Blog
12.01.07 This Week in the Studio
Written by Jimmy
Busy day in the studio, dividing time between our new Discovery Artist, Chris Koslowski, and Singing Wells. Let’s get back into the tradition of talking about the Music and Everything Else:
1. The Music: Andy ran the studio, with Rob, Mike and Martyn all supporting Chris on his two songs, Stolen Lovers and W’e’re Not Working. Chris is definitely bringing some Texas Blues in the studio with a little tint of Lloyd Cole (frankly, I’m the only one that hears this). But here’s Lloyd Cole in 2000 with Brand New Friend, and please write in and tell me if you hear a similarity with we release Chris’s Discovery Album:
Everything Else: Jimmy and Vicki focused on the Singing Wells Project, including the March 2012 trip, the new website, tons of expense reconciliation – always so much fun! We also talked about the goals of the project, which were dramatically brought to light with two events. On one hand, our goal is to preserve the musical heritage of East Africa ‘as it is.’ If we are able to capture and record the musical performances that are happening every hour in the villages, then we hope others will be inspired by them to write new music. This came home to us, when one our artists that we recorded in December died a few weeks after our visit. This was Okumu K’Orengo, an incredibly Nytati player, who’s last song with us, ironically was a funeral song:
Okumu K’Orengo Excerpt by AbubillaMusic
There’s more on him and his music at Singing Wells: click here. With this sad news, we were also reminded of how much the Singing Wells project is about new artists embracing the music styles from their tribes. One of our favourite examples is the Otacho Young Stars, featuring the Orutu, one of the primary Luo instruments (the other being the Nyatit):
That’s it.
Jimmy