B OW P R OJ ECT 2

1. JÜRGEN BRÄUNINGER - Tsiki’s Got a Headache C re d it s

Concept and Curation: Michael Blake
2. NJABULO PHUNGULA - Montage
Executive Producer: Michael Blake
Mastered by Corinne Cooper
3. MILES WARRINGTON - Three Ways to Resonate
Cover photo: Rudolph Willemse
Cover design and layout: Anna Durrheim
4. CARA STACEY - Rounds

5. PIERRE-HENRI WICOMB - Hommage Mirage TRACK 9

MAXIM STARCKE composition, sound
6. NEO MUYANGA - uNonto Uzavunywa samples, synthesizer, electric guitar,

7. GALINA JURITZ - in tandem crickets), production

DIZU PLAATJIES umrhubhe (recorded by
8. WARRICK SONY - Live Grass for Udu, Bow and Radio Ronan Skillen at Digitaal Studios, 2014)
LISA BAUER
9. MAXIM STARCKE with DIZU PLAATJIES - In the Valley of Moonlight
(for Ruben) TRACK 11
SAZI DLAMINI voice, makhweyana bow
10. ROCHÉ VAN TIDDENS - By a young woman from the Lumko Valley
LUC HOUTKAMP electronics, mixing

11. SAZI DLAMINI and LUC HOUTKAMP / LYRICS: ARI SITAS and
TRACK 16
ALFRED TEMBA QABULA - The Walking Song
MIKAEL BLAK and BENJAMIN PETERSEN
12. CHRISTINA VIOLA OOREBEEK - so far, so near engineering

(dedicated to Jürgen Bräuninger)

TRACK 18
13. RODRIGO SIGAL - Touch a snake and you ask for trouble
Youth Choir
14. ADINA IZARRA - BOW
Track 1 & 21 GEMA; Track 2 BMI; Track 4, 5,
15. LUKAS LIGETI - Never Finish [short version] 6, & 9 SAMRO; Track 7 PRS/SAMRO; Track
8 & 13 PRS; Track 11 SAMRO (Dlamini) &
16. KRISTIAN BLAK - Birds & Bows BUMA/STEMRA (Houtkamp); Track 12
BUMA/STEMRA; Track 14 SGAE; Track 15
17. HEÐIN ZISKA DAVIDSEN - Rødd á Strongi (Voice on String)
AKM/ASCAP; Track 16 & 17 KODA; Track 20
GEMA/SAMRO
18. ESTÊVÃO FILIPE CHISSANO - wutomi – life

