This afternoon we were honoured to have the other seasoned Hera/Matepe maker and master musician James Kanwaza visiting Sekuru’s place. James had left Rushinga already at 3am and brought with him a couple of soundboards and some premade keys which he wanted to finish here.

This morning we started recording and overdubbing the two parts of Hurombo (poverty), a song also played at a mhondoro ceremony, but for the “lesser spirits”.

Our next guest from the East arrived just the next day after Solomon’s departure. Tatenda Lenade Cangola from Chimoio, Mozambique, my partner in the Kalimba makers and players in rural Mozambique project. Before, we had recorded the first parts of Wako ndiwako which, revealed by Sekuru’s tuning and to our great surprise, sounded very similar…

Unfortunately, Solomon had to leave us early on, and we devoted ourselves to the two parts of Musengu, and Nzou kudya mushonga, of which Chawasarira says there is only one part.

Kari mugomba is Chawasarira’s adaptation of the nhare song to the matepe. He says he tried the same with many nhare songs, but was unsatisfied with all but Kari mugomba (and Nehondo, which he still occasionally plays). It turned out that meanwhile he created different versions of Kari mugomba which can be played together like…

Today it was noticeably colder than the days before, nonetheless there was good energy, and we recorded all parts of Kanotamba mubani and the slightly misogynic titled Musumbu woderere.

Today we recorded all parts of Marume azere dare (also called Marume ashora mambo, or Washora mambo in Nyamapanda), one of the “big” songs of the matepe repertoire whereever the instrument is played.

We started the day recording pandutsa (warning; sometimes also kupanduka – to revolt, to go against) parts for Kuvachenjedza. Sekuru explains that a player uses these fixed phrases to inform the others that he’s going to change to another version, so that the flow of the music is retained, and no two players change at…

Today we were recording Dimbotimbo, a version of Kuvachenjedza that cannot be played together with the other parts, and that is usually played at the peak of a mhondoro bira. It provides the dignified background for the moments when the spirits speak out. We also recorded & overdubbed drumming and a few clapping patterns, both…