TAKULA

A group of young musicians were invited to explore digitized tracks from the archives of Malawi Broadcasting Corporation. They came up with beautiful new interpretations of old songs, new compositions inspired by what they heard, and samples, programming and rap based on the sounds from their past. New, vibrant pop music with a real Malawian flavour.

WESTAMAN

A piece of music based on the sounds of the fast ferry Westamaran – its motor, its motion through the water, the sounds on board and the sounds of the boat from under the surface of the water -complemented  by soundscapes, atmosphere and music from harbours where Westamarans have rendered its services to travellers.

SYMPHONIC TAARAB

Taarab is the music of Zanzibar, one of the very few music styles in Africa with an orchestral tradition with its line-up of several violins, cellos, double bass, oud, qanun, dumbak drums and more. Nedland Kultur wanted to merge European symphonic and Zanzibari taarab orchestral tradition in this project with the Symphony Orcehstra of NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation).  

IMAGINE AFRICA

Nedland Kultur, in collaboration with Mimeta and the record company KKV, compiled music from Kenya and Tanzania for a CD called “Imagine Africa”. The name of the record is shared with a a campaign organised by Mimeta in Norway, in partnership with the Goree Institute located on Goree Island in Dakar, Senegal. The campaign is based on the ARTerial Network. The aim is to constitute a global initiative for promoting and strengthening African arts and reasoning. The CD is part of this initiative, and features a rich selection of modern East African music.

FIGHT APATHY!

“Fight Apathy” is a double CD organised by Nedland Kultur for Christianssands Protestfesival, a festival that has been taking place since 1999 in Kristiansand, Norway. The aim of the festival is to fight against apathy and indifference, and to encourage commitment, tolerance and action. Artists include Delbert McClinton, Barry McGuire, Kris Kristofferson, Yolanda Martinez, Jonas Fjeld, Åge Aleksandersen, Noora Noor and many others

KHAYA KHAYA

A tough female rapper comes out of the streets of Dar Es Salaam and meets up with a male rapper from Norway with a dual cultural background. He is a Norwegian Grammy winner, she is Coca Cola Popstars winner. They are joined by a multi instrumentalist and electronics wizzard, and the beats start flowing. Nedland Kultur creates the possibility for the trio to meet, create and record with Tanzanian musicians , and then sends them out to play concerts together.

TRAMO

While working in Marimba Studio in Dar Es Salaam , Sigbjørn Nedland was contacted by the  Principal of Bagamoyo College of Arts (later re-named TaSuBa). He had heard about the project by Nedland Kultur called “Mradi Group”, and how this project was working with traditional Tanzanian music in a moderen setting. He suggested a collaboration between the dance band musicians from Dar and the teachers of traditional music in Bagamoyo – for mutual benefit.

WOMEN CARE

Eight female artists, four from Norway, four from four different African countries, met with a band of Tanzanian musicians in Dar Es Salaam in 2004 and 2005 to create unique and inspired music together for the CD “Women Care”. The musical workshop was created by Nedland Kultur, who had been approached by Care International Norway with a request to help them celebrate womanhood and the imporance of women in the many projects the Care organisation is doing around the world, and to promote their slogan “It helps more to help women”.

MRADI GROUP

After establishing Marimba Studio in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, the first digital studio in town, Nedland Kultur set out to do a production with young, talented musicians from Dar. Sigbjørn Nedland started visiting the popular bands in town at their rehearsal places, and spotted talented musicians, asking the band leaders if he could “borrow” them for a project. The band that slowly assembled around the new studio got the name “Mradi Band”, and the young musicians were given a challenge: “Try to develop modern pop music out of something you find in your tradition”. And did they ever!

NITAZIIMBA SIFA

Most of the music productions of Nedland Kultur feature highly professional and often internationally renowned artists. This production was made with enthusiatic amateurs. In 2002 a choir of nursing students entered Marimba Studio in Dar Es Salaam. They wanted to document their enthusiasm, not only for gospel music and singing, but also for the idealistically founded and run hospital they represented, for their profession, and for their dedication to nursing and taking care of people

WINTER IN MOSCOW

This release by the German record company Jaro Medien is a production by Sigbjørn Nedland/Nedland Kultur made in 1991 – 92, which was re-released in 2001. The main artists Mari Boine, Inna Zhellannaya and Sergey Starostin had by that time become much more famous than they were when the album was recorded, and the Moscow recordings were appreciated by new fans around the world.

MAKE ME A CHANNEL OF YOUR PEACE

A selection of international artists and musicians from Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia, exerpts from the speeches of numerous Nobel Peace Prize laureates, hypnotic drumming, creative arrangements, great instrumentalists, beautiful voices, and a shared commitment to the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize – That is the the content of the CD “Make Me A Channel Of Your Peace”, celebrating 100 years of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.

CARAVAN BLUES & THE LATIN AMERICAN JOURNEY

These two albums are not full Nedland Kultur productions. They are compilations of formerly released tracks specially selected and presented by Nedland Kultur for the Norwegian aid organisation “Norsk Folkehjelp”. The selection and the presentation was made with basis in a specific understanding of the history of music and culture development that is central to all activities of Nedland Kultur.

BOB MARLEY LIVES ON!

This album contains the music from the stage play “Babylon By Bus”, written by Sigbjørn Nedland. Nedland Kultur, in collaboration with Nordic Black Theatre, brought the international band and vocalists from the stage play into the recording studio, together with some invited guest vocalists, and produced a full album with interpretations of Bob Marely songs plus two original songs written for the theatre play.

TRANZANIA

The combination of the electronic “trance music” of the Norwegian duo Acid Queen, and the Tanzanian taarab traditions of the Dar Es Salaam groups  Egyptian Musical Club and Sisi Kwa Sisi became “Tranzania”, an experiment in musical integration of various musical styles and influences. Nedland Kultur wanted to challenge stereotypical thinking about cultures, and to develop new and innovative music, so the one-man “cultural institution” teamed up with the Norwegian record company KKV to make this a reality. The result was music no one had imagined before this project was initiated.

ALL VERDENS FOLKEMUSIKK

This is another album of music that was not originally recorded by Nedland Kultur. It is a compilation of tracks recorded at the studios of NRK, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in Oslo, for the radio show “All Verdens Folkemusikk”. Sigbjørn Nedland was responsible for going through and picking 15 of the recordings of international traditional musicians for this CD, togeter with NRK veteran Lisa Halvorsen (one of Nedland’s role models in radio). She produced most of the tracks on the CD, which also features productions by other NRK profiles, including Nedland.

MUSIC CHANNEL

Music Channel was a project uniting Israeli, Palestinian and Norwegian musicians in one group. In 1994, the secret “Oslo Channel”, that laid the foundations for a peace process between Palestinians and Israelis. sparked the idea of establishing a musical collaboration between the same three nationalities that had been involved in the political negotiations in Oslo, Norway. History has proved that the agreement did not bring peace, but the musical project remains an example of how musicians from different sides of a conflict can be able to create music together that can bridge big political and emotional divides.

MØTE I MOSKVA

In 1991 Sigbjørn Nedland invited Mari Boine and two of the musicians from her band to Moscow, to meet with three Russian artists and a rock band. It was Mari Boine’s first international project of collaboration that resulted in a CD. The music combined many influences, from Sami traditions and joik to Russian traditional music, Moscow rock, and experimental music.