19. CHIDI OBIJIAKU - Midnight Voices

B O W S CA P E S
20. MICHAEL BLAKE - Ukukhalisa Umrhubhe Fragment

21. ULRICH SÜSSE with JÜRGEN BRÄUNINGER - … anywhere far AOI CD 05 In memory of Jürgen Bräuninger
 www.carastacey.com VerlorenVlei while studying composition with Hans
T H E O R I G I N S A N D H I S TO RY O F Roosenschoon by transforming the environmental
MAXIM STARCKE (b. 1981, Cape Town) is a South sound recordings of the bushveld into an orchestral
African composer, sound artist, multi-instrumentalist performance. He completed a BMus in 2014 and a MMus
and music educator born and living in Cape Town. in composition at Stellenbosch University, South Africa in
Performing and working across diverse genres, Starcke 2016. He continued his composition studies at the Royal
BY M I C H A E L B L A K E
has focused his personal art music through the lens Birmingham Conservatoire, UK, with Andrew Hamilton
of soundscape composition, what he has in the past and Sean Clancy in 2017, where his music was performed
called ‘landscape music’ - the title of his 2012 Masters in in the No Frontiers Festival. In 2018 he participated in Sonic
The original Bow Project was created in 2002 as a project Composition dissertation entitled Aspects of Landscape Mmabolela, the artist’s residency organised by Francisco
of the New Music Indaba at the National Arts Festival in Music. López and Barbara Ellison in the Mmabolela game
Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in South Africa. About and environmental sounds, specially designed reserve. He currently lives and works in The Netherlands
twenty (mainly South African) composers transcribed sound samples and sonic textures. These works are as a freelance composer and teacher.
and reimagined music from one of the greatest musical produced and performed with the intention of creating www.rochevantiddens.wordpress.com
traditions in our country: the solo song, self-accompanied environmental awareness about the conservation of
by one-string bow, as recorded by the greatest Xhosa bow South African natural biospheres, as well as stimulating MILES WARRINGTON (b. 1977, Cape Town) studied
the imagination and exploring the coalescence of visual composition with Jürgen Bräuninger. His main interests
medium seemed to us to provide a perfect bridge between art, music and sound design.
the world of traditional bow music and the world of new www.maximstarcke.com research and performance. Passionate about technology
classical music, with the original songs sung as a prelude to that explores the interface between humans and
each new work. ULRICH SÜ ßE (b. 1944, Germany) studied at the State computers in the music domain, he explores technology-
University of Music and Performing Arts, Stuttgart, then art intersections through creative output. He teaches
Music journalist Gwen Ansell wrote in the National Arts with Erhard Karkoschka, Stockhausen and Ligeti in Europe, music technology and electroacoustic composition at
Festival newspaper Cue after the 2002 concert: “Musicologist and Berio, Charles Wuorinen and Elias Tanenbaum in the University of Pretoria.
Andrew Tracey contends that the bow should be South the USA. He was composition lecturer at the University of www.mileswarrington.com
Africa’s national instrument. Certainly the New Music Natal, Durban (1973-76), responsible for the establishment
Indaba’s ‘Bow Project’ comes closest of any festival event so of an electronic music studio, and since 1976, as professor PIERRE-HENRI WICOMB (b. 1976, Stellenbosch, South
far to presenting an image of modern national culture that is since 1980, at the State University of Music in Stuttgart, Africa) is a South African composer residing in Cape
both coherent and exciting. If you want a reason for having
Jürgen Bräuninger
where he was director of the Electronic Music Studio Town. He works in musical environments encompassing
national arts festivals, the ‘Bow Project’ provided it”. (1956 - 2019)
from 1998-2002. He has been guest lecturer in the USA, everything from composition collaborations with
Europe, Philippines, South Africa, Korea and Australia, and [unrehearsed] audience members, acoustic/
Composers who worked in different genres – new music,
To mark the tenth anniversary of the founding of participated in (mainly) electroacoustic music festivals electroacoustic art music to the soundtracks for theatre/
jazz, choral music, rock, media music, electronic music –
NewMusicSA (South African section of the ISCM) in Varadero, Cuba, Baltimore (USA), Brno, Seoul, Wrozlaw
in 2009, The Bow Project went on a national tour, (Poland), Bourges (France) and Montreal. He retired in
years. One which took a ground-breaking approach was
together with Xhosa bow virtuoso Mantombi 2005 and now lives in Cape Town. He has written around www.wicomb.net
a collaborative work Jiwé by Jürgen Bräuninger and Sazi
Matotiyana, and recorded the repertoire at the end 100 compositions mainly using electronics, amongst
of the tour for TUTL records FKT 044 (an innovative them 15 collective compositions with Patrick Bebelaar,
with the Zulu ughubu bow, percussion and vocals. There had
label based in the Faroe Islands), with Dave Dargie’s Jürgen Bräuninger, David Mason, Oliver Prechtl, Matthias
also been a plan to invite all the participating composers
Schneider-Hollek, Yehuda Yannay, Maceij Walczak and
to contribute a very short electronic tape piece, but as it
Rainer Wehinger.
happened only Jürgen Bräuninger created one - Tsiki’s got a
www.ulrichsuesse.com
headache – and he called it a ‘bowscape’.

