Santuri Safari recreates traditional sounds for young audiences

Santuri Safari ('Santuri' being the Swahili word for vinyl) is a concept developed more than two years ago to address the perceived failure of traditional music, or music with a strong East African identity, to excite younger audiences. Santuri was developed to spark some fresh ideas via collaborations and events. Citing festivals as a great way to reach people, the project utilizes the festival network to bring likeminded artists and producers to create fresh new sounds.

David Tinning, co-founder and project manager at Santuri Safari, explained to Music in Africa: “We were convinced that electronic music and DJ culture has a strong role to play in reaching new audiences and innovating new approaches. This element has been largely absent from East Africa’s cultural scene.” 

This September, Santuri is curating a series of events and workshops highlighting collaborations between East African musicians and noted electronic music producers, including Auntie Flo (UK), Esa Williams (South Africa) and Raoul K, among others.

Working with Sondeka Festival in Nairobi and Bayimba Festival in Kampala, Santuri Safari will ensure that local artists, especially young producers and DJs, can explore innovative new ways to create and perform music. They will sample traditional instruments while integrating technology into acoustic live performances. The international artists drawn from Europe and South Africa will pass on skills, ideas and experiences to participants before sharing the stage and experimenting with various collaborative performances. The collaboration will also include a series of workshops designed to push the boundaries of creativity in the Kenyan and Ugandan music scenes.

"Each recording workshop or studio session is different. It ranges from capturing the amazing sounds of the Embarie xylophone in Iganga, Uganda to developing dance floor ‘bombs' with musicians like Makadem of Kenya,” Tinning says of the past workshops and recording sessions they have held in the past. “Our workshops and pop-up studios at festivals have proven really successful- both in terms of fostering new collaborations and developing East African artists outside of the region. Last year’s events have already led to two really well received EPs on Highlife World Series, and have seen the artists involved tour the UK and Europe in 2015.”   

He says the best output of the workshops held in the past are three collaborations with Sarabi - Koko’s ‘Vibration’, ‘Fire’ and ‘Africa ni Leo’ - all of which he notes exhibit an energy and dynamism that reflect exactly what the project is all about. Santuri Safari continues to grow their network of artists by word of mouth as well as meetings. Sometimes they learn of new artists and they tap them into the project.

Sondeka Festival is a three-day event that brings all forms of creativity into one space to collaborate, co-create and showcase skills and social innovations for sustainable futures. In 2015 the event will be staged at Nairobi’s Arboretum botanic gardens between 11 and 13 September.The other artists featured in the Santuri workshops are Mim Suleiman, Nonku Phriri, Blinky Bill, Akula Akwabi and Behr.

After Sondeka Festival in Nairobi, Santuri will make a stop at the Bayimba Festival in Uganda and then head to Egypt where they will hold a recording and remixing session with The Nile Project in October. Beyond that Santuri will be working on new ways to present East Africa to the world via more releases, tours and events.