2024 will see a series of concerts to make the Matepe, our preservation efforts and their support from the Federal Foreign Office visible to a wider audience in Zimbabwe and Germany.
On the German side, Transatlantic Impulse Response will soon take the stage – a collaboration between our team member Othnell “Mangoma” Moyo and Fabiano “K’boko” Lima, a Brazilian-German artist based in Berlin.
First rehearsals were in October 2023. Here is a compilation of mobile phone clips from their very first session:
About Transatlantic Impulse Response
A unique Zimbabwean + Brazilian/German collaboration featuring the Matepe mbira, roots drumming from the deep traditions from both sides of the ocean, Afro-futurist electronic beats, and a combination of all these.
Besides being performing musicians, Othnell “Mangoma” Moyo from Harare, and Fabiano “K’boko” Lima from Berlin/Recife are ethnomusicological researchers, multi-instrumentalists, teachers and ambassadors of the rich musical traditions of their native countries.
For this reason they have been invited to participate in the cultural preservation project Matepe 21st, conducted by symres.org and the German Embassy Harare, which spawned that collaboration.
The matepe is arguably the most sophisticated lamellophone on the African continent, unmatched in sonic complexity and playing technique – imagine a huge 3-octave kalimba with mysterious basses and tuned overtones.
Unfortunately there are only very few remaining master musicians of this instrument, and Mangoma – likely Zimbabwe’s most prolific and internationally renowned percussionist – dedicated himself to becoming one of them, and take this unique tradition into the current generation.
Together with his musical sensitivity and deep understanding of [colonial] history and traditional spirituality, this is an indispensable prerequisite for approaching the musical heritage of the Matepe from the technological side, effectively making “electronic” Berlin the third coordinate of a triangle with Harare and Recife.
K’boko’s mission is to integrate the musical essence of the traditions he grew up with into contemporary electronic styles without degenerating them to “ethno loops” – mere exotistic decoration.
Music
Here are two tracks currently in the making, to become part of the stage performance:
More about Mangoma
Here are two of Mangoma’s recent solo performances, showcasing a number of Zimbabwean traditional instruments. See the video descriptions on Youtube for more details.
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