ROCHÉ VAN TIDDENS (b.1990, Johannesburg) wrote

is interested in the ways rural musical practices are
transformed, adapted and recontextualised in urban
areas. Since the formation of his group Amampondo
he has travelled world-wide, successfully sharing his
ideas about cultural exchange. After Amampondo’s
international 1997 tour, Plaatjies returned to South
Africa and began lecturing in African dance and
music at the University of Cape Town. He and his group
visited Sweden and Norway in 1998 by invitation of the
governments to conduct traditional music sessions in
educational institutions in their countries. He regards
his work in communities, educational institutions
and with many visiting scholars, as a challenge to
the present and future government to respect and
conserve the traditional heritage of the people; to see
the world through the eyes of the people. (DP)
www.sacm.uct.ac.za/sacm/staff/fulltime/snrLecturers/
DizuPlaatjies
ALFRED TEMBA QABULA (1942-2003) was a Nguni poet,
dramatist and performer who was very active in the
South African labour movement in the 1980s and early
1990s. His poems have been collected recently by
SA History Online. His autobiography, A Working Life
Beyond Belief, has been republished in 2017. Qabula
worked closely with Jürgen Bräuninger through the
Culture and Working Life Project.
RODRIGO SIGAL (b. 1971, Mexico City), composer,
professor and cultural manger based in Mexico, runs
the Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts and
teaches at UNAM.
www.rodrigosigal.com
ARI SITAS (b.1952, Limassol, Cyprus), poet, dramatist
and sociologist, is also involved lately in musical
collection Tropical Scars was published in 1989 and has
the last of which was a poetic dialogue with Bengali
poet Subhro Bandopadhyay titled Mapping Gondwana
which appeared this year. His work has been translated
into many languages. His latest production (which also
involved Sazi Dlamini) was the staging of Giraffe Humming,
a musical and visual reconstruction of the tale of moving
three giraffes from Africa to Bengal and then to China in
1414CE. He was an honorary professor at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal until recently, where he worked between
1982 and 2009. He was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe
by the South African presidency in 2019 for his contribution
WARRICK (SWINNEY) SONY (b. 1958 Port Elizabeth
sound, music and politics, and his approach to the sonic
arts is rooted in a solid DIY-aesthetic coming out of his
involvement with the post-punk ethic at Shifty Studios
in the 1980s and during the turbulent years straddling
the collapse of apartheid and South Africa’s transition
to democracy. He worked in sound design and music
production in Cape Town before moving into academia,
works at the 56th Venice Biennale and developed writing
around ideas dealing with political and social transitional
similarities between post-soviet countries and post-
apartheid South Africa, sonic explorations into silencing,
self-censorship, and the tensions between politics and art
in totalitarian states. He received an MFA (with distinction)
from the University of Cape Town in 2018, and is currently
a PhD candidate at the University of the Western Cape. He
runs courses at Michaelis School of Fine Art which centre
around practical and theoretical sound studies projects
dealing with current ethical and political issues.
www.kalaharisurfers.co.za
CARA STACEY (b. 1985, Johannesburg), South African
musician and musicologist, was the Standard Bank
Young Artist for Music 2021. Her doctorate in African music
makhoyane musical bow from eSwatini. She has performed
throughout southern Africa, in the United Kingdom, Brazil,
Peru, the USA and Switzerland with Shabaka Hutchings,
Sarathy Korwar, Dan Leavers, Galina Juritz, Natalie Mason,
Beat Keller, Matchume Zango, Jason Singh and Juliana
Venter. She is a Senior Lecturer in African Music at North-
West University, South Africa.
bowscape Tsiki’s got a headache, and it is that
piece that spawned the current album Bow The Music
Project 2: Bowscapes.
(A L L 2 02 2 U N L ES S I N D I CAT E D)
Sadly, Jürgen Bräuninger died very suddenly
1. JÜRGEN BRÄUNINGER (ZA/Germany)
in 2019, leaving behind an enormous legacy
- Tsiki’s Got a Headache (2005)
colleagues with whom he had collaborated This is – after ihlathi, which I wrote in 2000 – another take
around the world. And so, two years ago, at on the idea of a ‘talking bow’. It uses the voice of Ntombi
African Open Institute for Music, Research and Gasa, a choreographer who works with the Siwela Sonke
Dance Company (Durban), bow sounds, and other concrete
the original Bow Project, one which took forward material. (JB)
the notion of an electronic bowscape. All South
African composers working in the electronic
2. NJABULO PHUNGULA (ZA) - Montage
medium were invited to contribute a short piece
Montage
– and many responded enthusiastically; then we
features in some of Mantombi Matotiyana’s umrhubhe
spread the net more widely around the globe to
composers Jürgen had known or collaborated
with, or composers who just admired his work
celebration, wind chimes and other sounds to create a short
and his contribution.
audio collage or ‘montage’ that cycles through various
There are 20 new pieces, including some musical ‘scenes’. Montage is written in memory of my former
collaborations, many from South Africa, the teacher Jürgen Bräuninger, in response to his concept of the
broader African continent, Europe and the ‘bowscape’. (NP)
Americas. The original Bow Project paid tribute
3. MILES WARRINGTON (ZA)
Dywili, who had died just before its launch in
- Three ways to resonate
June 2002. She had inspired and informed the
The traditions of the great artists whose songs are
project throughout, and it is to her memory
referenced in this bowscape, inspired me to bring together
that the original CD was dedicated. 20 years
two kinds of traditional bowing: uhadi and umrhubhe. The
later Bow Project 2: Bowscapes is a memorial
principal differences are that with the uhadi resonating is
to someone whose artistic vision, political and
made with a gourd, whereas with the umrhubhe it is the
social commitment, and generosity of spirit had
body that takes on that role. The cicadas of the Karoo (like
a powerful and lasting effect on South African
all cicadas) have an organ called a tymbal that produces
music.
and resonates their famous sound. This organ contains ribs
of different lengths that buckle and relax to produce clicks
© 2022 M I CHAEL B L AKE
So we have in this trio three ways of resonating. In scenes
that evoke warm Karoo summer nights, beer drinking and
songs of the human spirit, this bowscape brings all these
together. (MW)

