Thirty thousand beats

How Africa tweets?

2012-01-30T09:30:00.001Z

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The world's definitely changing, but how? And how's it relevant to our work?

From Impatient Optimistists, via our good friends and colleagues at Nordic Geospatial and culled from the Guardian Datablog (click on the image for a larger view):

"Some of the interesting insights the study puts forth: Africa's tweeters are young (60 percent are 20 - 29 years old); while the average age of tweeters around the world is 39 years old). Also, Twitter is an important source of information -- 68 percent of those polled said that they use Twitter to monitor the news."

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"...and if you're a public figure, don't stress..."

2012-01-26T10:38:00.000Z

"...just live up to your speech."

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M

More great music... Kwame again!

2012-01-23T18:45:00.002Z

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He doesn't seem to stop, ever... Hapo Zamani is a wonderful video by our friend and colleague Kwame, a tribute to his late father. Very much worth a few minutes of your day.

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M

The Addvoket: premium music out of Kenya

2012-01-18T18:31:00.003Z

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He sounds American, he's really Malawian and he lives in Kenya... who else but Uncle Chiso?

We've been very pleasantly surprised by two really excellent new tracks from our 2010 collaborator The Addvoket - the music speaks for itself below.

Tomorrow: some more gold from Kwame, too. If only everybody was this busy and this good!

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M

Body Music (beatamix) by theaddvoket

Billable Hours by theaddvoket

How to record the FKV music part I

2012-01-13T17:34:00.000Z

Hello everyone and Happy new year.

All of us from In Tune for Life hope you had a great festive period and are now fresh and motivated in the New year! :-)

To continue with the FKV story, we will now pickup from where we left on last year.

We talked about their instruments and how elaborate and resourceful they built these instruments on their own, We shall continue telling you, how we recorded them, and then last but not least, I will introduce you the band members.

The first time we got the guys to the ‘studio’ with FKV was in 2009. The room was a modified (by us with some blankets, and acoustic tiles), old/abandoned radio station room 4m x 4m massive concrete walls, hold tight... no windows! oh yeah it was hot in there.

The small town of Ekwendeni, where we recorded part of Titenge Udindo 1 in 2009

So it was small, warm and no ventilation meant sticky as it can get under the hot Malawian sun.

But we had fun :-)

When the guys from Future Kings vibrations got to the place, Thomas was the only one speaking as the kids didn’t speak english.

Thomas (second from left) being led by the kids to the recording room Malawi 2009

So we started talking through how we would record them, and we encountered a small problem. They had never recorded anything before and never played alone, meaning they would probably have big difficulties recording one after the other like we would do in a normal studio situation.

Meaning that the best option we though of for recording under those limitations (recording single instruments separate to have better sound isolation between the instruments) had to be scratched and think of a new idea.

The problem was that there was no other option than just record them all simultaneously! So in other words (trying to make it sound cooler/nicer) we had to record them ‘Abbey road, beatles style‘ All in one room at the same time. We thought ah, no problem, but the first thing that came to mind was... We do not have Abbey road live rooms!! hmmm. well 4 by 4 massive concrete walls-hot-sticky room it is then!

The look on my face after a short slot of recording and no ventilation whatsoever

To be continued...

ITFL in the German press!

2012-01-10T11:37:00.001Z

Happy New Year to all!

Sorry we've been silent for a while - everybody took a bit of time off to be with their respective families and work on the less interesting behind-the scenes stuff. There'll be much to report in 2012, but firstly - better late than never - a new direction and our first appearance (as far as we know) in the media of continental Europe! A profile of IFTL co-founder Joe in the Wiesbadener Wochenblatt, or Wiesbaden weekly:

Now it's possible that Joe - shy, retiring soul that he is - will come in in the next few days and provide a decent translation of this, but with the idiosyncratic help of Google translate, here's the bones of it (please forgive any errors):

WIESBADEN - New Audio?

The "Wiesbaden Choice" Joe Herrmann certainly "Has" it. Born in December thirty years ago in London to the head of Koch's Hotel in Wiesbaden and a bilingual secretary from Colombia, he is set on sounds from head to foor. Full of Passion and committed to audio engineering, Mr Joseph Albert Herrmann Vergara is approved with the official seal of Charity Project "In Tune for Life ".

The ambitious worldwide nonprofit organization, after a very successful start, focusses on creative talents in Africa, where, despite poverty and difficult living conditions, artists write "Culturally relevant" songs addressing problem issues such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, domestic violence and stigma. Music and Video/Film, including animation and documentary material, acts successfully as straightforward Multipliers for preventive health programmes.

"In Tune for Life "- a small crew of Musicians, sound engineer and designers - takes on hand-hewn instruments and spirited performances in the field and produces the Raw material to high professional Standard.

With "Christian Aid", ITFL's first Project 'HIV e dae-o " (Sierra Leone 2007-08) was nominated for the 2009 One World Media Special Award. ITFL has also been active in Malawi ("HIV is not a crime "), DR Congo and Kenya, where the music and videos produced have been broadcast by radio and TV. These productions have also been used by NGOs for health education and educational uses, and in international conferences.

Joe's training as a sound engineer and a sympathetic unconventional Creative took place at a Private School of audio engineering and he got his bachelor's degree from the Middlesex University in London, his birthplace. Raised as a sporty musicians (swimming, tennis, cyclocross) in Colombia, Joe was prominent in School Choir and school theater, taking guitar, percussion, and piano lessons and spending three years as drum major in the Marching Band "Banda marcial musical " - not to mention as front man of the multi-award-winning Band "Laberinto". But this is a another story: after high school, in 1999 Joe came with his father for the first time to his hometown of Wiesbaden.

He graduated from Roncalli after his first German language course, took singing and guitar lessons in the WMK, played in the Zoltan Magyar combo, and then rose to prominence in the band "Zoltan's Magic Harem". In between, he is the hardworking singer in a number of restaurants. Now he wants from Wiesbaden be made active.

Kwame: Stop the stigma

2011-12-15T18:15:00.001Z

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It's really exciting what's going on with our friends and colleagues in Kenya at the moment.

Just heard that Kwame's been up to particularly great things, as usual. Below is a trailer for what looks sure to be another great vid (remember "Mihumu"?) - on a hugely important topic, too.

There's a Soundcloud link for the full song after the video.

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M

Soundcloud link: Kwame - Stop The Stigma

A first public appearance!

2011-12-13T22:11:00.003Z

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A new arena for us?

From the BBC:

"As UK experts call for universal HIV testing in a bid to reduce infections, latest figures reveal a fifth offered the test at a sexual health clinic refused to have it.

The Health Protection Agency is concerned too few people know their HIV status, meaning many are treated too late and risk passing it on.

It says growing numbers of people are now catching the virus within the UK.

And cases diagnosed in men who have sex with men have reached an all time high.

...Some 6,660 people were newly diagnosed with HIV in the UK last year.

Data revealed infections likely acquired within the UK almost doubled in the last decade from 1,950 in 2001 to 3,640 in 2010 and exceed those acquired abroad."

And what are we doing about it?

Well, at the moment, just the most basic of basics - we're reviewing our wider strategy for approval in the new year. But in the meantime, among other things, we're looking very closely at the possibility of building stronger links with the HIV care community in the UK, and particularly London.

So this World AIDS Day, December 1 2011, ITFL made its first ever public appearance at the launch of universal HIV testing at South London's Kings Hospital.

It was a low key event, but one with - you would hope - potentially momentous long term consequences. We were there to meet HIV professionals, hospital staff and NGO representatives, with a modest display of what we do and background music courtesy of all our fantastic artists and a compact but punchy pair of KRKs!

We'll let you know what comes of this. In the meantime, a few small pics below.

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The music of the FKV part III

2011-12-06T16:28:00.001Z

For this post I will give you a song from the Future Kings Vibrations again so you can hear it while you read ;-)

Chizolowezi - Future Kings Vibrations by In Tune for Life

Continuing with the instruments of the Future kings, let’s have a brief look at the- by now familiar sound, of the Future Kings (the first thing you hear in the track above).

How Mr. Thomas calls it "The Malawian Flute" :-)

The "Malawian Flute"

It sounds like a kazoo, and in its principle it is more or less one.

Made of a short piece of PVC pipe, commonly used to protect electrical wire circuits or in some cases used for water feed in homes.

It is about 20 cm. long with a hole at each end and another hole in roughly the middle of the 'body'.

At one end is- attached with a thin cord, a piece of thin plastic (probably a small piece of a shopping bag) which is under tension enabling it to vibrate when pressure enters the pipe.

Mr. Thomas playing the "Malawian Flute".

To play it, you hold the orifice in the middle of the pipe against your mouth and sing a tone, or better said hum a tone, which makes the piece of plastic vibrate, creating that particular buzzing sound you can hear in the FKV songs.

I am working in editing a few video clips I took with the FKV while we were out in Malawi recording the latest Titenge Udindo album earlier this year, so keep an eye open ;-)

laters

Joe.

To find out about the Future Kings Vibrations visit our web page www.intuneforlife.org

The music of the FKV part II

2011-11-22T16:47:00.008Z

Before I continue going through the instruments of the future kings vibrations, here is another song of them to put you in the mood while you read, enjoy. :-)

Titemwanenge - Future Kings Vibrations by In Tune for Life

Following the drums of the Future Kings Vibrations, I shall present you the predominant Bass.

Booooom!

This mighty instrument might look like it will not produce much sound at first, but just after the first bang from it you’ll very quickly realise you were wrong! :-)

It is made mainly out of wood. What looks like a chunk of a tree, works as the body of it which is the part which resonates and amplifies the vibrations from the strings.

It has three strings which are attached to the base of the body and to the head, in the middle of the long neck they are pressed down with a long nail.

The instrument is played by plucking the strings like you would with a regular bass guitar, only that in order for them to sound loud enough, they need to be plucked quite hard. I tried it once and had blisters on my fingers after a few minutes!

Apart rom that, it has no frets, so the same way I admire contrabass players (along with all other non-fretted instruments) for pressing the string at the exact spot to generate the exact pitch wanted without any assistance of frets or marks, I admire this guy, who keeps the beat together and give their songs a nice and full feel of warmth with his super low bass.

Keep an eye out for the next blog where we will look at the guitar crafting skills these guys have.

here a tease. ;-)

Blog you later.

The music of the Future Kings Vibrations

2011-11-09T14:10:00.003Z

As most of you will know, the first time we saw this guys in Malawi in 2008 when we went out to scout for Talents who would if interested be involved in our music recording, and video production project, were were pretty blown away! it was the first time I've heard anything like it!

seeing the self made instruments and hearing the way they played them.

Tisasalane - Future Kings Vibrations by In Tune for Life

I am so impressed with the skills these guys have, that I am going to show you in detail each of the instruments the Future kings vibrations use and how we recorded each of them :-)

Let's start with the beat maker, the drums.

photo of FKV drum kit 2011

As you might see, the big kick drum is made out of steel and cow leather (raw/non-processed).

The snare is made out of a square wooden frame, with a sheet of a metal material (probably a piece of flat hammered corrugated roof sheet. which is commonly found in Malawi since it is used most of the times for roofing and in some occasions, it is also used to build a huts out of it.)

The drum kit of the Future Kings, changes slightly from the 2009 recordings to the 2011 recordings. the song you can hear ad the beginning of this blog is from 2009, and this pic below is the snare they used :-)

photo of snare used in the 2009 recordings

The hi-hat is a very simple idea, but try and come up with it in the first place!

two bicycle discs of a similar size, the top one attached to a thin metal bar which is then controlled by the drummer's foot to make it rise and fall (open, shut), just like on a real drumset!

A similar idea was used for the kick-drum pedal, a wooden base with a spring attached to the base and to the hammer (a bent steel bar with a melted piece of plastic attached to the tip of the bar, reshaped into a beater) which slams forward as you put pressure on the pedal and retracts when released. Genius!

Pedals on the 2011 kit

The toms are made out of a metal sheet shaped to a cylinder with a small hole on the side to insert the steel bar which is ging to hold it in place. So that times two, and a floor tom slightly larger than the other two simply resting on the floor (as you can see on the first picture of the set above).

The crash, is a rectangular crashed sheet of metal with a hole in the middle where a nail half way into the tip of a wooden pole holds it in place.

Crash with stand

That's the drum kit in short :-)

In the next posts I will show you the other instruments, and how we recorded all of them.

Until then.

Double Centurions!!

