TIMEZONES – Season 1

Compilation

€15.00

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. Season 1 looks into contexts in Nairobi, Belgrade/Sabac/Zurich, Delhi, the Bay Area, and Rio de Janeiro.

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.

+++ Purchase Season 1 on Bandcamp now! +++

Tracklist

01 – Thomas Burkhalter:
Nairobi’s Next Generation Music Producers and Performing Artists Speak Out

02 – Svetlana Maraš:
The Life in Music of Three Experimental Musicians (in Serbia and Switzerland)

03 – Suvani Suri and Abhishek Matur:
Imagining Worlds and Making Meaning With Four Artists From Delhi

04 – Lara Sarkissian:
The Bay Area’s Interdisciplinary Artistic Blueprint

05 – Steph Kretowicz:
The Soul of a City (Bay Area Bonus Track)

06 – Vivian Caccuri:
Staying Creative Between Beauty and Chaos in Rio de Janeiro

07 – Daniel Limaverde:
Grabbing for a Worldview in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro Bonus Track)

The Episodes

E01 Nairobi
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.

A podcast by Thomas Burkhalter

E02 Belgrade/Sabac/Zurich
The Life in Music of Three Experimental Musicians (in Serbia and Switzerland)

An electro-acoustic composition based on the interviews with the three artists Mara Miccichè, Branko Džinović, and Vukašin Đelić, the close friends and collaborators of the podcast producer, who have never met each other.

A podcast by Belgrade-based composer and sound artist Svetlana Maraš.

E03 Delhi
Imagining Worlds and Making Meaning With Four Artists From Delhi

Heeding to the COVID-19 pandemic, they share observations and open spaces of thought where new meanings and speculative realities are constantly being formed, un-formed and re-formed. The composition interweaves these conversations into fragments of found sound, musical renditions and sonic textures, contemplating the ever-shifting edges of truth, experience, the real, and the fictional.

A podcast by Suvani Suri and Abhishek Mathur

E04 Bay Area
The Bay Area’s Interdisciplinary Artistic Blueprint

There is an unspoken blueprint in the Bay Area arts and music communities allowing artists an organic crossover between practices and languages. A hybridizing of mediums that arises from spaces of deep experimentation. From the Bay Area’s openness and curiosity to the limitations of physical spaces to work and gather in – leading to the creation of multipurpose spaces that host artists across visual art, performance, and music, thus resulting in crossovers.

A podcast by Lara Sarkissian

E05 Rio de Janeiro
Staying Creative Between Beauty and Chaos in Rio de Janeiro

Behind the picture-postcard landscapes and the stereotypical images of carnival, beaches, and beautiful women lies an enigmatic and broken city: Rio de Janeiro. Rio’s musical and creative identity, such as samba and carnival, seems to be ever transforming and flirting with traditional forms, yet at the same time, those forms have a history of struggle, intimately connected to Afro-Brazilian musical and religious expressions. In a challenging historical moment of crisis, a pandemic and political ruthlessness, artists in Rio are integrating those identities with the most immediate needs and perceptions of reality. The goal is to stay alive, sane, and, most of all, creative.

A podcast by Vivian Caccuri

Trailer Season 1

Imprint and Credits

[NT008]

Podcasts by Thomas Burkhalter, Svetlana Maraš, Suvani Suri and Abhishek Mathur, Lara Sarkissian, Vivian Caccuri

Co-initiated and co-produced by Norient and the Goethe-Institut

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, Wambui Kamiru, Mara Micciche, Branko Džinović, Vukašin Đelić Mochu, Pallavi Paul, Gagan Singh, Suhail Yusuf Khan, 8ULENTINA / Esra Canoğulları, Nadia Shihab, Sofía Córdova, Khatchadour Khatchadourian, Greekor Greg Nemet, Thiago Lanis, Domingos Guimaraens and Ynaiê Dawson (Opavivará), Cabelo Cobral Coral, Thaís Delgado, Bruno Carvalho, Sabrina Fidalgo

Artistic Curation/Editors: Thomas Burkhalter, Svetlana Maraš, Abhishek Mathur, Suvani Suri
Project Management: Hannes Liechti
Jingle Voiceover: Nana Akosua Hanson
Jingle Mix: Daniel Jakob
Mastering: Adi Flück, Centraldubs
Artwork: Šejma Fere
Video Trailer: Emma Nzioka

The TIMEZONES Podcast Series is co-initiated and co-produced by Norient and the Goethe-Institut.

The work of the artistic editors Suvani Suri and Abhishek Matur is supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.

NairobiConscious

by Raphael Kariuki,

Kamwangi Njue

(cur.)

Compilation

€6.00

purchase

Not your usual matatu ride. New flow from Kalamashaka OG’s Roba and Githingithia. New sounds from Nyokabi, Kaharibu Records, Al-Shaverb, and names you’ve never heard before. We hope this compilation of music by our friends takes you to interesting and unexpected places. Belt Up!

+++ Purchase compilation on Bandcamp now! +++

Part of the Norient Special Norient City Sounds: Nairobi

In this first Norient City Sounds Online Special, we focus on Nairobi, Kenya, at a time when political and social pressures are rising in tandem with the cost of things and the noise of the approaching elections in Summer 2022. Titled «NairobiConscious», this virtual exhibition began with the curators discussing a perceived increase in «serious» social and political content in the popular songs of the city. The investigation into «conscious» music develops into a portrait of the city taken from interesting and varied perspectives, resulting in a colorful number of articles, podcasts, graphics, photographs, tracks, and more. Curated by Raphael Kariuki and Kamwangi Njue.

