Alumni

Alumni

Hope Masike And Her Romance With ‘mbira’

The Southern Times interviewed Hope Masike about her decade long career as one of the most celebrated mbira players in the world. Asked what made the mbira stand out among other African instruments, Hope said: “They all represent our different stories and cultures. Mbira is one of the really special [instruments], perhaps because it is found in many African countries (under different names and in different varieties) and also because (particularly in most Zimbabwean ethnic groups) it is/was a big and important part of our spirituality and culture in general.” Read the full interview here. Learn more about the mbira here.
Alumni

Tigue share Video for “Triangle”

Tigue released a stunning video for the song “Triangle” ahead of the release of their fourth album Strange Paradise. The band, which features 2016 OneBeat fellow Amy Garapic, said this about the video: “We shot this video over the course of a weekend in a 50+ year old gymnasium in Brooklyn. Originally we were planning to hone in on the sculptural nature of our performances — how the arrangement of our instruments can influence how we play and how we write — so we captured performances of the track in a couple different configurations. Simultaneously we spent a lot of the weekend talking about dreams and “strange paradise” and eventually found imagery that seemed to capture the experience in dreams where surroundings feel familiar but are clearly something else.” Tigue will celebrate the release of Strange Paradise with a show in Brooklyn on April 27th at Elsewhere. Tickets for that are […]
Alumni

New Fact Magazine Documentary Features Kato Change and Blinky Bill

Fact Magazine ran a great mini documentary featuring cameos from Kato Change, Blinky Bill and other movers and shakers from Nairobi’s music scene. Asked about why she decided to make this documentary, director Mia Zur-Szpiro said: “One day whilst digging for music on Okayafrica I came across the music of the Nairobi neo-soul and hip-hop group Cosmic Homies. I was completely blown away and the fact that their sound was nothing like the kind of music we normally associate with being “African” – this moment of listening to their music broke open so many assumptions and stereotypes we as the West have about ‘African music’ and actually how diverse it truly is.” Watch the documentary below, or read the interview with director Mia Zur-Szpiro here.