2011-11-06T12:30:00.000Z

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By way of a PS to yesterday's post, this is #201, believe it or not!

Big things.

On to more serious matters, no doubt, next week...

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M

...and this one's just for fun.

2011-11-05T12:30:00.000Z

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...I'm jealous.

Skip the first 1m 16s...

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M

Vote for us and help us win!

2011-11-04T15:35:00.000Z

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We got a pleasant surprise this week, when we found out that our friends and partners in Malawi, Theatre for a Change, had entered the video we made earlier this year into a competition for the Fifth International Entertainment Education Conference.

Click on this link to vote, and help make sure that Nancy's great work on Mofanana 2 scoops the prize! To vote, simply rate the video using the stars below it (and choose 5!).

Unfortunately the video as hosted on the competition site has been edited without our consent and is missing a big chunk at the beginning (and a small one at the end), and the audio has been heavily compressed and sounds horrible... so once you've voted, you should watch the full version of the vid in its entirety below!

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M

Ory Okolloh: "Africans enjoy technology"

2011-11-02T10:06:00.004Z

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An interesting video on the Guardian website today - Kenyan lawyer and activist Ory Okolloh, Google's policy manager for Africa, tells the Guardian's Activate summit in London that "Africans don't view technology simply as a tool of development."

"The power and the beauty of the internet... is that it's universal... there's a magic there that appeals to everyone."

As an aside (and in parallel, not in contradiction, to the talk above), I've been doing a lot of recent work - with one of my other hats on - on the use of GIS technology (geographic/geospatial information systems) for public health planning and response and security and risk management. With the rapid spread of connectedness throughout all of the world, increasingly not just the rich parts, and the proliferations of faster and better phones in particular, my gut feeling is that the use of this kind of technology might interface rather nicely with ITFL's work in the not too distant future. Exciting times.

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M

Future kings vibrations

2011-10-31T14:31:00.015Z

While there has been a lot going on on the paper side of things, we are still working on the artistic part of ITFL.

The past weeks I've been working on editing the last recordings we did earlier this year of the Future kings vibrations.

It's a joy to work with those guys, in the studio they are very disciplined, though have time to laugh and make a joke so everyone's always happy!

Here are the kids taking a short break:

We recorded for a total of seven songs in only... (drum roll) two days! Hold on though... including the power-cuts we had on both days (pretty much like with the choir recording session), this meant that we had an actual recording time of about 8 hours.

That's a lot of material in such a short time, compared with bands where we recorded for 3 days on one song (I know, the techies among you will say that one song could take up to a month to be recorded properly, but with our small budgets we need to act fast to be able to achieve the goal in the shortest time possible and keep expenses down).

So, very easy to work with, and so full of positivism. And so very talented young fellas!

I will try and fill you in as much as I can, while I continue to work with the sessions and give you a few snippets of their music as I go along.

For now here's a teaser of the song Muganizge - I'm still working on it!

Muganizge short sample by JoeHerrmann

Blog you later!

Joe

Beverley Knight at RFL - a bit of press coverage!

2011-10-28T17:50:00.001+01:00

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Some good coverage this week of Beverley Knight 's visit to Record for Life Studio 1 in Malawi - thanks to Christian Aid for organising the trip and our trustee Q Malawezi for hosting.

We've not said much about this as things have been very hectic of late - there are updates to come on many fronts so hold tight - lots of exciting news will be with you next week...

Coverage so far's been in the Mirror and Hello Magazine this week, along with People and the Daily Record, and more (including Beverley doing some TV and radio spots) to come.

The Mirror article is really nice - read it here, and check out some pictures (lifted directly from the article) below.

Above: that's In Tune for Life Trustee Qabaniso Malawezi at far left, running things along with Gayighayi Mathews Mfune of Music Crossroads Malawi (next to him).

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M

Kioko

2011-10-18T10:01:00.000+01:00

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Last, but certainly not least, in the series: voice for the kids, Kioko:

News of the concert and how it went is still to come!

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Nyach speaks!

2011-10-17T11:06:00.002+01:00

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One of Kenya's most talented rappers and contributor to 'Holela' and 'Be Strong' off the Majuto album, Nyach found himself in front of the camera earlier this year...

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Cynthia and Kwame interviews

2011-10-14T13:50:00.000+01:00

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Some more from the stash... as I type the guys are on stage in Nairobi preparing for the big day tomorrow... good luck everyone!

Still to come - Nyach and Kioko in front of the camera...

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M

Radi interview

2011-10-13T14:46:00.000+01:00

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We've been putting together a series of videos in the run up to the Majuto album launch this Saturday, where the artists talk about their songs, and explain what drove them to be a part of the Majuto project

First up is Radi!

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M

What more can we say...

2011-10-12T16:41:00.000+01:00

...When this poster says so much? :-)

There is, in fact, a huge amount to tell you about, but the detail can wait. Instead, a very brief summary:

As you can tell, we iced this blog for a few weeks - the logic was to give us time and space to get on with the unglamorous and usually uninteresting business of setting up ITFL as a newly registered charity, appointing trustees, getting them together round a (virtual) table to discuss where we go and what happens next, getting a website sorted out, and so on and so forth.

A lot of that is done now and a lot of the inchoate matter will structuralise and leave the chrysalis shortly.

In the meantime, however, there's been a very special visit to Record for Life Studio 1 in Malawi that we'll tell you about in a few days... and our friends in Kenya have picked up the baton in fine fashion, securing funding for a launch programme designed to make a real splash with the Majuto album we recorded last year. The launch event is next Saturday, October 15th, poster above. Much more info will follow in the coming days, hopefully some of that direct from the source, but in the meantime, keep an eye on the Youtube channel for a few new bits and pieces...

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Fresh video updates!

2011-07-10T19:24:00.001+01:00

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Greetings all! And many thanks to Joe for the last few posts...

This is a quick post to let you know we've been updating the Youtube channel, consolidating more of the ITFL videos - going back to '07 - in one place (nearly there, not quite).

Latest addition, with thanks to Nyach in Nairobi for bringing it to our attention (it's not ours), is this fantastic grab from a show called Cleaning the Airwaves on Kenyan TV - our friend and colleague Kwame tearing up a live and acoustic version of Holela!

Original ITFL version and video down at the bottom as well...

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M

Tales from Malawi chapter 3: We have a choir! part 3

2011-07-05T16:20:00.003+01:00

... On the day of the recording session, we wanted to start early, so we could have everything in place and ready to go when the choir got to the studio. So we asked the engineers (or soon to be) to be there earlier than the rest, so we could:

- Clear the space coz the live room was full with boxed instruments and amps, old chairs, tables, computer screens, etc., so in order to get the choir in there we would need to make some room, in the room.

- Then we would need to place the microphone stands, put the mics up, run the cables from the live room, into the control room and so on. Just have everything ready.

- Another very important thing we needed to take care of was the food for the musicians during the recording session; so, on the way to the studio (via the usual amusing obstacles) -

- I called Mathew to confirm on the number of people coming, to order the number of lunches. I thought I misheard when he said 43, so I asked again to make sure! I went quiet for a minute. Yes, 43 people from the choir, plus the guys helping with the recording.... I swallowed.

I had never recorded a choir before, and though recording the choir Mark and I saw at the show (which was about 20+ people) was going to be challenging enough, now there were suddenly over forty people. This was going to be a long day.

Anyway, we got to the place and the guys were already there. All of them. Matthew told us they wanted to make sure they weren't late, so they got everyone there early! Which was a good thing, coz suddenly we had 40+ hands to clear the room :-) That was easy!

After the room was clear, we started putting up mics:

- and running the cables to the control room and so on:

As we went along, I explained the microphone positioning, and some other useful audio physics stuff :-)

- and while we were doing that, the electricity went!

Oopps! We thought never mind, carry on, it will surely come back soon. So while the guys and I were connecting everything, the choir was warming up outside.

And they warmed up, and warmed up, and carried on warming up, and by midday the electricity still wasn't back and so I politely asked the conductor to consider stopping warming up since it seemed to me that they were burning already and wouldn't want to run a session with 40+ people who had already sang a day's worth, in the warming up stage.

We got the Choir to wonder into the live room to let them see (whatever they could with no lights) where we would be recording them. We told them how we would record them, and the way they should be standing when we started, and so on, just to get them comfortable with the space and procedures.

in order to be able to move and see the place, we split the group for them to come in and see, so we got in the ladies first:

- and then the men.

After many phone calls with the electricity company trying to find out when the power would come back, and not being able to get a useful answer, we decided to go back to Music Crossroads, on the other side of town, and get their power generator, to provide the electricity to run the session.

In the meantime the lady with the lunch arrived (at midday) and brought the packs with her. Hmm delicious options of tasty chicken and rice, or nsima and beef both with vegetables and Nali :-)

It's no secret we were all hungry by this point, now the question was: do we let them eat, and risk them being to full to sing, or do we hope that the generator arrives soon and we just drive into the session and finish soon enough for them not to get too weak? Hmmm.

I went to the choir conductor and pictured him the situation to ask for his opinion...

What did the choir master say?

Find out soon...

The Choir.

2011-07-05T10:14:00.007+01:00

While I finish up the third part of the Choir story, here's a clip from the music crossroads live show where we first saw them perform. Enjoy.

if the video doesn't load properly or looks weird CLICK HERE to watch it on youtube

The competition

2011-06-06T09:00:00.003+01:00

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One reason we've not yet really tried to popularise ITFL's recorded output in the UK - the market's just too sophisticated...

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M

Tales from Malawi chapter 3: We have a choir! part 2

2011-05-30T16:13:00.008+01:00

So we sat down with Mathews and Luckson Chazima (one of the Choir conductors)

to discuss the best locations to record the choir.

I knew of a theatre in Lilongwe, let's call it 'crazy shoes theatre' for confidentiality reasons which we used the first year to record the a-cappella ABC Group

here a pic of the rec. session

(featured in the first Titenge Udindo album.), which you can hear in this bit below:

Tisamale - ABC Group by In Tune for Life

and I remembered the room of the crazy shoes theatre sounding alright then,

and for a choir of 20+ I would need a bit of room sound too.

So I got the number of the theatre and called to see how much it would cost to rent the room for half day recording (being optimistic) but also mentioning our project, our purposes and the budgets limitations that we have to see if they would give us a reduced price.

The guy on the phone was George, the grounds keeper and he told me he would ask his boss and get back to me, which he did the day after, telling me that they could not give us a reduced price but they could charge us a 'half day rate' for half the day (great) well ok we arranged the date-which was a Saturday to ensure all the members for the choir could attend, (and it was the last weekend that Mark was going to be in Malawi, his return flight was the monday I think.) but I was asked to call two days before to (re-confirm). which I though was a bit odd but agreed anyway, Malawi has it's strange rules sometimes.

So two days before the recording session I called again to find out that George wasn't so sure anymore he could give us the room for recording. He gave me a number of the 'management' to call and discuss with them.

I had a nice British lady on the phone who was very kind in explaining me that the 'rules' of the crazy shoe theatre had changed, and there was now a (quoting here) 'Ceommittee', whose members would decide who to rent the premises to, depending on the purpose of the use.

She then went to tell me that recording a choir was exactly one of the things the theatre was supposed to be used for. so, no problem there.

The problem was that, there was now another new rule:

"The application must be made at least 10 working days prior to the hire date required, in writing"

I explained to her that we were not aware of this rule and for the nature of our project it would be difficult for us to postpone the recordings, and that we would hugely appreciate if the theatre wasn't rented out already (which wasn't, I checked with her) if they could make an exception for us.

she said she would consult with the 'Ceommittee' and get back to me.

later that day I received an email with this words:

"I have discussed your wish to hire the hall for a recording of your choir with other members of the CRAZY SHOE THEATRE Committee. Unfortunately, as you will see by the Hire Hall Forms and the Terms and Conditions Form, which I forwarded to you, none of the criteria stated on the forms has been fulfilled by your group.

Therefore we cannot give you permission to use the stage for your recording session.

I suggest you postpone the date for your recording so that you can fulfil the terms and conditions but please take note of the deposit required, apart from the session hire cost."

going through the whole T&C that they sent us mark and I noticed that the 'only' point which we didn't fulfill was the 10 working days thing.

I was very disappointed, and somehow upset too. there was no one using the room on that day. so there wasn't any logical reason why we could't hire it!!

So we then asked Children of the Nations guys if we could use their live room on that day which they agreed to with no problem at all.

it would be a squeeze in there but it was the last option we had...

to be continued...