Explore full Special here.

The Tracks

1. Nyokabi Kariuki: «A Walk Through My Cũcũ’s Farm» (Original Version)

Nyokabi Kariuki is a Kenyan classical composer based in New York, who is developing an experimental sound combining Western classical music with field recordings and her own improvisations. This track is from her debut EP Peace Places: Kenyan Memories. In this particular song she revisits her grandmother’s farm in rural Kenya. In the recordings you can hear her speaking to her grandmother in Kikuyu, her Kenyan language which she is not really able to speak, in a (warm, humorous) attempt to connect across the age and experience gap.

2. CitySynthesis: «Sitaki Kuongea Mob»

CitySynthesis is a duo comprising Kenyan/German sound artist Sophia Bauer and Nairobian DJ Raph. It is an experiment in music making using pure field recordings with no conventional instruments, also a project painting real and imagined portraits and narratives of Nairobi. It was born out of their soundscape archiving project, soundofnairobi.net.

3. Roba: «Kweli Rongo»

Roba aka Ote-raw is a founding member of the legendary Kalamashaka, the first artists to break through with Kiswahili rap in Nairobi. As K’shaka mark 25 years since the release of the classic debut, Tafsiri Hii (1997), Roba rues a music industry and mainstream society that seems to have bypassed the crew and their message in this track produced by 7Headc0 (Kamwangi Njue) and released on his upstart label, Kaharibu records, in 2021.

4. Trabolee: «Dipthong» (Kaharibu Records)

«Truth Reigns Above, But Only Love Exists Eternally», signifies Trabolee, a hip hop and spoken word artist who divides his time between Nairobi and Nakuru cities. In this track, Tra plays with the dipthong – the sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable – as a writing technique on a 7headc0 production (that samples a «boomba» pop song from mid-naughts). Originally released on Kaharibu records, 2021.

5. MC Sharon: «So Special»

NairobiConscious by MC Sharon

MC Sharon is an outspoken rapper, singer, and producer versatile in hip hop and reggae. Despite her virtuosity in production and a great stage presence, as well as music addressing relatable issues of the day, she has struggled to achieve mainstream success in Kenya or inroads overseas.

6. Blaque Swahili: «Culture Shock»

Blaque Swahili is a duo of solo acts – Genetik Disorder and Romi Swahili. Their raps entail radical lyricism; critique of popular cultures, questions societal norms, and also challenges personal life choices, and fights bad governance. Their poetic languages – Romi’s follows footsteps of great Kiswahili language poets, and Genetik’s use of dark humor and doom metaphors makes the duo have a small but strong cult following in Kenyan underground of hardcore hip hop.

7. Oscar Mizani: «Tell Them feat. J Munga»

Oscar Mizani is a rapper with a unique way of spreading his music and message – he performs to passengers in Nairobi’s public transport buses, where he also sells his CDs. An artist with a social mission, his music addresses perennial issues affecting Kenyan youth. Watch him do his thing here.

8. Bigi Mo & Githingithia: «Bumaye»

NairobiConscious by Bigi Mo & Githingithia

Bigi Mo, real name Moses Achoka, is a childhood friend of DJ Raph (we went to college together, used to record keyboard beats on cassette tapes in his bedroom). Based in the U.S. for more than ten years, a prolific but low-key producer with four full albums in the last two years alone! The song in the compilation features Kamaa, a founder member of Kenyan hip hop legends Kalamashaka, who is slowly making a comeback to active music.

Impint and Credits

[NT017]
Tracks selected by Raphael Kariuki and Kamwangi Njue
Released May 13, 2022

Sonic Traces: From Italy

by Francesco Fusaro

(ed.)

Book

€16.00

order now

The Norient Special Sonic Traces: From Italy is a multi-layered, multimedia approach to the open question of «Italian Identity» in sound and music. Through a variety of approaches, from essay to memoir, interview, video playlist, and open letter, Sonic Traces: From Italy hopes to foster a broader conversation on the past and present of Italian culture, as it asks the unanswered question: What can be labeled as Italian music, after all?

Release Date: May 14, 2021

[NB003]
132 pages
ISBN 978-3-9525444-0-2
Edited by Francesco Fusaro
Design by Marina Benetti
Language: English

With contributions by Riccardo Balli, Lorenzo Brusci, Federico Campagna, Lorenzo Cibrario, Luca Locati Luciani, Sonia Garcia, Paola Laforgia, Marco Mancassola, Maria Catena Mancuso, Nathasha Edirippulige Fernando, Seb Patane, Agostino Quaranta, Bruno Rana, Justin Salhani

Copy Editor: Meredith Slifkin
Editorial Support: Hannes Liechti

Published by Norient Books 2021, Bern

Order Now

You can order the book directly via our Shops on Bandcamp or Big Cartel. Find also other books and vinyl on the shop’s sites.

Price: 16 EUR + Mailing

Francesco Fusaro, Ed.: «Sonic Traces: From Italy» (Design by Marina Benetti)

Norient Online Special

click on the image to know more

Sonic Traces: From Italy (design by Marina Benetti)

Snap Mixtape by Francesco Fusaro

Funded by Italia Music Export, with the kind support of Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Londra and the Festival of Italian Literature in London.