WOMAD South Africa 2024
In collaboration with Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees and the SU Department of Music presents:
Sonography: Stories in Roots and Blues.
Wednesday 2 October 16h00, Fismer Hall, SU Konservatorium.
WOMAD “World of Music, Arts & Dance” was launched in 1982 by Peter Gabriel and has successfully brought its ethos, sights, global sounds and rhythms to millions of fans in 32 countries. WOMAD SA 2024 Concerts and Activities will be held in Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Johannesburg.
WOMAD SA is excited to collaborate, for the first time, with Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees and the SU Department of Music, in staging one special concert at the Woordfees, titled Sonography: Stories in Roots and Blues. Sonography is an exploration in sound and music of storytelling and questioning. In this production artists tell stories prompted by instruments, musical idioms and the memories they invoke: uhadi, Khoe sounds, acapella voice and Misissipi Blues. Featuring Iskwew Singers (Canada – Voices), Joep Pelt (Netherlands – Guitar & Voice), Dr Ncebakazi Mnukwana (Voice & Uhadi) & Garth Erasmus (Khoe instruments and saxophone).
Garth Erasmus, who will amongst other instruments be playing the Ghôrrah (gourd bows), Mouth Bows and Aeolian Pipes, says: “The instruments that I play represent the physical manifestation of my journey of self-discovery. They are instruments that I have made myself as a young man and have lived with and played since the mid-80s. They represent my attachment to my indigenous (KhoiSan) roots and act as “proof of life” of these First Nation roots despite all the historic attempts to erase all evidence of their presence from our society through the combined destructive forces of multiple eras of colonialism and, finally, Apartheid. I believe the sound frequencies made by these instruments have the power to awaken forgotten memories that have lain dormant in the collective unconscious. It has the power to transport us and take us on imaginative adventures.”
“I approached this production with a concept: a conscious sonic attempt not to reduce music to the easy cliché of social harmony, whilst activating a sonic imagination towards possible futures. Through improvisation and set pieces, this production will explore and/or create divergent sound worlds, as we look for unexpected points of overlap, synchrony, tension and possible becomings through sound,” says Dr Carina Venter, academic and Senior Lecturer at the SU Department of Music, and one of the directors of the Sonography production, together with Dr Antoni Schonken and Arthur Feder.
Join this dynamic constellation of musicians with their fascinating instruments for an afternoon of extraordinary storytelling.
More info and tickets: HERE
Video of Joep Pelt on slide guitar: HERE
For the full WOMAD series of activities from 1 – 13 October in Cape Town and Johannesburg, go to: www.womadsa.co.za
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WOMAD SA would like to thank:
Sponsors and partners include the Department of Sports, Arts & Culture (DSAC) under the banner of 30 Years of Democracy; City of Cape Town; Austrian Cultural Forum; Instituto Guimarães Rosa; Consulate General of Brazil, Cape Town; Canada Council for the Arts; Canada High Commission; Department of Tourism; Embassy of Spain; European Union; Kingdom of The Netherlands; Performing Arts Fund, Netherlands; WESGRO; Bassline; Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation; Don Mattera Legacy Foundation; French Embassy; Gallo Record Company; Jozi my Jozi, Lift Air; Music Arena; Hallmark Group; Time Out Theatre; Jazzathon; Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees & The V & A. Waterfront, South African Airways.