Tales from Malawi chapter 3: We have a choir!

2011-05-11T14:42:00.012+01:00

... Were the words of Mathews Mfune, (the director of Music Crossroads Malawi) when we met in the first weeks of this year's last recording project in Malawi, to locate/decide which artists/bands we would record.

OK great, were my words, without paying much further attention to the idea, because I was more interested in bands. The reason why, is that in the course of all these projects we've come across many choirs but most of them were not up to a high musical quality level so I initially though this would be the case here too.

Until one day Mark and I went to an 'open day' at Music crossroads

and saw amongst many very entertaining acts in the program, a number of their musicians performing live on stage, and also music students were awarded their certificates.

Towards the second half of the event the "music crossroads model choir" came on stage, I must say I was eager to find out just how this choir was, but didn't put my expectations bar very high.

Well, soon after filling the stage with 20+ people they all took their positions and the conductor waited a few seconds for silence from the audience.

Mark was near the stage taking pictures while I was further away filming the event with our little HD video recorder

there was a sort suspense build up in those few seconds of silence just before the conductor gave the order to commence.

The hand went down and only a few notes later I had goosebumps allover!

Mark looked back at me and I could see he was as impressed as I was. They performed 3 songs as far as I can recall and they were all spotless!

Needless to say we became very excited to record them and wanted to do so, at the earliest opportunity.

We spoke to Mathews after the performance and told him how eager we were to get those guys in the studio as soon as possible... the only thing we needed to solve first was, where do we record them??

The Record for Life Studio was only in planning stages at that time, and it would have been too small anyway to fit a choir this big.

to be continued...

One World Media Awards

2011-05-11T10:41:00.014+01:00

Yesterday was the award ceremony for the One World Media (OWM) Awards. As you might know from earlier posts, In Tune for Life was shortlisted in the category Special Award.

In Tune for Life was represented yesterday by myself (Joe Herrmann) and Ray Sylvester, one of our trustees and a key player in planning our media presence, helping shape the future of ITFL.

Here's a pic of the evening. Ray left, Joe right.

The ceremony was presented by Jon Snow of Channel 4, at Kings Place in the Kings Cross area in London. In their own words, the evening is:

...one of the foremost Awards events in the UK. It rewards the most outstanding media coverage of the developing world, and recognises the unique role of journalists and filmmakers in bridging the divide between different societies and raising awareness of vital development issues.

- and we are hugely proud to have been nominated. The category in which we were shortlisted (a shortlist of only three, from 40+ nominations) was the Special Award, described on the OWM website:

...[The award is] For an outstanding project working on the ground in the developing world, where media activity has made a real impact on people's lives. The purpose of the award is to demonstrate the value of media in progressing development and human rights.

The award is for local radio/TV initiatives (including a specific programme or channel, or a network of stations), print media or new media working in the developing world addressing social or developmental issues. Advocacy media initiatives working at a grass roots level involving staff from the local area are also eligible to enter.

The jury will give greater consideration to projects with a wider reach and a greater impact. It is also interested to consider new and innovative ways of reaching a wider audience, while making sure that local views and voices are incorporated.

The project must have evidence of lasting beneficial impacts on the local community and, where applicable, how it’s made an impression on public opinion or government policy.

The ceremony kicked off, and amazing projects from around the world were briefly showcased as the nominees were introduced in their respective categories. It was a privilege to be in a room filled with great journalists, documentary and film makers, writers, and important people in the media.

Seeing the quality and hard work of the projects made us feel very honoured to have been shortlisted.

The winner of the OWM special award 2011 was not us: instead, it was Shujaaz, a radio drama project in Kenya.

Here's a pic of me with Eunice Maina, editor of the radio programme.

Getting to be shortlisted for this award for the second time is a big achievement, and could have not happened without the great support we've received from Christian aid, our sponsors Focusrite, Novation, KRK systems, Avid, Studiospares and SE Electronics; and all the people who believe in what we're doing and are getting involved in many ways. So a big thank you to all of you.

And hopefully the next time we will get the award!

A good week to all.

Joe.

ITFL in the Malawi National Press!

2011-05-10T12:56:00.000+01:00

Via our friends at Music Crossroads Malawi and our trustee Qabaniso Malewezi, here's an article from the Malawi News, a national paper, on Record for Life Studio 1.

I drafted another piece on this recently, which was reproduced on the Jeunesses Musicales International website here, and on the Music Crossroads website here; this article seems to be a response to that (click the image to enlarge).

Here's hoping the Malawian press continues to pick up on this. Local national engagement is probably now probably the principal ingredient in making this project a real, productive success.

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Pictures of Africa. All of it.

2011-05-06T12:12:00.003+01:00

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Back from two weeks away - sup y'all?

A thought, from ICT works - and one that's definitely had an impact on the shape of our work since we started in '07: Facebook use in Africa is doubling every 7 months. Full article here.

In addition: though I'm extremely sceptical that this kind of 'fact' has any substantive social meaning per se (beyond the obvious logistical implications), it's an interesting observation:

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The first recordings

2011-04-29T10:00:00.015+01:00

In the first stages of recording for the Last Titenge Udindo album we were operating from a different studio, since our Record for Life Studio was still under construction

and the equipment for it was still in transit.

The room was in the west side just outside the Lilongwe city in the grounds of Children of the Nations which we were lucky to be able to use, and here Thanks again!

The studio was build some time ago but it's has not been operational in a while and left alone, the sheet of dust covering everything was a sign of the time the studio hadn't been used.

After dusting off the desk, we dug up some monitors that were lying on the floor covered by cables going left to right in the room in a way hard to figure out which cable was doing what.

We had to fight ur way through the mess of cables to get to power supplies, and so on,

we had our own cables with us so luckily we didn't have to unwind everything :-)

Since we were going to do a training of the guys who were left behind operating the Equipment and running the recording sessions @ the RFL studio, I thought it would be best to have them with us at every recording session, so they could learn from doing/watching.

There were so many things to go through that was best to just do it bit by bit. So what this means is I had a handful of helpers when it came to connecting cables setting up mics, etc.

The first recording session we did was with Charissa band from Music crossroads

under the lead of Shikunzi.

Here in a self portrait :-)

We recorded the song 'Amatikonda' which will be available in the Titenge Udingo 3 album.

Mark started working in the control room

with the keyboard player and drummer on the programming, with the new Novation controller SL MKII provided kindly by Novation for the RFL studio 1,

Using the all-new KRK headphones.

The KNS 64800 and KNS 8400 which were also kindly donated by KRK systems for the RFL studio.

While I was in the live room with the sound guys setting up and explaining bits here and there.

It was in all a good session appart from the power-cut which forced us to finish early that day.

Powercuts in Malawi are quite common so we had to live with that for a while. Although there might be hope, since I heard that Malawi has been given a huge 350M USD grant to improve their electricity network, let's see how that fixes the cuts.

So the first session went well we finished off the song sin another two sessions at a later point and the final product will be out soon, featured in the Sankha Moyo-Titenge Udindo 3 album.

I leave you with this one for now... more stories soon.

Joe

A normal day in Malawi

2011-04-27T10:56:00.014+01:00

Let me start by picturing you a regular day in Lilongwe, the capital.

You get up at approximately 06:30 sometimes 5 minutes before your alarm goes off, the chickens outside have been warming up vigorously since 04:00 like if they were doing an opera at 07:00.

a peek out the window in a rainy morning, nice fresh feeling...

Then is Shower and Coffee on the line, in which order? it varies from day to day depending on which one is needed first.

Making coffee was a bit more elaborate than I expected this time,

I didn't want to pay £70 (120USD) for a coffee plunger so it had to be the rustic way :-)

A nice hot cup of Mzuzu coffee it's just right to start the day, and even reading the label of the coffee it's kind of encouraging (although am reluctant to believe all its powers)

a reassurance I am protected against parkinson's by Mzuzu coffee :-P ... anyway.

So then you get on the road to go to the studio or the office, whatever the day plan is, and on the road you find things like a cross-eyed traffic light

Here a lorry which seems to have wanted to make an illegal U-turn and broke down trying,

so there was a blocked road right there.

Another reason for blocked roads is when the president decides to take a stroll around town.

All the roads in town in his path are blocked by police before the president and his caravan of 10 Hummers passes the crossing points. And you never know when you'll be driving again, so you could be sitting in the car for 15 minutes or hours!

so, as hard as it is to believe... there is sometimes huge traffic problems in Lilongwe.

So when you get to drive, there is a good chance you hit the one or the other pothole, some bigger than others and the cars take the toll sometimes :-P

here a pic of some part from the suspension dangling down the side..

The hand that you see is the driver trying to reach it..

Come midday you already have half the plate full of little things that can either annoy you or make you smile most of the times the latter, but if in doubt, in the afterwork hours a green(that's how carlsberg lager it is unofficially called in Malawi) or two will make you change your mind and smile about it anyway!

so as you might be able to tell even a 'normal' day in Malawi even before you start doing any recordings is already filled with quite a bit of things that will make it to the evening beer chat :-)

more soon...

Tales from Malawi

2011-04-27T08:47:00.004+01:00

Now that the hectic time in Malawi has come to an end for me, I have a bit of time to actually tell you what I did down there all the time.

So I am going to give you a taste of what I experienced on this last year of our project in Malawi,

I will be digging up all the pictures in my computer to refresh my memory and hopefully provide you with an insight of what the days of recording (or the lack of) were, with all the little things involved that normally wouldn't be included in a more broad update.

Stay tuned, first of many Malawi tales will be up today!

J

Takin' it to the bank

2011-04-18T11:55:00.000+01:00

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Apologies for radio silence of late - most balls are still in the air though some are bouncing somewhat. A few workflow issues and some last minute problems with the latest album mastering have conspired to keep us incognito for longer than hoped.

In the meantime, though - a heartwarming and inspiring example of socially beneficial messaging through music and video - there's no shortage of ideas out there. Big up to Mystro for this one.

We're hoping to show them there's more to life here...

- and what could be better than that?

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M

Good news!

2011-04-05T19:15:00.001+01:00

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Scroll right down to the bottom right of this page:

http://oneworldmedia.org.uk/awards/nominees/

This is a pretty big deal. More info to come, but for now suffice to say we're genuinely honoured. And hugely pleased!

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M

If you're in Malawi...

2011-04-04T11:14:00.001+01:00

...In Tune for Life going live on MBC TV at 12 o'clock. Tune in!

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M

ITFL's 'How To' series: Ndijili Redux

2011-04-02T09:00:00.005+01:00

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As promised earlier this week, while engaged in the final stages of the production of TU3, we'll flash back in time to late 2009 to bring you the first on our ongoing 'How To' series - an indispensable guide to anyone wishing to sojourn in DR Congo's lovely capital city of Kinshasa.

Enjoy.

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M

- - -

Leaving DR Congo via Ndijili International AIrport

It is hoped that following simple guidance will be of use to the casual traveller.

1. Arrive at airport a minimum of 4 hours before flight.

2. Wait for exterior till to open.

3. When till opens, pay 50 dollar airport tax. This tax is a new initiative intended to finance the modernisation of the airport. We are in favour of this timely, forward-looking intervention. Guard receipt with life.

4. Enter airport.

5. Join Queue 1 for scanner. At end of Queue 1, pass all bags through scanner and enter departures hall.

6. Look down. The vast circular ceiling is impressive but the concrete disc making up the centre of the floor of the very striking hall appears degraded by an acid monsoon. Holes up to three inches deep.

7. Join Queue 1 for submission of baggage. From this point, allow up to 35 minutes for each queue.

8. Present baggage to baggage handler. Open for inspection or say “équipement pour l’enregistration de la musique” in the most charming possible way and hope you get away with it. Latter advisable if you spent 20+ minutes the previous night covering your baggage with an impenetrable layer of scabby duct tape for security and disguise-related reasons. Advisable to carry spare duct tape in cabin baggage just in case. NB airport authorities in many countries may not allow you to take duct tape onto a passenger aircraft these days.

9. After baggage approval, join Queue 2.

10. At the table at the end of Queue 2, submit papers for check-in stage 1. Submit passports and receive tickets.

11. Return to end of Queue 1. Retrieve approved baggage from handler and take to start of Queue 3.

12. At end of Queue 3, submit baggage for weighing and consignment to beltway. Wait for check-in hostess to write out all baggage receipts and tags by hand. Imperative at this stage to remain as charming as possible as check-in hostess maybe extremely pissed off. If shouted confrontation develops with colleagues/airport security/baggage personnel, advisable to avoid stationing self in direct line of invective.

