Alumni

Blinky Bill Featured On NPR Morning Edition

2013 Fellow Blinky Bill‘s new single ‘Jam Now, Simmer Down’ was featured on NPR Morning Edition. The song is the second single the Kenyan producer has shared from his forthcoming album We Cut Keys 2. ‘Jam Now, Simmer Down’ is an uplifting track that looks ahead to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Blinky Bill singing “Pray that we all make it. Sending love to the ill-fated. Body ready to jam now, simmer down, jam now, simmer down. Pray that we all make it. Sending love to the ill-fated. Body ready to jam now, simmer down, jam now, simmer down.”   Listen to the piece on Morning Edition here. Watch the video for ‘Jam Now, Simmer Down’ below. Blinky Bill previously released ‘Bado Mapema’ featuring fellow Kasiva Mutua on percussion. Watch the video for that here.    
Alumni

Jay Afrisando Named 2021 Jerome Foundation Fellow

2015 Fellow Jay Afrisando was recently selected as a 2021 Jerome Foundation Fellowship. Each year, the Jerome Foundation selects 60 Fellowships in the disciplines of dance, film, new media, literature, music, theater, and visual arts, to early-career artists based in Minnesota and New York City. As part of his fellowship, Jay, who is currently based in Minneapolis, will receive a $50,000 grant to create a new work, and advance artistic goals. Read more about the Fellowship here. Read about Jay’s recent virtual music festival, Festival Musik dalam Layar, for which he received a OneBeat Accelerator grant  here.
Alumni

Jason Kunwar Speaks With The Kathmandu Post About The Trajectory Of His Project ‘Night’

The Kathmandu post wrote about 2019 Fellow Jason Kunwar‘s band Night, and the amazing research and work that they have done in order to preserve and promote Nepalese folk music through the use of traditional instruments like the paluwa, the nyakhin, and the tungna. Regarding their musical evolution (They were a metal band when they first started) Jason said “The ethos of metal gave us discipline. We kept learning and discovering folk instruments by visiting remote areas, learning from those who had mastery in playing such instruments. Sometimes, we brought instruments and self-learned as well”. The band, who are signed to Sub-Sonic Roots, a UK based record label run by Nepali expats, recently released an album called Ramite-Daam, which loosely translates as “The Spectator: Scar”, is based on a novel Jason is currently working on. In addition to releasing music, Night’s ongoing project “Know Your Instrument” explores the history of […]