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At one point during our matepe documentation project, it occurred to us that we were documenting all the parts, but not the whole, and while we were trying our best to make it possible for anyone to build and learn the instrument, its music is little known even in Zimbabwe. In order to attract new students, we would also have to showcase the beauty of the music. So we decided to record an album.
Given the noise level in Chitungwiza, already recording our tutorials had been challenging at times, and going to a recording studio was beyond our budget. So Samora and Chawasarira ended up recording late at night in Sekuru’s living room, when the neighborhood finally had fallen asleep.
As with the tutorials, we used overdub to simulate the interaction of two matepe players. For a more realistic sound, Chawasarira played two different instruments— an idea he was initially skeptical about, as the second mbira was not “broken in” and sounded less smooth than his main instrument.
In fact, this caused us serious headaches later on during the mixing process, but I think the result was worth the effort.
Both matepe were recorded with three channels each: pickup, close mic, and room mic. Since the deze gourd resonator with its attached buzzers sometimes swallows frequencies and disproportionately amplifies others, we were able to cobble together a fairly balanced sound this way.
Samora making a test recording
Chawasarira decided to call his album Useza, which may be translated as “precision”— a title that fits not only his musical work, but also his entire amazing professional life.