13. Remain in situ until you have witnessed departure of baggage on the belt. That accomplished, exit central baggage area.

14. At periphery of inner baggage area, Join Queue 4.

15. At end of Queue 4 give papers to the young girl at the table with the salacious smile, who will mark the passenger list accordingly.

16. Passenger list marked, take four paces forward to outer periphery of baggage area. Join Queue 5.

17. At end of Queue 5, submit boarding passes to large man with weapon. On receipt of nod and return of passes, exit baggage area.

18. Fill in departure form in duplicate.

19. Enter emigration area. Join Queue 6 immediately to right.

20. At end of Queue 6, submit vaccination certificate. On receipt of further nod, leave and ignore vigorous rubbing together of forefinger and index finger by vaccination certificate man mumbling “cadeau”. Safely in possession of certificate, resist urge to point out this gesture would have been more effectively made 2 minutes previously.

21. Take three steps to the left. Join Queue 7 for empty passport booth. NB Queue 7 is fluid in nature and may arbitrarily dissolve and reform in front of any other of the five or six empty passport booths in this section of the airport. Mirrored glass makes analysis of movement behind booths difficult.

22. After arrival of one or more immigration officers to booth(s), Queue 7(n) will stabilise. At end of Queue 7(n), note how mirrored glass does on the other hand make it possible to see that the computer of the relevant immigration officer, who has been gazing intently at his screen for the x. minutes you have been in front of his window, is not working.

23. On eventual receipt of apology, Join Queue 7(n+1) for booth containing combination of (a) emigration officer and (b) working computer.

24. At end of Queue 7(n+1), submit emigration form and boarding pass. Receive stamped passport. Move to small onward channels in between emigration booths and Join Queue 8.

25. At end of Queue 8, enjoy jokes and trickery of further armed officer, varied in nature (to Joe: “you look like Zlatan Ibrahimovic”. To Rob: “This isn’t your passport. You have to stay here another day at least so we can verify it’s you.” Latter maintained with straight face for quite some time – joke potentially worrying for those – see Rob – with passport photo visually unrelated to nature of face).

26. On approval by armed officer, step forward, pass through door.

27. Join Queue 9.

28. At end of Queue 9, remove belt, metallic objects etc. and pass through screening and into departure lounge.

29. Suggest waffle and coffee at this point. NB you may have to purchase coffee for waitress also if you do not wish to appear rude. Or say No.

29b. If you take this opportunity to visit the toilet, note several further points: (a) if you are a male under 6 foot using the urinal, you will have to stand on tiptoe; (b) remain cautious regarding 18-inch square hole in the ground in the corner of the room via which urinal outflow is exposed; (c) be aware the sinks have all been removed, though the pipes (non-functioning) are still there; (d) if there happens to be an adult woman defecating in the cubicle behind you with the door wide open, remain cool and visibly unsurprised, in order to save face.

30. When boarding is called, pass through exterior door to runway apron.

31. Join Queue 10.

32. At end of Queue 10, open cabin baggage for inspection. When approval is received, step forward.

33. Join Queue 11.

34. At end of Queue 11, submit receipt for airport tax (cf. Step 3). When airport tax receipt is approved, accept “bon voyage” of airport tax checking officer with good grace. Board waiting bus.

35. At end of 90-second bus journey to aircraft, descend from bus to runway and join Queue 12.

36. At end of Queue 12 you will see an entire aircraft’s worth of hold baggage distributed in two neat lines along the runway. Identify your baggage. Once your baggage has been removed from the line, move forward and join Queue 13.

37. At end of Queue 13, submit boarding pass. Receive boarding stub in return. Board aircraft.

38. Once aboard aircraft, await cabin announcement listing names of passengers who are obliged to re-descend to runway level having failed to identify named pieces of baggage. Await further announcement in French by annoyed passenger enlisted on account of aircraft crew’s inability to speak French.

39. Once certain your name is not listed, and remaining baggage is identified and loaded, sit back with your onboard duty free catalogue and relax. Providing you are not flying with a domestic Congolese airline, there is a good chance that you will subsequently reach your destination.

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Press Release: ITFL to record pan-African metal compilation

2011-04-01T16:40:00.005+01:00

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With great excitement, In Tune for Life can finally reveal a project a long time in preparation: for months, we've been working frantically behind the scenes in an attempt to secure funding for this initiative from the Gates Foundation, the Global Fund, and several other major bodies. Last week, the grants process entered the final countdown; and today, ultimately, we're in a position to announce success. We've been given the green light to record a compilation showcasing the exciting pan-African Heavy Metal revival.

A scene long thought peripheral in Europe and the US has found a vibrant new energy in sub-Saharan Africa's larger cities - a creative explosion fuelled partly by increased internet access and connectivity allowing more young people to access archive material from other countries, and partly by the appointment of Iron Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson as Marketing Director of Astraeus, one of only two UK airlines flying the direct route from London Gatwick to Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone (by happy coincidence, the country in which ITFL ran our first project back in 2007). It is understood also that a Chinese government initiative to counteract the country's overproduction of industrial polymers in 2009 and 2010 by initiating large-scale exportation of derivative products to Africa has further accelerated this most unlikely of cultural revolutions.

ITFL Director of Audio Operations, Joe Herrmann - half German and half Colombian, and therefore possessed of a cultural background that makes this project doubly resonant - had this to say: "Wunderbar, amigo, seriously. This will allow us to open up a whole scene to the world and really it's about time. The clarity of the converters will be extraordinary, and I can't wait to try out the suitability of the SE-X1 mics on the double bass blast beats characteristic of the genre. Let's do it!"

ITFL's sponsors were unavailable for comment but it is understood that they are likely to be thrilled to learn of their de facto association with this initiative.

Further information on planning for this project and connections with bands can be obtained by contacting intuneforlife@gmail.com

[ENDS]

Editorial note to journalists born in or after 1991: the following video provides a stylistic reference for commentary purposes

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M

ITFL's 'How To' series - customised rack trays and angle grinders

2011-03-29T23:36:00.004+01:00

Getting your hands dirty in the name of music...

As heads are down finishing up the Titenge Udindo 3 album, I'm plundering the Miscellany Vaults this week so we can focus on the important but boring things like making sure all the songs are the same volume and the CDs are round enough, and printed on the non-shiny side.

Following on from 2009's smash hit Traveller's Guide to exiting DR Congo via N'dijili International Airport - a crucial reference work for the central African traveller which I'll repost, probably tomorrow - below is a step-by-step technical guide which I imagine will shortly become indispensable for the travelling producer.

Some context: I travel the London-Geneva route a lot for work, and Joe does the same thing on London-Frankfurt, so sometimes we use these journeys to test different methods of housing and transporting equipment for ITFL trips. This guide was borne out of an unusually manic effort - even by my standards - to bully non-standard fittings into working with each other.

To be honest, nowadays practicality rules - most gear goes in a rucksack I can carry on to the passenger cabin easily and cram into the gold dust spaces in the luggage compartments on the London-Nairobi route, where every other passenger seems to be carrying a fridge freezer and a 48-inch 3D television set.

Above - a portable recording studio on arrival intact at Lilongwe airport

On top of that, for efficiency's sake, as much of the workflow nowadays as possible is 'inside the box' (music-geek-speak for software-based), and most mixing is on headphones. Focusrite's VRM technology is an interesting adjunct to this tendency - well worth checking out (ike every system it takes a certain amount of getting used to before you can really run with it, but - by virtue of what it is - in this case maybe less than for most).

Anyway, this is my guide to creating a custom rack case, based on one of these, fitted out with one of these, and intended to house one of these, one of these, one of these and one of these. This episode was notable because it's not often you get to take an angle grinder to your recording setup.

The problem was that the lovely sliding tray I bought to fit the travel case, once installed, protruded some 3-4 inches out of the back of the case - due to the fact that the way they made the travel case so small for travelling with was by reducing its dimensions to less than those of many of the things you'd like to put in it.

So - here's how you do it. I have a video somewhere that accompanies this but can't find it - I'll update this post accordingly when I do.

1. Confirm rack tray does not fit

2. Consider cutting

3. Measure tray; realise that even if you cut the tray the sliding mechanism is too long for the case. If you cut that then the tray slides off. Not a good option

4. Ask Benny the Architect (housemate) for input; Benny says, "fit new sliders"

5. Genius; buy new shorter sliders from hardware store (feel very lucky that hardware store is on corner of street). Also self-tapping screws as the holes are in the wrong place so you have to drill screws directly into steel. Also a drill bit for metal because you realise that:

6. Current sliders are not bolted in, they're riveted; so you have to drill out the rivets

7: Get home; drill out rivets. Remove old sliders

8: Get the angle grinder and cut off about 4-5 inches from the back of the tray. This is the fun part, very loud, showers of sparks and smells like sparklers. Awesome

9. Attach new sliders

10. Put new mini shelf in SKB rack. Fits. Wahey! Put female velcro strips over entire surface of tray; put male velcro strips on bottom of Duet, Liquid Mix and Macbook Pro; now everything sticks to the rack without the need for drills, bolts, cable ties or those weird velcro clamps that came w/the SKB. This is good

11. Discover that Liquid Mix is too tall to slide under the one unit space below the Powercore so has to go in the back once the tray is retracted (Powercore not deep enough to fill all the interior space, so LM fits in back), which is fine but means it can't slide out all cool next to the Duet which is kind of what a sliding shelf is for

12. Decide to put Powercore in back of case

13. Realise that lack of rack holes in back of case means this is not possible

14. Realise you're going to miss your flight

15. Throw everything in

16. Run.

17. Arrive Geneva three hours later to discover you cut it so fine to catch your flight that your luggage stayed in London.

It was an adventure (and I got the luggage next day so that was OK).

The take home lesson is this: only buy a travelling case that has rackmounts on the front and back apertures. Otherwise all your work, no matter how heroic in the attempt, is doomed to failure. Admittedly my sample size of attempts could be bettered.

An alternative approach would be to buy something like this. But this one still gives me nightmares...

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Wow

2011-03-27T09:00:00.001+01:00

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OK so... this isn't project related, and the camerawork is shaky, and the sound is rubbish, etc. blah, but: this is astonishing...

A+

M

This generation

2011-03-26T09:00:00.001Z

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Is awake.

People making music do good... the better flipside of difficult times...

Long may this energy continue.

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M

Double SAVE Redux

2011-03-25T13:39:00.000Z

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Adapting materials for different audiences: I just got this in my DropBox overnight - a Christian Aid-funded overdub of Océan Clef de Fa's SAVE (recorded in Kinshasa, DRC in 2009) on a French translation of a video that Luke made in our first project, in Sierra Leone in 2007.

It's nice to see this stuff make the rounds - the reason we made the album in Kinshasa in the first place was because our contacts at CA said there wasn't enough material of this type that could be used in Francophone countries - so an album of HIV-related music in French could fill a gap.

With the help of CA's office in Kinshasa, we linked with Océan Clef de Fa in 2008, and in 2009 we recorded the album SAVE (they were astonishing). Now a need has arisen (or been noticed) in Haiti for a video like Luke's 078 effort... a bit of translation and re-rendering, a dub to a new song and blam:

Music by Océan Clef de Fa, recorded and mixed by In Tune for Life.

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M

Just a little something...

2011-03-24T08:41:00.005Z

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...illuminating the journey we're (hopefully) all on.

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M

Kenya's Kwame makes a splash...

2011-03-23T09:00:00.005Z

...with animated video Holela!

...says the headline.

...You won't find many Kenyans called Kwame. This is a very popular Ghanaian first name. So we were pleasantly surprised when we discovered a Kenyan musician called Kwame. Turns out he just borrowed the name from Ghana. No matter how he chooses to call himself, he's poised to to become a great musician with a major following soon. Evidence? Check out his single called Holela featuring Nyach from Kwame Mwanaa Mzik aka Kwame Rigii.

...says the article. Which is nice. Check it out here:

http://www.museke.com/en/node/7648

- and for the lazy, here's the video -

- and this is our friend Kwame.

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M

Contact (can I get a hit)

2011-03-22T21:35:00.002Z

Greetings all. A thousand apologies for the blip in communication. It's perigee time. That magical moment in the cycle when the moon is at its closest to earth at a moment coinciding not only with the full phase but also with the beginning of our run in to an album deadline.

