Here, the artists work together on a chaotic schedule, music bursting from the rooms, and tagalongs coming and going with questions and ideas.
In rare periods of calm, residents take pause in the courtyard, eat a meal, and brush away the ragtag group of stray dogs.
Inside the pink concrete walls is a series of bedrooms, studios, workspaces and living quarters.
A mix of language and habits flow in and around, often finishing with a nighttime drum circle or respite beneath a ficus tree.
Above deck one looks out at the industrial outskirts of South Hamburg.
Inside, rack and pinion doors seal the noise, taking residents out of time.
Rising from the water on four levels, the boat has plenty of space for work and living quarters, where residents can record a track or share a meal.
In the middle, a massive room formerly used to store fish during long voyages out at sea, is now used for concerts and events.
“We don’t need to think too much about what we’re gonna do. It’s a pure experience. I wanna see where it takes us. I wanna feel the bass from the floor.” – Binghi
Afrorack is a maverick. A Ugandan native, he built one of Africa’s first DIY modular synthesizers.
Born of a personal curiosity, Afrorack would forage around repair shops, compile tutorials, and read circuit diagrams on the the internet in order to build his musical machines.
The result is a singular form of “African acid-house” using the electronic sounds of the synths and the complex rhythms of his native Uganda.
Mutant creations
For others the residency is a window into the unlikely engagements between far-off creatives. Take the trio of DJ Diaki, Zoë Mc Pherson, and Jay Mitta. One, a balani innovator, the other, a Berlin techno maverick, and the third Tanzanian singeli music pioneer. If there’s anything these artists have in common it’s the relentless pulsating rhythm of dance. And speed. Lots of speed.
The synthesized balafon music that DJ Diaki helped make famous from his Malian home country is high energy madness. Emerging in the late 90s in and around the capital city of Bamako, Diaki and his contemporaries were able to recreate troupes of 10-12 musicians on touch pads, synths and DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). The result is a gritty electronic version of this trance inducing dance music that plays with the traditional balafon as well as elements of kuduro and coupé-decalé.
Far to the South East is singeli music, a modern ancestor of taarab that’s sped up, full of bass, and with tons of quirky electronic accents. Jay Mitta, who came up in Sisso Studios, one of the legendary singeli workshops tied to Nyege Nyege, is carrying the torch for the endless rhythms and performative displays of this emergent sensation. Classics like Mitta’s 2018 Tatizo Pesa have become part of a soundtrack to the youth-led, block party-style movement that singeli embodies.
Slap it together with the complex textures of French-Irish, Berlin-based spatial sound shaper Zoë Mc Pherson and her tastemaker techno and you have a mutant creation of explosive sound.
“We send heavy stuff individually, but we’re still listening to each other. That’s what’s beautiful.” – Zoe McPherson
If you’re into pyrotechnics and polyrhythms this amalgamation is an obvious intrigue. Those braced and brave can roll into the chaos with a psychedelic appreciation. The artists themselves certainly didn’t come out unscathed by the maddening power of each’s sound.
Techno-balani? Future singeli? The volcanic features of triple influence are yet to be determined. But whether it’s a synthesis of Afro-futurist visions, theoretic conflict between sound scientists, or collabs between mind bending super-troupes, the sum is a work of art, a statue of parts.
Supergroup 3OK (Dj Diaka, Zoe McPherson, and Jay Mitta) practice before a show
In Berlin, for the CTM festival, Menzi took the time to explain the origins of gqom and how he as a producer perceives its sound.
Hooking up his computer, Menzi projected the columns and rows of his workstation that make up the genre’s ingredients.
Running through its outsider origins on cracked fruity loops software, it was a chance for the curious few to decrypt this darkside music.
For the Afropollination experience, Menzi was paired with Berlin-based, French producer Debmaster. A prolific artist and producer for some of the most charismatic artists on the Nyege Nyege roster including MC Yallah and Aunty Rayzor, Debmaster has an experimental approach to hip-hop, 8bit, glitch music, among other left-field sounds.
Knowledge, in all its bits and pieces, was exchanged between the two producers. In its revelation a common thread is found. Often more in a feeling than the mechanics of things. Then, it’s on to the good work of reverse engineering mouse movements across digital workstations to uncover a universal zeitgeist. “I think we’ve created a whole new genre,” Debmaster laughs in the phosphorescent lights of the Stubnitz.
Letting things bloom
Though none of the work of Afropollination exists in a vacuum. The artist’s creations are meant to be shared, their experiences opened up to the broader community. During the residency there were several occasions to showcase the results of the program live and online, available below via a collection of tracks produced sporadically throughout.
Then there is, of course, the legendary Nyege Nyege festival hosted at Itanda Falls, Uganda, on the rapids of the Nile. It was the first live laboratory for the residencies to take the stage. Tucked onto a hill over the river, thousands of festival goers from all over the world walked muddy paths to the many stages set up throughout the pine forest. Everyone is colorful and enchanted. Bass booms constantly from all directions.
Here in the pine forest, another gqom maverick, DJ MP3, goes b2b with Menzi for a pop-flavored gqom set. Astan Ka and Binghi made partygoers bounce under the hanging mushrooms and red lights of the festival’s Tropical stage. Thelma Ndebele aka Dormant Youth, a master of underground boom, curate a set alongside ethno-futurist club all star Bloomfeld. It’s a free for all of music and madness.
Later in the year was Berlin’s CTM festival. The German festival, music, and art platform was a fitting stopover, stating in its mission that it “connects multi-perspective experiences, critical reflection, hedonism, and collaborative learning.” An eerily similar mission to that of Afropollinatoin itself. Jessica Ekomane and Afrorack performed at the HAU2 international theater and performance center, continuing to refine their sound science.
Videographer Jan Moss, who participated in much of the Afropollination experience in Uganda behind the lens screened his film Singeli Movement: Greed for Speed which featured Sisso, Maiko, Jay Mita and others, followed by a performance with Jay Mitta himself.
The newly dubbed supergroup 3OK (Zoë Mc Pherson, Jay Mitta, and DJ Diaki) with Nana & Zai performed at Berlin’s legendary Berghain club (no photos allowed). Binghi and Astan Ka, the residency outfit of Bloomfeld, Phatstoki & Miziguruka named INSHINZI, Menzi and Debmaster… Everyone got a chance to showcase the fruits of the collaboration at one of the world’s most prestigious electronic events.
There was also the COSMO Radio Festival in Dortmund, which in Astan Ka’s words, was “a perfect cosmos” of people, and a celebration of all that was created during the residency.
Finally there was the Festsaal Kreuzberg, Afropollination’s closing event.
There were dance tutorials from the likes of Exocé, Nana, and Zai,
live cinema with Vincent Moon,
dance performances with Zora Snake,
and a club night that gave the stage to the Afropollination artists and groups,
all while wearing the collage-fashion of Exocé’s Kasapio brand. From the outside looking in, Afropollination had successfully pollinated the community.