Program

Dundo la umeme is a swahili translation of electronic beats. The music is experimental, electronics, drums, percussion and bass. All the music has programmed, mixed and mastered by Manuuh Swai. All percussions and vocals by Hamza Lukta.

SWAHILI SOUNDSYSTEM
is a team of DJs, producers, singers and musicians from Europe and Africa. They play different types of African dance music. The music consists of Afrobeats, Amapiano, Bongo Flava, Singeli, Kwaito, Champeta, Soca & Mbalax. They also play their own produced music like Dundo la umememe, which is a project of electronic beats overdubbed with live vocals & percussions.

https://swahilirecords.bandcamp.com/album/dundo-la-umeme-electronic-beats
https://www.instagram.com/swahili_records
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063271535127

Ustad Noor Bakhsh (honiunhoni, Balochistan/Pakistan)

Noor Bakhsh hails from Pakistan's Balochistan region at the shores of the Indian Ocean, tucked away on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan. He plays an unusual string instrument with the keys the locals call a 'Benju', originally a musical toy which has found its way from Japan to Pakistan. After hearing rumours of this awe-inspiring master musician, ethnomusicologist Daniyal Ahmed embarked on an odyssey to find Noor. Together, they recorded the artist's debut album in situ at sunset with only two microphones, to a stunning effect. Released digitally on Ahmed's own honiunhoni imprint, 'Jingul' is currently receiving rave reviews by the international press, with a physical release being in the works.

At home, on the Indian subcontinent, Noor found himself in the unlikely position of becoming a viral star, a perspective most unusual for somebody who doesn't own a cell phone or has access to the internet.

In June 2023, we are excited about the unique chance to present this spectacular performer of heavy traditional sounds for the first time live in Europe.

https://www.instagram.com/noorbenju/

Listen to 'Jingul' here:

https://soundcloud.com/gorakh-dhanda-604799025/sets/ustad-noor-bakhsh-jhingol/s-HeftFkzlzkE

Videos
'Hatali Lal': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToTVc4SzAm0
'Kalam Lolo' (from the album recording sessions): https://youtu.be/nu3q27Al0jk
Noor Bakhsh live @ Boiler Room Pakistan: https://www.youtube.com/live/rATItxCSfew
Noor Bakhsh imitates a Pintor bird: https://www.facebook.com/reel/159093253592605

Longread:

Ustad Noor Bakhsh, from near Pasni, Balochistan, is a maestro of the Balochi Benju (a keyed Zither), which he has played since he was a child. Noor Bakhsh is well known as a legendary instrumentalist throughout the Makran Coast but only garnered wider attention after his most recent recordings and videos. The Benju, was once a Japanese children’s toy called the taishōkoto before it was adopted by Balochi musicians and made into the refined folk instrument that it is today. Noor Bakhsh plays an electric Benju, getting his sound through an old pickup and small Phillips amp he bought from Karachi 2 decades ago. He carries forward the legacy of his teachers and inspirations such as Bilawal Belgium and Misri Khan Jamali but his own music elicits influences from various traditions and musical forms far beyond Balochistan. His virtuosic playing is deeply rooted in Balochi musical forms and enriched by his knowledge of South Asian Raags, which he also renders in his own, experimental style.

His repertoire includes Persian and Kurdish tunes that have probably floated in his land since before the modern borders of Iran and Pakistan were set up and Balochistan, divided as it were. In one of his recent recording sessions, he even played an Arabic Ghazal on his Benju. Needless to say, he also renders popular and folk tunes in all the major languages spoken across Pakistan. His Sindhi repertoire is particularly novel in that it reflects a beautiful conversation between the neighbouring musical cultures of Sindh and Balochistan. No surprises that Noor Baksh plays several Bollywood songs too, after all, he has soaked the sounds around him like a sponge, including those of all birds in the mountains and the jungle near his village. Other than his diverse repertoire, he has several original compositions too, including one inspired by bird songs. His debut album, 'Jhingol', is due for release in May 2022.

For listeners unfamiliar with Balochi music, Noor Baksh’s electric Benju tone and his melodic ornamentations will be reminiscent of Ali Farka Toure’s style, and polyrhythmic sixes and eights with so much groovy innovation and improvisation will make the body move in ways very similar to the music of West as well as East Africa. This is unsurprising, given the well documented migrations and seafaring, historical, intimacies between Balochistan and Africa, via the greater Indian Ocean world. It is this world that his music brings back to life.