So why so silent all of a sudden?

Well, principally, bad time management. But in mitigation:

Nancy is madly busy finishing the Mofanana 2 animation, hammering out a few final details before moving on to the cover design for Titenge Udindo 3. It looks beautiful.

Jason is madly busy re-mastering last year's Musachite Nkhaza, below (which Joe, still in Lilongwe, has just finished re-recording, fresh for 2011 with new lyrics that match the story for Nancy's animation).

Musachite Nkhaza - Rudo Chackwera, Lester Mwathunga & William Chinsinga by In Tune for Life

In Malawi now, Joe and ITFL Trustee Q Malewesi are madly busy training people in the proper use and maintenance of RFL Studio 1 (below, now pretty much dried out).

Back in London, Rob is equally pushed with the finer points of the paperwork inherent in our transition into a fully fledged registered charity, with the blessing of all appropriate Commissions and Authorities, and the consequent freedom to spend most of the next decade writing funding applications. I jest.

And me... well, I'm blogging. But there have been meetings, and mixes, and pitches, and all sorts of wonderful things from custom guitars to web developments to new music, new video, new pictures and more, drifting tantalisingly just below the horizon. Bobbing, gently.

But I'm not going to blow all that one one post, I need to string this out for at least a week.

Back to the headphones...

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M

News from Kenya - ITFL on TV!

2011-03-14T22:09:00.006Z

...in the words of Kwame, who wrote earlier this evening:

"Today was a good day for the Majuto project as 'Holela' got its first TV airplay on "THE BEAT" at exactly 5.06pm. Let us make efforts to push and put the word out about the Majuto Album for it to serve its course... The feedback is amazing."

...and I've been fishing around the internet and Facebook a bit myself (Google translate does Kiswahili if you don't):

"...excited about the future! Holela played on The Beat (NTV) today! Check out the video again kesho! ...Pass on the word!!! More is coming!!!"

"Watched it, loved it. Great job right there"

"...this kali big up!"

"...mimi ni fan wa kibao hiki moto moto!"

- and a favourite of mine:

"Nancy Ellis, the magnificient animator..."

...and, if you haven't seen it yet, here it is - the video that got played; the one our friends and colleagues in Nairobi are pushing so hard; and the one that seems to be going down so well.

Hope you like it too.

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Hello from the animation desk!

2011-03-11T10:19:00.004Z

Aha, so this is how it feels to post up a message to a blog, interesting!

Thanks for posting the images up Mark, you are way too kind and I'm not sure I can live up to such a compliment!

I've attached another here of the classroom interior and Mary (our central character) walking home as evening falls.

Photos from Luke, Mark and Joe are proving invaluable for reference as I sit here in my little studio in south east london, imagining what Africa looks and feels like. The music is providing an excellent soundtrack to get me in the right headspace too.

The technique for this animation is working really well so far but there's still lots more to draw and even more to animate- the clock is ticking so I'll sign off for now and hopefully upload more images soon :)

nancy

Some screen shots

2011-03-10T22:44:00.004Z

More evidence of Nancy's genius!

In her own words... pinched from an email, so I hope she doesn't mind:

"...the animation is coming on well... In the meantime, here are some screen shots of Mary's journey from her home, through the woods, to her school and inside the classroom. I've lots more to add in and have started on the house interior but its not quite there yet. Hoping to complete the other classroom angle with teacher tomorrow as well as some more animation.

It's getting there!"

Keeping you posted for now - have just added Nancy to the permissions list, so hopefully you'll be hearing from her directly soon enough!

More news to come as we wade through our respective To Do lists...

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An old favourite

2011-03-08T12:32:00.003Z

Remember this?

Tisasalane - Future Kings Vibrations by In Tune for Life

Tisasalane, recorded in 2009, has since proved a real people's favourite. So much so that we wanted to make an extra effort to find the boys from Future Kings Vibrations again this year, to see if they were willing to work with us for a second time.

It was difficult - budget meant we were stuck in Lilongwe, so first we had to reach them up in Viphya Plateau, hundreds of miles away, where they had one phone and no reception. Eventually, in order to make contact, we had to send a rider on a motorbike out from Mzuzu to track them down. Once that was done, we had to make all the arrangements, and the payments, remotely, in order to facilitate the long and uncomfortable bus trips down from the north of the country.

Between them, though, and with a lot of help from music Crossroads, the band and Joe managed all of that, and last week, once again, Future Kings Vibrations were in the studio with ITFL.

No doubt more detail of that session will come in future posts, but in the meantime, here's the band on a break, and here's why we all made such an effort.

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Nancy's work

2011-03-07T22:16:00.005Z

We've been lucky enough to work with Nancy Ellis since last year's Majuto album (thanks to Luke and State of Play for the link). At the moment, like us, she's scrabbling madly (well, that's definitely how we feel...) trying to hit deadlines for Titenge Udindo 3.

With her permission, below are some early sketches to give you a flavour of what you can expect. All soundtracked by a reworked version of last year's song Musachite Nkhaza (below; new version currently in preparation under Joe's watchful eye) -

Musachite Nkhaza - Rudo Chackwera, Lester Mwathunga & William Chinsinga by In Tune for Life

- here are some sketches for the video of Mary's Story (as always, click the pictures for larger versions).

More good things to come.

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Not work related...

2011-03-06T00:26:00.002Z

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...and (sadly) not one of our sponsors, but I saw this and had to pass it on. Haven't been to Malawi in years without returning with about a litre of this stuff stashed in the luggage somewhere.

Would love to remix that Nali song on a future trip some time.

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M

...and a letter is worth approximately a pound a word

2011-03-04T09:48:00.002Z

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See below. Cross your fingers for us please.

- - -

Dear Sir/Madam

[Q: Insert opening statement covering nature of the request being made]

[and/or]:

This letter concerns the clearing through Malawian customs of the musical equipment and acessories in shipment Waybill No. 706-2262 9073. This shipment contains the following items:

[insert equipment list with stated values - am forwarding this in a separate email]

The value of this equipment as stated is the manufacturing cost. This equipment was donated free of charge to In Tune for Life, working in partnership with Music Crossroads Malawi. The donation comes directly from the various manufacturers of this equipment, and the cost of the equipment and of shipping to Malawi has been covered in full by these manufacturers. Neither In Tune for Life nor Music Crossroads Malawi have paid any monies at any time either to obtain or to ship any of this equipment.

This donation was coordinated by Focusrite Audio Engineering Limited, a limited company registered in England and Wales (registered UK company number 02357989; registered office Windsor House, Turnpike Road, High Wycombe HP12 3FX, England).

The [appropriate authority] has levied a charge of [insert amount] as the fee to clear this equipment. This fee breaks down as follows:

[insert fee breakdown]

The purpose of this donated equipment is to assist In Tune for Life, working in partnership with Malawi-registered NGOs Music Crossroads Malawi and Christian Aid Malawi, to build a not-for-profit music recording studio in Lilongwe Area 23. This recording studio is being prepared on property belonging to Music Crossroads Malawi, and will be run free of charge to the users, with the exclusive purpose of benefiting the musical and recording needs of young Malawian musicians affected by poverty - those without the means to pay for studio use, often custodians of some of Malawi's oldest and most endangered music traditions - and to encourage the production of music containing positive social messages that will benefit the young people of Malawi more widely.

As evidence of the good track record of In Tune for Life, Music Crossroads Malawi and Christian Aid Malawi in assisting the production of socially beneficial music and helping develop the work and careers of these musicians, this letter is accompanied by CDs showcasing such work over the last three years. These CDs were recorded, mixed and published at the expense of In Tune for Life and Christian Aid, assisted by Music Crossroads Malawi, with the purpose of spreading positive social messages that empower young Malawians to protect their health, and, in doing so, to help develop the careers of the musicians involved in the project.

This letter appeals for you to help by [insert nature of request as appropriate].

Neither In Tune for Life nor Music Crossroads Malawi has sufficient funds to clear this equipment so that it can be imported into Malawi for its intended use. What small funds have been available for this project have already been spent in order to convert a room at the Music Crossroads Malawi headquarters in Lilongwe into a space suitable for long term use as a music recording facility. This task has entailed detailed construction work and has exhausted the project budgets of all the organisations involved. It will be a significant tragedy if the inability to clear the necessary equipment through customs prevents the proper use of this space as a socially beneficial recording studio.

[Q: insert further arguments or requests as appropriate to the context]

I look forward to your assistance in this matter.

Yours sincerely

Another great example...

2011-03-03T06:00:00.002Z

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...of the power of sound and moving pictures.

To be absolutely clear, this is not our work, just something we wanted to share. It does show just how effectively this model can be made to work, though.

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M

Post Scriptum

2011-03-02T16:05:00.005Z

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It’s dark and quiet on this aircraft, but I can’t sleep. A quarter to four in the morning, or maybe a quarter to one - we're somewhere west of Luxor, and I don’t know what time it should be. Anyone who’s kept up with this blog over the last couple of years may recall a tendency to get maudlin on overnight plane flights. Tonight is no exception.

The plane hums quietly to itself, animated by hundreds of cables pushing tiny dancing pictures to the back of every headset, glowing in-floor strips like arteries, soft patches of light on every arm rest, veins of sound bleeding from headsets round sleeping necks.

My headphones are better than that.

Joe remains in Malawi, pushing through the last stages in the establishment of RFL Studio 1 and fighting what I hope is a winning battle with the bureaucracy of Lilongwe airport customs. This was not unexpected.

The few days since I left Malawi have allowed a utilitarian luxury, a round of meetings and interviews in Nairobi. With pleasure, I caught up with Kioko, Cynthia, Kwame, Nyach and Radi, captured and began to assess some of their thoughts on the Majuto project, and turned – perhaps prematurely – to the future.

These are exciting but difficult times. There’s a good team behind this work now, a widespread and justified enthusiasm. As tipping-point momentum develops, we find ourselves, for the first time since 2008, without any committed funding for future projects. More of an opportunity than a worry, this means we can reassess what we’re doing, how, and why.

If we do that in the right way, good things may follow.

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M

A pic is worth a thousand words...

2011-03-02T06:30:00.000Z

...but this one's worth a million.

Thank you everybody. You know who you are.

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A message for Jason from Kenya

2011-03-01T21:22:00.002Z

If you've been following our work for any length of time, you'll know that Jason Air is In Tune for Life's mastering engineer, sometime producer and mix don (and his website sorely needs an update). But despite contributing so many of his studio and programming skills down the years, Jason has never got to travel and never met any of the musicians.

So: I'm in Nairobi for two days, and have been on a whirlwind of meetings, catch-ups, CD giveaways and audio and video interviews. Both yesterday and today I was lucky to have opportunities to catch up with Kioko, whose song Haki za Watoto is Track 05 on Majuto, the album we recorded in Kenya late last year. Haki za Watoto (Kiswahili for 'children's rights') is going down a storm here in Nairobi in early 2011. And, in Jason's own words:

"No word of a lie, my kids say that's their favourite track Daddy's worked on. Without fail, they will start singing to it and wile out whenever I play it!"

Anyway, to complete the wordy circle - Jason co-produced the song, and Kioko has a message for him...

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Not great a multi tasking, but trying.

2011-03-01T10:48:00.005Z

Dealing with many things at a time has prove to be harder than I thought (girls do it right? it looks easy)

This morning I have been trying to coordinate a few very important things:

1. The shipment of the equipment should’ve arrived on Sunday, So I am:
1a. Trying to find out if it actually arrived and where it is
1b. Solving the mystery of the customs clearing procedure in Malawi
1c. Working contacts who could either provide a clearing agent (which would cost MK 8000) or get us a way around it (rather tricky but worth trying)

2. I need to get some vocals down from the guys we recorded last week
1 Shikunzi. in the session the the electricity went so we couldn’t finish with her vocals
2 Gladson who has a brilliant voice and sings a lead part in one of the songs we recorded with the Choir but after a very long day his vocal cords did take the strain of it and about 2 minutes of his performance needs to be re-done

So I'm trying to get them together for a session hopefully tomorrow

3. Remember these guys?

Well if you don’t recognize them from the picture (maybe coz there is me in it too)
Here is the people’s favourite track from them

Tisasalane - Future Kings Vibrations by In Tune for Life

And since people like them so much and they’s such a joy to work with we want to record them again, so we’re trying to get them down from a remote village in the north of Malawi near Mzuzu to Lilongwe so that we manage to get them on tape (figure of speech I don’t have a tape machine here :-P )

To get hold of them has proved to be quite a challenge, they don’t have phones in the village where they live apart from Thomas, (who is the front man with a powerful voice and who is also blind) who has a mobile apparently but there is no network coverage up there in that village.
So I thought I had a brilliant idea of sending him a text, which would hopefully go through the next time, he had reception… then I thought about it again…. Ah no, bad idea!

