Mmabolela by Slavek Kwi & David Michael
3:45 AM. Time to get up. The Bushveld is already awake.
Slávek and I are both dragging a bit, rushing to get out the door and deploy. After almost two weeks of nonstop recording, we are both tired and a little homesick.
At this point in the residency we have already found a dependable dawn recording location in a dry creek bed just far enough away from Weederdooper homestead so that our microphones will not pick up breakfast activities and just close enough for us to make it back for a nap before the morning field session. In a strange way this location reminds me of another of Slávek's favorite recording spots on a small tributary flowing into Lake Mamori in Brazil.
Slávek and I share a room at Weederdooper, which makes these dawn sessions simple. Our equipment too tends to share space in locations we scout together during many of the field sessions. We each now have many recordings of the exact same events, but from slightly different perspectives. The dry river bed at Umzumbi, the hippos at Mmabolel Rock, the bridge to Botswana, the watering holes. Perhaps when we get back home we will make a CD together.
Tracklist
Credits
Slavek's Notes:
Recordings made by Slávek Kwi in November 2013 at the Mmabolela. Composed in between February and June 2014 in Beech House, Ireland.
Trk 01-09 was originally constructed as multichannel piece titled “AfriKaa!” dedicated to children with autism.
The Sound Expedition was funded by The National Concert Hall in Dublin; very special thanks to Ciara Cuffe and Simon Taylor for kind support. Extended thanks to David for making this publication possible.
David's Notes:
All recordings within this double album were made at the Mmabolela Reserve in Limpopo, South Africa, during “Sonic Mmabolela”, organized by Francisco López and James Webb. Extended thanks to the rangers and staff at the Mmabolela Reserve for making these recordings possible and to organizers and participants of Sonic Mmabolela for creating a deeply memorable experience. May there be many more.
Special thanks to Roland and Lasse-Marc at Gruenrekorder.
Photos and design by Slávek Kwi.
License
All rights reserved.Tags
David Michael is a professional field recordist. He has performed at The Whitney Museum of American Art in collaboration with Toshok Labs. David has published works on labels including Gruenrekorder, 3LEAVES, Impulsive Habitat, and others; authored a paper that appeared in Organised Sound; and collaborated with sound artists Kim Cascone and Darius Ciuta on a project called T : t ↦ -t