2002 – 2006
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.
“We have heard about what you are doing with these young modern musicians”, said the Principal, “‘Guiding them to make modern music out of traditional tunes with traditional and modern instruments. And I want to tell you that when it comes to traditional Tanzanian music, we are the ones who have the knowledge and expertise But we know next to nothing about modern music. Why don’t you take these young guys and come to Bagamoyo and work with our teachers, who really know the tradition?”
Nedland Kultur took up the challenge, and, knowing that another project with Norwegian participation was ongoing in Bagamoyo, teamed up with the NOTA project, a collaboration project between The University and the Culture School of Stavanger, Norway, and Bagamoyo College of Art.
After careful preparations musicians playing everything from modern electric guitars and keyboards to traditional instruments like marimba, kalimba, litungu, ngoma and chungu assembled in Bagamoyo for rehearsals. It was soon clear that the music coming out of this experiemt was meant to be heard by a large audience!
After developing a repertoire of music with inputs from all participants, combining traditional tunes and new compsitions, the natural next step was to move from Bagamoyo to Marimba Studio in Dar Es Salaam. Here Didrik Ingvaldsen from NOTA and Sigbjørn Nedland from Nedland Kultur co-produced an album of innovative music.
The resulting recordings made by Marimba Studio sound enginers Keppy Kiombile, John Sagatti and Yousuf Mirambo, were taken to Norway and the Music Studio of NRK, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in Kristiansand, where the album was finished and mixed by the two producers together with sound engineer Kai Stokkeland. The resulting CD was released by the small independent record company Kultur & Spetakkel
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