4. CARA STACEY (ZA/eSwatini) - Rounds
Rounds draws on experiments with playing umrhubhe,
dende and makhoyane bows through a chain of guitar
pedals. Guitars and musical bows are deeply linked
through maskandi harmonic foundations, bouncing
rhythmic lilts, and solitary lyrical comforts; though
guitars are always seen as the more modern tool. This
piece aims to decontruct any linear narrative around
a circular relationship. (CS)
5. PIERRE-HENRI WICOMB (ZA)
- Hommage Mirage
recorded performance of the song Uyephi na? (Where
has he gone?) by Princess Magogo. It is structured in
two sections, each enunciating a different approach
to the exploration and realisation of the composer’s
musical understatement of the theme ‘hommage’.
(PHW)
6. NEO MUYANGA (ZA) - uNonto Uzavunywa
The piece is a meditation on Mantombi Matotiyana’s
‘akavunywa’ - a lament over a bride who is not
accepted by her partner’s family. The original song
features uMama‘s subdued yet lyrical voice, which she
accompanies on uhadi. My response imagines a tiny
chorus vocalising with her in rumbles (bayabhodla),
glitching a piano, striking eletriks, all to imagine a
different outcome for the jilted love. (NM)
7. GALINA JURITZ (UK/ZA) - in tandem
in tandem explores how the bow can be manipulated
into disparate threads which travel alongside
each other, moving in and out of context to their
surroundings. I use various recordings made by Cara
bows. (GJ)
8. WARRICK SONY (ZA)
- Live Grass for Udu, Bow and Radio
I thought I’d centre the piece on an Indian rhythm cycle
of seven beats as a homage to my roots growing up in
radio part is tuning in to a cricket match somewhere in
India with a Jamaican commentator who observes that
and alive. He coins the title phrase “Live Grass.” I played
a fast seven, initially in rupak tal, with its bass emphasis
on beats 4 and 6, but moved it to a more rock orientation
tracks made from some performances on a berimbau
which I bought in Belo Horizonte in Brazil in 1994. These
were made into Ableton instruments working from their
pitch shifts for movement. All sounds are from these
three sources. (WS)
9. MAXIM STARCKE (ZA) with DIZU PLAATJIES (ZA)
- In the Valley of Moonlight (for Ruben)
In the Valley of Moonlight (for Ruben) is a sound-scape
composition produced for this ‘bowscape’ compilation. It
is constructed around a sound sample of Dizu Plaatjie’s
umrhubhe from an unreleased recording (c.2013). I
digitally transformed and treated layers of umrhubhe
with additional sonic landmarks such as my own
morphed instrumental recordings (electric guitar and/
waves in the Southern Peninsula provided by Lisa Bauer.
The piece is dedicated to South African/Australian poet
and author Ruben Mowszowski with whom both Dizu
Plaatjies and I collaborated, recorded and toured under
the collective title Souls of Ancient Fish, producing poetic,
ritual sound incantations using voice, umrhubhe, uhadi,
and onstage-soundscape composition. (MS)
music as a saxophonist, he now focuses on composition,
both electronic and chamber music. He has had a long-term
relationship with South Africa, since being a leave substitute
during Jürgen Bräuninger’s sabbatical year at the University
of KwaZulu-Natal in 1997. Since then he has returned many
times for tours and extended visits. In 2014 Houtkamp moved
to the island of Malta (just north of the African continent) and