ASTAN KA
Germany/Mali/France, artistic performer, singer, dancer, actress, event curator:

Born in France and travelling regularly to Mali since the age of 3, Astan grew up surrounded by black and white, which allowed her to never encounter identity problems and leads her to consider herself today as a 'child of reconciliation'. She combines different musical genres, from jazz to rock to afro-techno to hip-hop, to illustrate her mostly experimental universe.
She is also the lead singer of the band Asphalt Djelis, which mixes ancient and futuristic sounds. Her songs are about life, love, friendship, protest and intellectual rebellion, but also about growing up as a mixed-race woman and the importance of acquiring the right knowledge, as there is a lot that school doesn't teach us. Although much of her work is about glorifying the black woman, she still preaches a great message of universality. She started dancing at the age of 6 with ballet and then started modern jazz at the age of 11.
Today, she expresses herself through all the dance influences she has encountered and tries to dance more 'from the inside than the outside'. She has appeared as an actress in music videos and commercials, mainly in Germany and France, and got a role in a musical in Berlin in 2019. In February 2021 she played a role on a new Amazon TV-show produced by Warner Bros Germany.
She has been involved in many creative collaborations such as with Puma, Sevdaliza, the Hoodoo Musical in Berlin.
Astan also curates events at the cultural centre Oyoun-Neu Denken in Berlin-Neukölln, which promotes migrant, queer, women and decolonising ideas. She is also a co-founder of Culture Supply and a member of Out Out Time Embassy, a multicultural group of curators who generate conversation and curiosity about art and culture in Berlin.

Links:
https://www.youtube.com/@Tisskeen
https://www.instagram.com/tisskeen
https://www.facebook.com/AstanMeyerKa
Show in Berlin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vny_hPjcgWU&t=1858s
Visual Arts Projects: https://youtu.be/He3HGD_zcJk, https://youtu.be/8WIYB9gAVUU, https://youtu.be/p0jN_Lq5yW4, https://youtu.be/vcm5xz5WEcM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5RzMBr6J094SQNEw8jMIKn?si=jj_2HXB-QR-vezptgpdbqA

BINGHI
Rwanda, producer, singer, dj:

Sheja Cheryl also known as Binghi is a Rwandan singer/songwriter, actress, spoken word artist, music producer and dj since 2017. She also experiments with audio visual installation and exhibitions. Born on the 7th of may 1995, she currently resides in Kigali, Rwanda.
Starting 2011 as a Neo soul singer, she has been doing live shows in different places and spaces in Kigali also collaborating with different bands and musicians based in Kigali/Rwanda, as well as touring artists and performers.

From 2018, she is a self-taught music producer, specifically exploring experimental music/electronic/deepTechno, Spiritual drum patterns and is also a dj.

She is currently experimenting with visual art, and has directed 3 audio visuals, one which she exhibited in her very first solo art exhibition in Novembre numerique.
In 2021, the movie in which she is the lead actress, Neptune frost, debuted in festival de cannes in France and continued its journey in different film festivals such as the toronto film festival, New york film festival and in 2022, Sundance film festival and miami film festival to name a few. She then won an award for the fiff in Namur for prix d’agnes for the movie Neptune frost.
She has been invited to perform for the Biennale de Dakar for the 23rd of may 2022 and in which she also played with the Nyege Nyege collective. Later on in June, she was invited to play during la fete de la musique in Paris.

She continues to produce music and audio visuals and is a member of disco titties. She is currently working on the fragma project which is an audio visual experience all produced in Rwanda.

Links:
https://youtu.be/fdwGJG28FkQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7cvZq6Unt8
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe2Pc0BouPSKXRJ9_zOYZdA
https://www.instagram.com/herartiistry

DECAY
Uganda, Dj

Darlyne is a Ugandan self-taught photographer and multi-media artist.

She works mostly collaboratively to investigate and edify the things she cares about; femininity, blackness and connectedness. Her feminist ideals are vital to her projects and she will be found working with other women to make some cool shit for even more women to enjoy. Her photographs are full of regal, statuesque black women, colour and a call back to the natural world.

Her visual art projects include; The Salooni, a multi-media roving installation made together with 3 Ugandan women investigating and celebrating Black hair, Our Things, a video archive installation made with one other Ugandan woman collecting stories about similar Ugandan experiences, and, Penthouse, a rage room on a rooftop in the middle of downtown Kampala where Kampalan women could safely express and manifest their rage.

Her projects, Decay and Cardi Monáe, serve as her sonic explorations. With Decay, as a DJ, she is interested in feeling and sharing the joy of the power of the femme. Whether she's playing trap, dancehall, ballroom or the stankiest twerking music, it's in service to freedom for the femme body and spirit. With Cardi Monáe, as a producer, she is interested in translating her artistic pursuits, which include photography, videography and installation art, as well as her influences into music. Her music will soon be released on the Hakuna Kulala label.

Her work has appeared on CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Quartz and OkayAfrica. Her work has also been shown at the Southbank Centre in London as part of the Africa Utopia Festival, Constitution Hill in Johannesburg as part of the Being Her(e) Exhibition, the Chale Wote Festival in Jamestown in Accra, the Africa Bass Cultural festival in Ouagadougou and at multiple locations in Kampala, Uganda.

Boiler Room Sets:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJDHCzWK48w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4AZXFmOMao&t=4s

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/decaycardimonae
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlkom/

Press
https://www.okayafrica.com/the-salooni-project-safe-space-african-women-hair/
https://mixmag.net/feature/nyege-nyege

My photography from my joint project with 3 other Ugandan women called The Salooni Project is here
https://www.behance.net/darlkom