Mr. Lazie Nkhata has send a guy on a motorbike to the village to get hold of the Future Kings Vibrations so that they get down here.
will keep you all updated

Four thousand words

2011-02-27T07:03:00.006Z

Really rushing here as (sadly) I leave Malawi today (but happily, for a few days of follow up in Nairobi en route home to London). Currently typing while the trusty laptop backs up photo, video and music files with Joe and I try to get my packing sorted - all characteristically last minute.

Record for Life was on the road yesterday with the Music Crossroads Model Choir, working in borrowed premises as our studio is not yet ready (with thanks to Rhythm of Life and Children of the Nations). Despite a number of difficulties the singers were superb - a full update with video to follow in the next week or so.

Just to keep you in the loop, here are a few images from a really tough, but productive, and ultimately wonderful, day:

Above: a panoramic shot of the full choir with Joe, sorting out the placement just before recording started (click to expand)

Above: a quiet moment just before a recorded performance

Above: soundchecking the altos and sopranos, with a few guests!

Above: ITFL Trustee Q Malewesi starts our studio training programme. Here he explains the dark art of Gain while student producers and well-known Malawian musician Peter Mawanga (L) look on.

More to come from Nairobi - watch this space.

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A swift update

2011-02-26T06:34:00.003Z

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Hi All

Sorry for relative quiet on the blog the last couple days - we've been recording flat out and that, plus a few strategically timed powercuts, have meant no access to the net.

This connection is a bit dodgy so no attempt to upload photos for now... but just to keep you in the loop, yesterday we recorded Charissa, a Music Crossroads band, and a lovely song called Amatikonda. Or at least until the power died and we were left in pitch black in a hot and sweaty studio and had to give up for the night.

Today it's back to the same spot (so we're praying to the gods of Escom) to record a the Music Crossroads Model Choir - who really are phenomenally good - and we'll have some footage from that up on here ASAP. The conductor's moves must be seen to be believed.

For now, just to keep you multimedia'd up, here's a flashback to Sierra Leone in 07, one of my favourites (we're thinking of doing a couple of Best Of's soon - this is definitely going to be a pick for me). MYRC with Aasie Wa we.

Aasie wa we - MYRC by In Tune for Life

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M

So what's an RFL pack?

2011-02-24T20:31:00.003Z

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We promised to tell you, and tell you properly. Following the principle that it's more fun with moving pictures, here you go:

I know I'm supposed to be technically oriented but that took me the better part of two days.

If there's anyone out there, anyone, who fancies supporting ITFL by providing me with some pro bono tuition on Final Cut Express when I get back next week, please make yourself known! intuneforlife@gmail.com - you'd be doing us a huge service, no joke.

Tomorrow morning sees the launch of the Theatre for a Change interactive radio show at the Capital Hotel Lilongwe, then in the afternoon we're back in the studio with a vengeance. So check back here for tales of the doings of high society, more musical madness and information on ITFL's crucial role in the development of a Malawian rugby team for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. For now, though, it's late, and the Gold Vitara is waiting eagerly to take me home. Adieu.

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M

Fun stuff: a handover

2011-02-22T14:26:00.008Z

We passed by Music Crossroads today - our good friends, as you know by now, and the local NGO with which we've partnered to ensure Record for Life is as sustainable and well governed as possible.

Today's mission was only tangentially RFL-related though: we were there to pass on a very generous donation from the UK Music Industry Association, Music for All (the charity of the UK musical instrument industry) and JHS distributors.

This donation, highlighted by Joe in this earlier post, was of pure gold - guitar strings, picks, straps, tuners, drumsticks - the unglamorous bits and pieces that make everybody's work here possible, and the absence of which means that some have to play with four strings -

- and others have to make their own drumsticks (and indeed drums):

We decided to distribute the donation through Music Crossroads because they have a remit to support the most needy and deserving of local talent here, and have a good track record in this area.

In this way, we hope, a greater number of young people will benefit from the donation - and hopefully over a longer period of time.

So this is some of the Music Crossroads crew out front with their new sticks and strings! Left to right in the picture below: Gloria Mgoola, Music Crossroads (MC) staff; Kennedy Nkhoma, musician; Marilyn Chakwera, MC staff and music teacher; Peter Simutia and Blessings Chikahima, who just wanted to be in the photo; Joe Herrmann, In Tune for Life; George Mwale, musician; Ganigani Banda, musician; Julia Kaphantengo, MC staff and music teacher; and Gayighayi Mathews Mfune, Head of MC Malawi.

- and this one's just to prove I was there (though incapable of keeping my eyes open, apparently). We'll take, and post, more 'action' pics in the coming days, as all this stuff is put to good use.

Stay well.

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Mixed media madness... and a new project?

2011-02-21T08:42:00.004Z

Greetings all.

First up, a big thanks to Joe, who's taken on the lion's share of blogging duties in the last couple weeks - unprompted - and in whose debt I remain as I get back up to speed on that front. Here he is with Norah, discussing our new PR strategy for the Titenge Udindo albums at the British Council in Lilongwe at the end of last week:

As you can see from past posts, the last couple of weeks have been a very busy time, in an unusual way. While we haven't got stuck straight into mad recording sessions like we normally do, we've reconfigured out approach a bit to deal with the obligations that come from establishing our pilot Record For Life project. So what have we done? Well...

- We've established agreements for a completely new line of work; set up Twitter and Facebook sites that should stand us in good stead for our future mission to take over the universe; got an official ITFL holding page up in preparation for the launch of our website in April (many, many thanks to everyone who gave their time and skill so willingly to help with this); deepened and enhanced our relationship with Theatre for a Change Malawi, Music Crossroads Malawi, and Music Crossroads International; started recording for Titenge Udindo 3 (and in doing so, caught up with our great friend Masudie Khonje); photographed and (shakily) filmed everything in sight; planned, plotted and schemed; and even found time to do a spot of mixing on the brand spanking new KNS 8400s donated to our Record for Life project by KRK, which are going to be a wrench to leave behind.

So, you know, friend us, tweet us, do all that good stuff, and pretty soon our mixed media triangulation is going to start to make sense like one of those old Magic Eye pictures, and, slowly, but with an absolute certainty, you're going to see a brand new ITFL presence arise magnificently from the zeroes and ones, like morning breaking over the internet.

In the meantime, we're aware that while we've been posting on progress, we've not really told you in clear detail what all our new projects and exciting initiatives are. That's something I intend to fix over the next two or three days, so please come back as we tell you about:

- What Record for Life packs actually are

- The value of a clearing agent

- Why it pays to know Finnish diplomats

- More about the fantastic team of skilled and generous people these projects are starting to accrete, and what might now be possible as a result

- What our sponsors have really done for us

- Why plywood doesn't like the rainy season

- How not to build a studio that catches fire even though it is the rainy season

- How we might reverse the studio-to-Africa dynamic for (one of) our next project(s)

- Our planned new bi-weekly podcasts

- What trustees are, and who we hope ours will be

- Why the clarity of the converters is so extraordinary

- Who you're going to be able to hear on Titenge Udindo 3, and what we hope to achieve around Malawi's increasingly famous Lake of Stars festival

- Mark's favourite brand of peanuts

- And, of course, more.

It's dark outside and we have a dinner date with the Head of Music Crossroads International and one of our aforementioned trustees, so this must be cut short - but expect video, pics and info to right, to left, afore and astern in the coming days. And use all that technology in front of you right now and hit us up on Facebook, Twitter et al. Oh - and - finally - don't forget: every song we've ever finished on any of our projects can be listened to on this page right here:

http://soundcloud.com/in-tune-for-life/sets

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This arrived in the post today

2011-02-18T14:11:00.002Z

A short clip showing the Titenge Udindo2 album which arrived in the post today!

Construction Day 3 & 4

2011-02-18T12:49:00.007Z

Progress is being made at an exceptional speed!

from the outside you can see the major changes

the Window had to be moved 10cms to the right, so that it wouldn't be in the way of the partition wall inside.

as you can see now there is further security built in, try and get in through the window now :-)

The partition wall is nearly done. just the glass in thew window for the "behind the glass"

feel :-)

and the door, to be put in place.

as you can see in the previous Blog, some of the CDs arrived so we gave Matthew at Music Crossroads a couple to give to the artists.

here is he examining one copy :-)

To sign off I will include a portrait picture of the man behind bars... heh!

no seriously, he is the man behind all the welding work. The window, the door and the extra security bars you see in those pictures.

Big up!

Construction Day 2

2011-02-18T08:42:00.016Z

This guys are going at it!

Second day of building, the ceiling was nearly completed have a look

With the insulating material being stuffed in the gap ceiling-roof.
check out mister insulation afro man

It is the stuffing they use here to make sofas and cushioning. best value for money sound insulation we could find.

The new window has been mounted.

while the parts for the new door and gate are being cut,

the frame for securing the place is being welded outside

This is a proper building site! dust, sweat, sparks!

We are heading to the studio now to check on the progress.

will update you on the stand of things soon...

Bye for now.

Construction day 1

2011-02-16T06:13:00.005Z

Does this look like a recording studio? ... no, not yet. but wait...

The start...

I passe by the building site yesterday, all the involved where going at it!!

here the wood for the frame to hold the ceiling boards.

Here's the ceiling frame being put up

the new window, reinforced to keep the burglars away (hopefully)

Mathews standing by the old window.

will pass again today and update the process.

J

studio plan

2011-02-14T14:54:00.003Z

I just got back from meeting the building guys.

we arranged all it needed to be arrange,

The room is someone's living room at the moment, here's a pic

but don't worry he's been reallocated to a much nicer room anyway :-) so there's no harm here

I drew a plan together with the carpenter who's going to do the ceiling, and the division wall, and the door/Window guy.

Also the 'brick builders' who are going to be fitting the new window and doors. so all the involved know what the room specs should be.

here's a pic. (note I am no architect! )

Building starts tomorrow morning!

Exciting times!!

Joe.

studio update

2011-02-14T07:28:00.005Z

... Well it isn't a studio yet, but an update non the less.

I am going to meet today with the carpenter, who is going to build the additional ceiling for the room we will use to install the RFL (Record for Life) pack.

A brief explanation of what it is:

The RFL is a complete studio setup very generously donated by

Focusrite KRK Systems Novation Studiospares Sonic Distribution Avid

so that we can install it here and leave it fully functional, with guys trained by us on how to use all the stuff properly so that they can continue recording with good equipment when we leave Malawi (sniff)

so back to the carpenter, we'll meet this afternoon to tell him what we need exactly, so that he can start chopping trees for that (we'll make sure he plants some new ones too)

then I'll go with Mathews Mfune from Music Crossroads Malawi to get some makeshift insulating material which we will use to fill the gap between the existing roof and the ceiling the carpenter is going to build.

will update after we've arrange something..

laters.

still no fuel

2011-02-11T12:43:00.002Z

Hey guys.

Here in Malawi the fuel situation has not changed much.

There is about a fuel truck a day rolling into the city, but the fuel disappears quicker than they can offload it.

we got our hands on 7 liters yesterday :-)

Still trying to resolve the situation with the shipment of the equipment to build the studio. will keep you posted..

for now have a good weekend all!

Joe

and another rock on the road

2011-02-10T10:10:00.003Z

After having problems finding a suitable location to put the studio in. (which we are still having)

We have now learnt that we might have to pay import duty on the donated equipment provided by our sponsors:

Focusrite KRK Systems Novation Studiospares Sonic Distribution Avid

Even when the shipment will be sent on a DDP (deliver with duty paid in advance) service.

we asked one of the guys here in the office if he thinks that will be OK, ... he smiled and said no :-P

anyway we are still trying to reach officials who would be able to tell us exactly what to expect when the equipment arrives at the airport.

fingers crossed!

this might get in the way

2011-02-08T12:34:00.003Z

... of our ability to get around Malawi.

it appears that some petrol stations get a tank load every once in a while but it goes quicker than it arrives!

let's hope that we get petrol in time, the reserve lamp is now on in our vehicle.

will keep you posted...