aims to connect the south and the north of Africa with future
music projects.
www.luchoutkamp.nl
ADINA IZARRA (b. 1959, Caracas, Venezuela), Venezuelan
Universidad de las Artes. Her interests are in live electronics
and live visuals and improvising with both of these. Adina
has a PhD in composition from the University of York, England
and a masters in digital postproduction of audio visuals from
www.adinaizarra.com
GALINA JURITZ (b. 1986, London) is a composer, producer,
London and Cape Town. She moves between electronic,
improvised, scored and audiovisual art forms, and has started
a PhD at Goldsmiths University, where she explores collective
www.galinajuritz.com
LUKAS LIGETI (b. 1965, Vienna), composer and improvisor (on
drums and electronics), with a longstanding engagement with
music in Africa which has led to an approach he describes
as experimental intercultural collaboration. Commissioned
by some of the leading new music ensembles worldwide,
his complex polyrhythmic music explores microtonality,
practice. He co-leads the Burkina Faso-based electronica
group Burkina Electric and performs in groups and as a soloist
worldwide. He is currently an extraordinary professor at the
University of Pretoria and divides his time between Miami and
Johannesburg.
www.lukasligeti.com
NEO MUYANGA (b. 1974, Soweto) is a musician, composer and
installation artist whose musicking fuses African idiomatic
song, New Opera and Electronica.
www.neosong.net
CHIDI OBIJIAKU (b. 1990, Onitsha, Nigeria), Nigerian
composer, choral director, pianist, and conductor,
is currently a PhD candidate at Wits University. His
work focuses on how sounds from within the African
continent can be integrated as compositional
century.
CHRISTINA VIOLA OOREBEEK (b. 1944, Port Washington,
NY) embarked on a career in composition when
she was 50, studying with Klaas de Vries at CodArts
Rotterdam and graduating with the Composition
Prize. Her work has been performed in festivals and
concerts in The Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy,
Norway, Finland, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Africa,
the USA and Canada. Not the ‘new’ for sake of novelty,
but an open mind and extreme curiosity for what’s
happening around her, together with the desire to
keep developing a personal aesthetic, are the driving
factors behind Christina Viola Oorebeek’s work.
www.christinaoorebeek.com
NJABULO PHUNGULA (b. 1993, Durban) holds a BA
(Hons) degree from the University of KwaZulu-
Natal where he studied with Jürgen Bräuninger.
His music has been performed by the Kompass
Ensemble, Midori Samson, Naomi Sullivan, Kristina
Bachrach and Stephanie Lamprea. He has received
commissions from the JACK Quartet, New Music
Forum at Stellenbosch, NewMusicSA, the Negaunee
Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
Thompson Street Opera Company and Peridot Duo,
He is currently a JACK Studio artist for 2020-22, and
a Postcolonial Recherche fellow with Ensemble
Recherche and the Goethe-Institut.
www.njabulophungula.com
DIZU PLAATJIES (b.1959, Lusikisiki, Mpondoland,
South Africa) collaborates with rural performers in
Tsolo (Eastern Cape) specialising in umrhube and
uhadi bow songs and rural dance song genres and
 10. ROCHÉ VAN TIDDENS (ZA/Netherlands) HE [Owesilisa]
- By a young woman from the Lumko Valley I walked past the eerie sounds

