Theo Pluto

BIO

Akhona Theophilous Mpendu also known as 'Theo Pluto' is a Soweto born and bred arts practitioner. His musical journey started in the late 90’s just as Kwaito was finding its own expression. Over the years the interest in getting people to respond to sound in certain ways silently grew in the shadows. It was in Varsity around 2010 that he started to curate music. It was during this time that he was introduced to people that had been exposed to the digital side of music and they were using advanced DeeJaying software. He quickly got the hang of the software and started to compile bedroom sets in his spare time. It was only four years later that he would start presenting his musical compilation sets in public spaces in and around the East London’s artistic circles. Overtime, people started to make requests for him to come and play at their shows and that’s how the name grew and found momentum.

It was through one of the projects that he founded called ‘The Markett Place Beat Exhibition’ which made him a known alternative music DJ and sound blender around the alternative artistic circles around South Africa with his outlandish and experimental mix sets which infuse various sounds from vast musical genres. He considers himself more of a public hypnotist that uses music to get people to connect with the spiritual side of the self through one of the most important human senses. Theo Pluto has worked on joint projects with some of South Africa’s house hold names in the alternative music scene such as the likes of Sy Ntuli, Nduduzo Makhathini, Asanda Msaki and many more under a collaborative venture between The Nelson Mandela Institute, Eastern Cape Audio Visual Center, University of Fort Hare Music Department, Bon Fyah Literature & Creative Arts Organisation, Eastern Cape Provincial Arts & Culture Council and many others. 

Currently he is working on numerous projects within the domains of sound and writing. His most recent work is a series of musical sets titled ‘Digging Through The Archives’ where he was funded by the Eastern Cape Provincial Arts & Culture Council to curate a vinyl record collecting tour around the Eastern Cape Province. Soon he will be releasing 12 one hour audio visual mixes from the records he has collected in the Eastern Cape Province. He is also responsible for “Sound Arguments” where he curates and releases sporadic musical set pieces that are made up of different sounds but blends them together beautifully. You can find these on his Soundcloud and MixCloud profiles. You can also find the first “Makeshift Spaceship” mix on his SoundCloud profile. As these are the only mixes that have been publicly released by him to date. 

Besides DeeJaying, Theo Pluto is the founder and Creative Director of Bon Fyah which is a literature and creative arts movement that focuses on the written medium within the Arts. Theo is also an independent writer that is working on his first novella which is currently in its editing phase. Theo is also the founder of a clothing brand that is in the pipelines called Indigo Child. With Indigo Child he is working on an independent research project that will unpack the Indigo Child brand as a philosophical concept as well as contribute to academic research while further expanding on the pool of indigenous African knowledge systems and ritual practices. Theo Pluto has always been surrounded by music lovers which led to him becoming the music connoisseur that he is. 

Theo’s style of play is really unique as he draws from all of his childhood musical influences to project a sound that synchronizes well to deliver and evoke the desired feeling of expressive freedom. The objective of all his musical sets is to get people to trance and forget about their immediate surroundings while getting lost in the music. He always tries to introduce alternative sounds within the music that he plays and most importantly get people dancing to music that they might not be familiar with. This is where he believes the magic happens. Over the past couple of years he has delivered sonic offerings around the country in some of South Africa’s recognised Metropolitan cities such as Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and more