!ld (debe), Moroko Kalahari, MR. LU (XPRSO), MUNYASYA and Wambui Kamiru
A podcast by Thomas Burkhalter
Director, idea, interviews: Thomas Burkhalter
Music: Thomas Burkhalter, Daniel Jakob
Additional Samples: Joseph Kamaru, Boutross +
soundofnairobi.net
Additional Voiceovers: Kacey Moore, Selasia A. Djameh
Trailer Voiceover: Nana Akosua Hanson
Editing: Thomas Burkhalter, Daniel Jakob
Mastering: Adi Flück, Centraldubs
Graphics Cover: Šejma Fere
The Timezones Podcast Series is co-initiated and co-produced by Norient and the Goethe Institute.
Release: October 1 2020
TIMEZONES: A podcast series
The TIMEZONES podcast series plunges into the world of artists and their practices, asking: What does living and working in culture and the arts involve in different countries, cities and contexts today? The artists’ thoughts on their moods, their social, political and intellectual realities and their philosophies (of life) have been worked up into experimental audio collages.
The podcasts run the gamut of formats and content, from straight journalism to experimental and documentary approaches, ethnography and fiction, sound art and improvisation. The TIMEZONES series endeavours to create new artistic forms of storytelling, listening and exchange across the boundaries of geography, time zones, genres and practices.
The TIMEZONES Podcast Series is co-initiated and co-produced by Norient and the Goethe Institute.
Coco.em: «There was a group that we had formed two years ago called FEMME ELECTRONIC . I was inducted into FEMME ELECTRONIC through DJ Rachael from Uganda. And we decided to do production workshop in Nairobi. Berklee College, they have a free Ableton producing workshop online. And you can do a couple of classes, make some music with the available software, the free one, the one you use for the trial run. And then through this other artist Kamaru, I'm sure you've met Kamaru. They put together the proposal, sent it to Ableton and sent them the work we did. And they were so impressed. They gave us free software.»
MR. LU (XPRSO): «'Cause you can't change the scene on your own. It has to come from a community. And that's also what you're trying to push it the Ableton workshops. There's only three African countries that have these workshops going on officially. Nairobi is part of the list now. There is South Africa and Nigeria. So even in terms of music, when people look at Africa, that's kind of how they rank. So I mean, we just pretty much decided to come to this thing, because we felt there's people who wanted to get their way around like Ableton. And it was mainly just a platform for networking and sharing knowledge. We thought it would suit the people here.»
Joseph Kamaru: «We just had a house and a living room, and two pairs of speakers and a screen where we invite people and just talk and share ideas, which we have, to write compositions which can speak louder.»