The Composers This bowscape is a sonic transformation of the

audio cassette by Dave Dargie, Make and Play your
Ngahamba ngedlula imisindo esabisayo
The cracking of spines
Ukuchachamba kwemigogodla
own Musical Bow. Dargie gives examples of how to
The twang of the hanging rope
KRISTIAN BLAK (b. 1947, Fredericia, Denmark) is a composer ESTÊVÃO FILIPE CHISSANO (b. 1994, Malehice, Chibuto, play the traditional isiXhosa bow music from South
Ukugubhuza kwentambo yokulengisa
and performer based in the Faroe Islands, composes for Africa. I transcribed the melody and rhythm from
The blasts in the Ocean
international classical ensembles, performs locally and University Mondlane. He is a music student (Chorus, the example given, ‘played by a young woman from
Ukuqhuma olwandle
tours internationally as a musician and band leader with the Lumko valley’, for the electronic sound work by
jazz, folk and world music groups. He contributed a string creating playback patterns of short samples taken
Okudabula phansi olwandle
teaching of music in Maputo) where he has been from the tape. The playback patterns form a melody
I am far
www.kristianblak.com teaching Musical Initiation. In his works he seeks to line with pitch shifting of the sound samples, and are
Ngikude
played on the transcribed rhythm through calculation
MICHAEL BLAKE (b.1951, Cape Town), composer, pianist, of durations. A combination of playback patterns
textures, from traditional to contemporary, and including SHE [Owesifazane]:
writer, teacher, has been widely played in Europe and creates a texture that combines the speech samples
electronic music. His compositions have been part of the I looked for you far
Africa, and in Toronto, New York, Havana, Buenos Aires, with the bow music. (RvT)
Classical Music Season in Maputo and have been heard Ngakubheka kude
Mexico, Australia, India, and Japan and recorded on some
in other countries, such as Japan, UK, Brazil, Portugal, I travelled riding on the neck
20 CDs. His musical language is the result of an immersion
Norway and South Africa. Ngahamba ngigibele entanyeni
11. SAZI DLAMINI (ZA) and LUC HOUTKAMP of a dream
HEÐIN ZISKA DAVIDSEN (b. 1977, Faroe Islands), Faroese (Netherlands) / LYRICS: ARI SITAS (ZA) and yephupho
composer, musician and teacher, is a rock guitarist at ALFRED TEMBA QABULA (ZA) to mythical rivers
weaving. He lives mostly in rural France but spends part of the core, harbouring a curiosity for experimentation,
each year in Cape Town, where he is honorary professor in electronics and improvisation.
- The Walking Song emifuleni yensumansumane
Where crocs are learning to speak Mandarin
the Africa Open Institute at Stellenbosch University. www.hedinziskadavidsen.com [isiZulu translation by Sazi Dlamini]
Lapho khona izingwenya zifunda ukukhuluma
www.michaelblake.co.za
SAZI DLAMINI (b. 1960, Dududu, KwaZulu-Natal), guitarist isiMandarini
HE [*Owesilisa]:
JÜRGEN BRÄUNINGER (b.1956, Stuttgart; d. 2019, Durban) Where the Baas sips Shell Cola smiling
Dearest, I walked through mists
was professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban tradition, was awarded a PhD degree by the University Lapho khona uBasi ehabula iShell Cola emoyizela
Sithandwa, ngahamba nginqamula izinkungu
where he taught composition and music technology until of KwaZulu-Natal in 2010 for his thesis South African Blue Where the lands were fracked dry
