We are committed to showcasing African musical talent and the unique potential it has to make a lasting impact on the global media industry. This means we’re delving deeper into the rich cultural heritage that our continent has to offer, on each and every project we touch.
Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of collaborating with Lucy Durán, a formidable force in the global ethnomusicology scene, who has served as an advisor on numerous world-renowned projects. Lucy Durán is an ethnomusicologist and Professor of Music with a special focus on Africa.
To move beyond a project-by-project relationship, we’ve decided to hold monthly brainstorming sessions with Lucy and our core creative team. These sessions will help us expand our knowledge of African music, not only in South Africa but across the entire continent. It was through one of these sessions with Lucy that she introduced us to her term ‘the aesthetic of the buzz’.
“There are many traditional instruments from across Africa that incorporate a buzzing element. For instance, the mbira from Zimbabwe has bottle tops, replacing the original shells that were attached to add a buzz, and the kora, until some 20 years ago, featured a tin rattle which was placed on the end of the bridge. This buzzing serves partly as a kind of natural amplifier. Kora players would explain that the instrument itself isn’t very loud, but before modern amplification, you could hear or even feel the buzz from a distance, and only as you got closer would the strings and melodies become audible. This buzzing, found on so many instruments from Africa, is what I like to call “the aesthetic of the buzz.”
Lucy got our minds and ears buzzing with this term. It is something which has largely been forgotten or removed in modern music. It adds a unique texture that connects back to the traditional roots of these instruments.
Our goal is to craft music that is not only authentic and unique but also conceptually stronger, rooted in the diversity of Africa’s musical traditions, but not limited to ‘African’ projects. By doing so, we aim to create soundscapes that feel fresh, contemporary, and infused with next-level creativity
We’re reclaiming the aesthetic of the buzz by spearheading a new sound that harnesses our continent’s unique talents and textures.