Joe's now in Malawi too

2011-02-08T11:07:00.003Z

Hello guys.

I have joined Mark in Malawi after a long flight Sunday night arrived here Monday midday.. here a short clip of the flight from Nairobi to Lilongwe. with a view of the Kilimanjaro.

enjoy.

Media consolidation. Forgive me...

2011-02-04T18:38:00.006Z

...I've been lax.

In defence I can plead only workload and travel - and for once in my life I have proof of both.

Workload - I'm in Malawi. Here's proof:

- even I couldn't have faked that. Could I? Look, I even have me packing:

Anyway - more on Malawi in imminent posts, but for now: we've organised the entire ITFL back catalogue and made it available, thanks to SoundCloud, in one place (just the music, I'm afraid - check out Luke's amazing site at State of Play for the animated videos, and our new youtube site for the brilliant SAVE video.

As well as the funky little window top right, here's a direct link, and here it is embedded right in the meat of our blog:

Latest tracks by In Tune for Life

...and now I must go. It's late and I need food. Net access will be tricky over the weekend but if I'm not posting I'll be composing - there's so much to catch you up on. In the meantime, thanks to Joe for getting the blog back up, and thanks to the many, many people - you know who you are but you will be namechecked next week - who've chipped in in the meantime.

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in preparation for Malawi

2011-02-02T17:35:00.002Z

A quick pic to show one of the exciting things that happened today :-)

A Donation from Music for All, and JHS put together by Paul McManus from M.I.A. This was put in motion by Giles Orford from Focusrite

These Strings, Drum sticks, Gtr picks, Straps and Tuner will go to the Malawi musicians who have difficulty getting these things in Malawi.

Exciting times!

Thank you to all involved

...now back to packing!

Update attempt

2011-01-28T08:01:00.012Z

(yeah I know, it's a bit late for that)

It is a long time ago (last year) since the last post. We were still working on the Kenya recordings.

There is so much to tell you all about that I am just going to touch on all the points briefly and let you know where we are at at the moment, and then come back to explain the details of each...

Well as some of you might know, the Kenya album is printed and waiting to be shipped to Kenya.

Nancy Ellis Did the cover design for it

and also the Animation "Holela" Here a still from the animation

I like it :-)

wanna hear it?
click here to go to Majuto listening page :-)

Ok, so when when we finished Kenya we went straight back into the recording from Malawi
2010.

aaaaand We just finished it too!
Nancy again did the covers for "Titenge Udindo 2: HIV is not a crime"

I like this one a lot!

More to the details of these two albums and the finishing stages later, for now I just want to tell you that they're both great pieces of work from all the artists involved and all the people working behind the album.

Next on the line of updates Malawi Album 3
Mark is probably landing in Lilongwe Kamuzu airport about now.

I will be joining him in a bout 10 days

We're going to record the third and last album in the country.
But this time also we will be doing something very exciting,

As you all know we are now In Tune for Life

And one of the things we will be doing in Malawi for the first time is a little thing called
the RFL (Record for Life) Pack.
A very cool project that I can't wait to tell you about... but am gonna have to ..
too much to cover in this update post.

For now I leave you with the information that it is a collaboration of this very cool guys:

Focusrite KRK Systems Novation Studiospares Sonic Distribution Avid

We will explain in detail what it is we ill be doing...

I gotta go now, need to carry on sorting the things that I need to take with me this time.

Also need to get some things that I always meant to get but always forgot due to the rush prior departure :-/

I will be bringing with me this time a bunch of useful stuff for the musicians
guitar and bass strings, drum sticks, pics and maybe a tuner or two.

Difficult to think but in Malawi it is very hard to get hands on this things...
blog you later.

Joe.

And it's back to the bum bum

2010-10-18T12:21:00.006+01:00

it's a while now since I last spoke about Banku Afrika, mainly because I've been working on other songs, but yesterday I continued the work I started with the drums-dominated track, Kusemasema.

It's been a lot of editing chopping away unwanted noises, leak of other mics (since we recorded the drums in the same room as everything else there was little we could do to isolate the single drum sounds, so to some extend I had to chop away in some of the tracks the neighbor drum to achieve a more clean/less cluttered sound, that was the initial recording with all the elements. a sample of the original recording can be found in this blog
here is a sample of the drums only:

Banku Afrika drums rough example by In Tune for Life

because there are so many signals, in other words so many microphones capturing the sound of all these drums, I separated (where possible) the different drums that were played, a bit like in this pic below

so there you see three tracks the first one from the top if the djembe that Tai played at the same time with the two Bum bum's if you don't remember which those are here a pic again :-)

these two mighty drums have a low tone, one slightly higher that the other, and they are played very often right after each other therefore their sound overlaps throughout the song so I had to try and separate them to get a more defined sound therefore being able to bring them up in the mix without muddying everything up.

in the sound clip (at the end of this blog) those two are panned away from each other too so if you listen carefully you'll be able to pick them out, the two low drums coming slightly from the left and from the right

the other set of drums were played by Ochido (Kevin), in the pic below.

He plays the kick alongside with the other 5 drums that sound a bit like toms or congas.
which go constantly too.
So I also had to 'make room' for those in the stereo spread and in the frequency spectrum.

But Am not going to bore you anymore with frequencies. :-/

After cleaning up the single tracks, equalising them accordingly to what they had predominantly in them, it sounds a bit like this:
Note am only half way through so they're not sitting together quite right yet.

Banku Afrika Drums example by In Tune for Life

blog you later
Joe.

Bon bin bon bongo!

2010-10-13T17:46:00.005+01:00

In a bid to consolidate a couple of the songs for which I had to put together the music during the last couple of weeks in Kenya, I recorded a couple of lines guitars, bongos, and shakers the other day, to replace some of the midi sounds I used.

So here are the Bongos I used... I put a picture here because I like them :-)

Latino Bongos on a background of a Kenyan Kikoy which I got in a Nairobi market.

I'm currently working on Joseph's song, called Zaidi ya maneno, and after having placed and edited the guitars, I'm currently editing the bongos I recorded in place (yes, that's why I went into music recording and not performing (heh heh): only limited skill of time keeping!). I've also put on some gentle compression and EQ from the Liquid Mix (note: the link is in Deutsch, just as a quick reminder I'm still here).

So here we are at the moment, Mark and I working from different countries, on different things, but still working away towards the same goal. To make this album a success.

Blog you later

J

Cross-cultural fertilisation

2010-10-09T09:30:00.001+01:00

Remember the Kenya song from a couple of posts ago? If not, no worries, here it is again. It's pretty cool:

Now - in a supreme example of the tripartite supra-national mutually beneficial exchange of cultural norms, ideas and musical approaches that we try to encourage in all of our projects, check this out:

Superb.

A+

Next level madness Pt 1

2010-10-08T08:30:00.004+01:00

Morning All

...from a grey and soggy Stamford Hill. Just how I like it. Seriously, this if my favourite time of year -

- anyway: yesterday Jason sent me a batch of tracks from the Kenya project that he'd done mix work on - two of which, if you remember the stories of the sessions involving Gaza and Cynthia, were recorded on his own instrumentals. Hence the decision to bring him in on the mix for the first time (an ITFL first) - and what a decision!

This album is going to be nuts. Really different from the others. Normally I wouldn't dream of putting up an unfinished mix, but... well, check this out:

Majuto (unfinished mix) by In Tune for Life

That's 'Majuto', by Gaza and Bilari, on an instrumental written and (almost) mixed by Jason Air. Enjoy!

A+

Only in Wiesbadeeeeeen

2010-10-07T10:28:00.007+01:00

funny video that one about Kenyaaaa. :-)

While the tigers pretend to be in Kenya, I am still in Germany, and will be working from here for a bit longer than planned. After my last blog, where I told you guys I was editing the Banku Africa songs, I have been working on other pieces too.

I worked on the percussion for a while, but it got quite loud, and at some point my ears had had enough of the Boom Boom of the mighty drums below:

...so I had to change the scene for a while.

I started adding a couple of takes of acoustic guitars to fill out the arrangement for Radi's song (as requested by Radi). The instrumental was put together in about an hour with her, in the studio in Nairobi, using only midi files (digital instruments in the computer).

If you don't remember Radi from previous posts, here she is in session:

...and I'm trying to make the track we built sound a bit more "natural," by replacing a couple of things. I've recorded a 12-string guitar, a classical guitar, a shaker, and some bongoes.

That should do :)

Next up: the same process for Joseph Kabera's track... then more editing.

Blog you later.

Only in Kenyaaaa

2010-10-02T09:30:00.003+01:00

.

Some light relief. Major factual inaccuracy in here but I'm sure you'll all spot that too. Still a great song. Not, I sadly admit, one of ours.

Makes me wish I was back in Nairobi, though.

A+

M

Introducing... Part 4

2010-10-01T09:30:00.004+01:00

As promised - the draft text on the projects so far. Considering I spent the last two days writing about vaccine genomics, this is a step up, however much it may appear to the contrary.

Sierra Leone
October 2007
Proof of concept: our first ever project. With a partial grant from Christian Aid, a few thousand pounds raised from friends, relatives, colleagues and companies, and in-kind support from Focusrite, we set up in a storage cupboard in the Methodist Youth Resource Centre in Bo, Sierra Leone, and recorded the 12-track album HIV e Dae-o and videos for the songs Stigmatisation and SAVE, as well as a TV drama called Stigma. This project was nominated for the 2009 One World Media Special Award (http://oneworldmedia.org.uk/awards/previous_awards/2009/shortlist_2009), an award given to “an outstanding media project or organization working on the ground in the developing world, which has made a real impact on the lives of those living and working near it.”

Malawi 1, 2 and 3
March 2009, March 2010 and January 2011
In recognition of the success of HIV e Dae-o, in 2008 the Scottish Government awarded us a grant for a three-year project in Malawi, involving four country visits and work with a range of artists, musicians and community groups. At time of writing we’ve recorded, mastered, printed and distributed the first CD/DVD package, Titenge Udindo – featuring the work of 17 artist and bands and recorded on location in the Northern and Central region – and the video drama, Mofanana, written and acted by the ABC sex worker’s group in Lilongwe, and animated by Luke. The second Malawi album was recorded in the Central and Southern regions in March 2010, and is currently in the mix. The third is scheduled for recording throughout Malawi in January 2011.

DR Congo
October 2009
Late in 2009, the team worked with Océan Clef de Fa, a super-tight 13-piece ‘nouvelle rhumba’ band in Kinshasa, to record their 9-track album, SAVE, and the fun video for the title track, filmed and edited by Eva Gilliam. SAVE was accompanied by an animated video for Moustique=Malaria, a tragicomic look at malaria, mosquitoes, and how to stop both.

Kenya
August 2010
In late summer 2010, Mark and Joe travelled to Kenya to record 12 tracks with musicians from Nairobi. A more edgy, street-flavoured collection, this is the least traditionally African album of the project so far, and at the artists’ request a small number of songs even feature input from Joe, Jason and Mark. The US and European-influenced sounds of artists like Chiso, Black Skillz and Gaza are redressed to an extent by the Kenyan music of Banku Afrika and Masese, and with a wide range of musical styles and social messages, this album – currently at the editing stage – will be a strong, balanced work.

Every word of all of that is true.

Question is, what next? I used to work as a fundraiser, and people don't fund pretty words, more's the pity.

A+

Introducing... Part 3

2010-09-30T13:11:00.003+01:00

So - here's what happens in the editing process, after Draft 1 gets knocked back. A becomes B, with A as the previous couple of posts, and the following rejigged versions (currently, anyway) as B.

Joe Herrmann – music recording and production

Born in London, raised in Colombia and Germany, Joe is driven by this rare opportunity to help people fight their problems through music. He loves working in different environments, with people who behave equally differently; and he relishes the challenges we face every time we go out to record, not knowing what technical difficulties we'll have. Finally, there’s the always-pleasing feeling of listening to the final product, thinking, “we did it!”

Mark Nunn – writing and music production

Mark’s work is influenced by a childhood in several countries, including years in the Gambia and Kenya; with ten years NGO experience and work for the World Health Organization alongside studio and performance experience, he has a foot in music and another in public health, and perspective from both sides of how much good this project can accomplish if we do it right. For Mark, if ITFL didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it again.