Through rain
he retired early. Besides works for ensembles/soloists and Notes: Bebop, Mbaqanga, Apartheid and the Exiling of Ngidabula emvuleni
electronic media (some in collaboration with, inter alia a Musical Imagination. He is a founding memb er of For a wage
Matthew Brubeck, Sazi Dlamini, and poet Ari Sitas), he Skokiana and Insurrections Ensemble (www.skokiana. Angiwutholanga umkhondo wakho
Ngenxa yenkokhelo yokuziphilisa
The Lawnmower Man and co.za; www.insurrectionsensemble.com), performing I walked far
Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre productions such as A South on Nguni musical bows and building string and wind HE [Owesilisa]:
Ngahamba ngaya kude
African Siddhartha. His compositions appear on dURBAN musical instruments using natural and found materials. Dearest I walked tall
NOISE and scraps WORKS; Mike Rossi and Ulrich Süße – Two He is volume editor of a monograph Musical Bows of Sithandwa ngahamba ngidlondlobele
SHE [*Owesifazane]:
in One; and ‘… anywhere far‘. Ihlathi is available on Southern Southern Africa (2021). Dearest, where are you
Cones: Music out of Africa and South America (Leonardo Imikhonto yamadoda yaphetshezwa
Sithandwa, ukuphi
Music Journal CD Series Vol 10). tasteN, released by DML- Walking now
LUC HOUTKAMP (b. 1953, Den Haag, The Netherlands) is a Omiyane kabangenzakalisanga
records in 2011, includes Between Nowhere and Now Here Lapho uhamba khona manje
composer who bridges the gap between different worlds I rode the backs of whales
– Again, The Madama Fragments, Pi44Ono, Windspiel, and When there are no mines to walk to?
of music. With a background in jazz and improvised Ngakhwela imihlane yemikhoma
Inside Insects. Njengoba kungekho nazimayini zokuya kuzo?
In AfroAsian seas
Ezilwandle zeYafrika-Eshiya
And I drowned the world in song
Ngagwilizisa umhlaba engomeni
SHE [Owesifazane]:
Sithandwa, kuthule lapha
I am sure you are looking for the village for all true
artists
Ngineqiniso wena ufuna inxuluma labo bonke ongoti
beqiniso
Searching for the right tree to carve out
Ubheka isihlahla esilungele ukubaza
The festival drum
Isigubhu somgidi
I am sure you are not drowning in a puddle of beer
Ngineqiniso ukuthi awugwilizi exhaphozini likabhiya
HE [Owesilisa]:
Dearest, I walked far
Sithandwa, ngahamba ngajubalala
Through mist and rain
Ukudabula inkungu nemvula
Walking
Ukuhamba
Till the wind starts to carry my song home
Umoya uze uqale ukuletha ingoma yami ekhaya
SHE [Owesifazane]:
Dearest, can’t you see that there is no home
Sithandwa, kawuboni ukuthi ikhaya alikho
The in-laws have traded the brick
Abalingani sebethengise ngesitini
We are all walking
Sonke sesihamba
On the paths of a new exile
Ngezindlela zokudingiswa kabusha
Singing.
Sihlabelela
* ‘he’/’she’ have been translated as owesilisa
‘masculine’ / owesifazane ‘feminine’ because the
Nguni third person pronoun yena is ungendered.
12. CHRISTINA VIOLA OOREBEEK
(Netherlands/USA)
- so far, so near (2001)
(dedicated to Jürgen Bräuninger)
painfully joyous, bittersweet notes of an
umrhubhe bow sound very close.
tho’ ringing thru my heart,
they pass too swiftly on to learn their song.
so near, so far (CVO)
13. RODRIGO SIGAL (Mexico)
- Touch a snake and you ask for trouble
took me seriously. He did not know me and he did not know
if I was a snake that would cause trouble or someone who