Jason Air – mastering work

Jason’s focus on production began after a DJ gig one night, when he tried to help a friend being mugged, got stabbed, ended up in hospital, and used the downtime to plan a career change. Under the alias Dfrnt Lvls, he went on to record the first ever full-length drum n bass rap album with the late Stevie Hyper D, signing to Island records. Now a freelance producer, Jason is motivated by ITFL because – in his own words – it’s “positive, educational, a call to action for change and love for fellow human beings. Music can be used for everything, but this project is by far one of the most powerful and meaningful I have had the honour to be involved with.”

Rob Edwards - finance, accounting, governance and management

Rob is a chartered accountant with a law degree and a Masters in international commercial law, specialising in international corporate tax at KPMG. Currently at HM Treasury working on UK corporate tax reforms, he feels that providing dedicated young people with opportunities to use their talent to make life better for their communities, and others, is crucial work. “The music lasts forever,” Rob says; “so do the smiles and the messages. It inspires me to contribute what I can. I am proud of my friends, and it makes me smile, too, knowing I am supporting this vision.”

Luke Whittaker– video animation and design

Luke is a freelance animator and Director of the videogame and animation company State of Play. Involved since the first project, when he went to Sierra Leone to produce the HIV e Dae-o album and accompanying films, he is motivated by the challenges of work in the field, and the opportunities ITFL provides to use his considerable talent for the good of others. Also an artist, Luke exhibits illustration work with the Print Club London collective.

Eva Gilliam – video

Eva is a freelance Television and Radio Journalist/Producer based in Cape Town, South Africa. She met the rest of the team by coincidence in Kinshasa, DR Congo, where she ended up filming and editing the SAVE video on a couple of her days off. Driven by the passion for social justice that informs so much of her reporting and film work across Africa, Eva is currently investigating opportunities for ITFL work in and around South Africa.

Nancy Ellis – animation

Nancy Ellis is a freelance designer, animator and illustrator who joined the team for the 2010 Kenya project after following the project with admiration for some time: Stigmatisation –from Sierra Leone – remains one of her favourite, most emotional pieces of animation. Now contributing her own talent, she relishes the opportunity to create for such an important and worthwhile cause.

* * *

Hmm. Your thoughts?

More tomorrow on The Projects so Far. Woo hoo

A+

Introducing... Part 2

2010-09-29T09:30:00.005+01:00

Olà. Straight in. As promised, today the music people...

Joe Herrmann – music recording and production

Born in London to a Colombian mother and a German father, Joe spent the next fifteen years on a farm in Gualanday being influenced by Latin American culture and music. He joined, then formed, several bands in Colombia, beginning a lifelong career in live performance as a singer and guitarist.After school, he and the rest of the family followed his father to Germany; adapting to a different culture and learning a new language, music remained something familiar and dependable. It was at this point that Joe decided to pursue a career in recording. Returning to the city of his birth to study audio engineering at SAE, he met Mark, and, along with Luke Whittaker, co-founded ITFL.

Mark Nunn – writing and music production

Mark grew up in a number of different countries, spending large chunks of his childhood in the Gambia and Kenya, among other places. Now a freelance writer, editor and producer, with an English degree from Oxford and a Masters in health policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, he started In Tune for Life with Joe Herrmann and Luke Whittaker in late 2007, when a drink on the South Bank in London turned into three years and counting of enjoyable work. With ten years of HIV-related NGO experience and ongoing work for the World Health Organization alongside his experience in studio recording, composition and mixing, Mark has a foot in both the music and the public health camps, and brings an overall perspective to the project.

Jason Air – mastering work

Jason’s focus on music production began after a DJ gig one night in north London, when he intervened to help a friend who was being mugged. He got stabbed and ended up in hospital, which turned out to be a good time to decide on a career change. The change worked, and under the alias Dfrnt Lvls, Jason went on to record the first ever full-length drum n bass rap album with the late Stevie Hyper D, signing to Island records. Now a full-time freelance producer, recent projects have included writing with a vocalist called Ivory while signed to Sony, and developing a project the Tenorions project with Yamaha and working the TV circuit across Europe. Jason and Mark met in the early 2000s on the London small gigs circuit, and through his sideline running a pro audio business, Jason supplied ITFL with gear for the early projects. His involvement in the mastering (and later composition, production and mix work) started with the Malawi and DRC projects.

* * *

What do you think? If you were in the business of funding people and projects, would you be interested? Would you want to learn more?

A+

Introducing... Part 1

2010-09-28T09:30:00.013+01:00

So: sorry I've been lax on the blogging front of late. Thankfully Joe's been doing sterling work in my absence. Ironically, one of the main reasons I've been quiet in the last few days is because I've been trying to find time, in amongst the work and whatnot, to put together communications material to help shape and boost the new marketing drive that'll come when we launch ourselves fully as In Tune for Life. More on progress on that front later, but suffice to say the machinery's in motion.

It's been tricky, though, what with (other) work pulling me hither and yon, and the constant feeling that any spare ITFL time has to be split between the back end stuff (this, helping Rob with the great work he's doing on the admin front - setting up a charity is a mission as far as paperwork's concerned - securing contractual progress with CA, blah etc. blah), and the juicy bits directly related to music- currently, editing and mixing. Like Joe, I'm on the continent, stealing a few quiet minutes in my secret mountain lair, nestled in the foothills of the Jura near Geneva, where I'll be rapporteur-ing a public health meeting for the next couple days. En route, somewhere in the clouds over Paris, I think, I tried to put the finishing touches to a series of profiles designed to help communicate our organisation; our mission; who we are; why we are those people; and why we're doing what we're doing.

My first drafts were rejected by our pro bono marketing guru - rightly so. I think I realised they weren't ready when I sent them off - too descriptive and insufficiently exciting for marketing purposes. I'm told to focus on "lived collateral". I think I get it. But, on the other hand, those first drafts are quite good snapshots of the "who we are" part, and rather than bin them, I thought I'd post them. Introduce ourselves.

I'll split this up. Today's just the first instalment. Later, when they're finished, I'll also post the texts that they eventually become - it might be an interesting insight into the process of wrapping, packing and selling an idea. I've certainly got a lot to learn on that front.

So. Here we are.

The project

In Tune for Life helps impoverished communities around the world protect and better their health via their own music and video, produced to the highest professional standards.

We work with talented people who write culturally adept songs about HIV, malaria, TB and other health risks, and linked issues like stigmatisation and domestic violence. We record, mix, and master these songs, and help artists and communities design, film and animate video material to accompany them. Then we put the music and video in attractive, professional packages for free distribution and use, in their countries of origin and more widely.

We found early on that our work had wider impact, and a more profound positive effect on the artists we worked with, than we expected. Our Record for Life packs are our attempt to respond by enhancing these effects of our work. In partnership with some of music recording’s best in biggest brands, Record for Life packs allow us to leave in place not only a legacy of recorded material, but the means to make more. Record for Life gives communities a voice, then turns up the volume.

The community

In Tune for Life started with a small group of people in London – musicians, designers, engineers, writers – and the common idea that music and video could do something useful. Now that community reaches, directly and indirectly, across five countries, and has a legacy: song and video, CDs and DVDs, NGO support and corporate commitment, art and music. It is open to anyone with time and skill to contribute, and it is still all about that original idea.

The people so far

(Non-music people today. I'll do the music heads tomorrow.

Be kind. These are first drafts).

Rob Edwards - finance, accounting, governance and management

Rob is a chartered accountant with a law degree and a Masters in international commercial law, now specialising in international corporate tax at KPMG. Currently on secondment at the HM Treasury working on UK corporate tax reforms, Rob met Mark while running across the Sahara desert in the Marathon des Sables in 2005. Two years later, a planned solo holiday rambling around Sierra Leone was diverted by a visit to the first ITFL project, then under way in the south of the country. Over half Rob’s luggage had been filled with delivery items: a replacement power supply for some overcooked recording gear; a portable kettle; spare cables. Once in Bo, surrounded by the refreshingly positive enthusiasm of the local musicians, Rob spent the rest of his so-called holiday filming and working on the Stigmatisation animation. Although he later gave up another holiday to assist in Kinshasa on the DR Congo project, Rob’s professional experience allows him to contribute other complementary skills, and his core focus is on the value he can add through advice on finance, accounting, governance and managing the affairs of In Tune For Life.

Luke Whittaker– video animation and design
Luke is a freelance animator based in London and the third founder member of In Tune for Life. He has been involved since the first project in 2007, when he worked alongside Mark and Joe and a community in Sierra Leone to produce the HIV e Dae-o album and accompanying films. He has also taken part in projects in Malawi, and produced the Moustique=Malaria animation for the DR Congo album SAVE from his base in London. Luke went freelance after graduating from university in 2003, and his clients include Oxfam, the BBC, and MTV. He is now Director of the videogame and animation company State of Play. Also an artist, Luke exhibits illustration work with the Print Club London collective. For more information please see
www.lukewhittaker.co.uk /
www.stateofplaygames.com.

Eva Gilliam – video (below right)

Eva is a freelance Television and Radio Journalist/Producer based in Cape Town, South Africa. A friend of a friend of Mark’s, she happened to be in Kinshasa working for UNICEF when the team was in town recording SAVE. She had an HD camera and a day off one Saturday, and a break was scheduled in recording; so the band cancelled their own rest day to film an impromptu video for the title track. Filmed on the Saturday and edited on the Sunday, SAVE was synched to the final version of the song when mastering was completed, and we had an extra video for no cost! Working together was enjoyable for all of us, and Eva is currently investigating funding and work opportunities for ITFL in and around South Africa.

Nancy Ellis – animation
Nancy Ellis, of tvandweb.co.uk, is a London-based freelance designer, animator and illustrator currently working on the video for Holela, a song from the Kenya album due in late 2010. A friend and colleague of Luke's, she came on board when Luke’s commitments at State of Play meant he couldn’t be involved in the Kenya project. Stigmatisation – from the Sierra Leone project – remains one of her favourite pieces of animation, and something she finds hard to watch without a very emotional response; and she didn’t have to be asked twice to get involved in what she considers a hugely important initiative.

Hmm. Not direct enough, really. What do you think?
Tomorrow, the music guys; later, the newer versions. It's an odd science, this.
M

The editing has begun

2010-09-27T08:57:00.006+01:00

Now moving around Europe, travelling light with the equipment on my back!

I've settled down for a week in Germany, to do some fun editing at the cosiness of 'home', visiting my parents for a week. This weekend I also had an opportunity to do some music of my own :-) I had a gig last Saturday here in Wiesbaden with a band I've been playing with on and off for the last 3 years.

But anyway, back to the essentials here: I've decided to take on the most challenging of my share of the recordings to start with, so I opened the session from Banku Afrika -

- if you don't remember what this session was like I'll tell you, don't worry :)

This was the session we talked about with 17 drum tracks, remember? Well, it ended up being a couple more than 'just' 17. Check the snap below.

Apart from the blue tracks at the top and the green ones at the bottom, all of those tracks are percussive instruments. And i'm diving into the editing of those in... 3...2...1 Now!

Back in the cold

2010-09-21T14:31:00.003+01:00

After a day of travelling, with quite a load, I arrived in London last Friday - a bit sad to have left Kenya, and struck by the weather in UK... got a cold the same day I got back!

When I reached the airport in Nairobi after a fight through traffic, I was shocked to find out how heavy my baggage was. My luggage allowance was two pieces at a maximum of 23kgs per piece - if you exceed that, you have to pay extra. Well, I had the equipment case, my big rucksack, the cabin luggage with the laptop in it, and a drum :-)

I placed the big rucksack to check it in , and the scale showed 17.6kgs; but once that had gone through, the equipment case was on the line... and cold sweat ran down my forehead when I saw how much it had pressed the metal plate of the scale... 29.7 kgs!!! My first thought was, "oh dear, I'm done, ... they're gonna slap me with the bill for this."

But the Gentleman on the counter didn't even comment on it.

And then there was that drum I was holding in my hand (which the Banku Afrika guys had given me as a present). The gentleman said, "you're only allowed 2 pieces"... but then he stretched out his hand to take it and he kindly checked it in for me.

So, thanks to him, the project budget and I were very lucky in that; and the rest of the trip went fine. Back in London, after a day resting, I met with Mark and put all the recordings together. I showed him the sessions that I had done, so that we could plan and spread out the workload... and of course he was a bit jealous of my Nairobi adventures! (See last blog).

This morning, we also had a meeting with Jason, who has two of his own instrumental compositions incorporated into this project now... but I'll leave that part for Mark to tell you about ;)

Blog you later