would be grateful to him for many years to come. (RS)
14. ADINA IZARRA (Venezuela/Ecuador)
- BOW
I took one phrase of the actual bow playing and elaborated
to recreate the performance. I imagined a short dance
with the natural changes of patterns by using the same
sample. (AI)
15. LUKAS LIGETI (Austria/USA)
- Never Finish [short version]
Never Finish is a collage, superimposition, and sonic
reconstruction based on several fragments of recordings
and played back simultaneously but also occasionally
interrupted by momentary standstills, create a polymetric
soundscape where the listener’s orientation is no longer
based on rhythm or melody, but on the relationship
of contrasting sounds and sections. Situated on the
borderline between composition and sound art, it is
comprised of both artful manipulation of material and
acceptance of sound as art for its own sake. (LL)
16. KRISTIAN BLAK (Faroe Islands) 20. MICHAEL BLAKE (ZA/France)
- Birds & Bows - Ukukhalisa Umrhubhe Fragment
Birds from the North Atlantic in overseas conversation (2013/2022)
with voice and bow. (KB)
The original version of Ukukhalisa Umrhubhe is
about 16 minutes and was commissioned by Festival
17. HEÐIN ZISKA DAVIDSEN (Faroe Islands) d’Automne à Paris in 2013. Meaning ‘to play the
- Rødd á Strongi (Voice on String) umrhubhe’ or literally ‘to make the umrhubhe cry’, I
worked on the piece in the electronic music studio at
I aimed at merging the human voice with the bow
Stellenbosch University between January and August
on one hand and suspending the bow playing in
2013 with the participation of Xhosa bow legend
time on the other. This way I created a backdrop with
a temporal manipulation of the bow and added a Mantombi Matotiyana. This short fragment taken from
narration where you can imagine the voice playing the the larger work has been reframed to create a portrait
of the umrhubhe. (MB)
bow. (HZD)
21.ULRICH SÜSSE (ZA/ Germany)
18. ESTÊVÃO FILIPE CHISSANO
with JÜRGEN BRÄUNINGER
- wutomi – life
- … anywhere far (1991; version 2022)
we go through crises, whether pandemics or wars, as When Jürgen and I worked together on ‘... anywhere
we have experienced in recent times. The theme of far‘ it was not only the transition in South Africa (the
‘life’ was chosen for the piece, not only to celebrate phrase ‘anywhere far‘ was taken from a speech of
it, but also to contemplate it. Life – Wutomi - Vida are
different ways of expressing the same reality, which is Natal in Durban 1991) but also the transition worldwide
felt in different rhythms as the voices perform. And the
way sound intensity is treated, a mirror is created of (analogue) tapes from the library but used digital
the arc of life during which we have moments when
the mood is high, low, static and even uncomfortable. accidentially Mozart appeared on the library tape and
These moods are illustrated in recording distortions,
like the loss of someone who means a lot to us in versus Europe or Africa plus Europe. (US)
some way. It is in this context that this piece becomes
a homage to the composer Jürgen Bräuninger. (EFC)
19. CHIDI OBIJIAKU (Nigeria)
- Midnight Voices
Midnight Voices references bow music from eastern
and southern Africa. The work focuses on how music
produced on bow instruments is perceived within a
continuous change of time and space. (CO)