LIVING MUSIC ARCHIVE Tsikaya is the first digital archive of music covering the interior of Angola with an online platform that promotes local musicians and producers, stimulating productive activities in the area of cultural economies in the rural areas. Imagens de: Rui Peralta e Victor Gama
A global platform based on a geo-referenced site allows access to the musicians, their songs, images and videos made during the field work by the project teams. www.tsikaya.org
IMPLEMENTING TSIKAYA For each new phase of the project we establish partnerships at provincial level with organizations that contribute with a team with a good network of contacts, usually made up of musicians and operatives who lead civic support programs for local populations. With financial support from prestigious international institutions such as the Prince Claus Fund and the Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa, PangeiArt has provided equipment and training to the teams that carry out all the field work tasks. We have established partnerships with the author rights society UniĂŁo Nacional dos Autores e Compositores, ADRA, Brigada Jovens da Literatura and work in close cooperation with provicial cultural delegations, local administrations and traditional authorities.
A partnership between organizations working in the areas of culture, development, human rights and civic education in Angola.
Twenty years recording in the interior Started in 1997 in the province of CuandoCubango, the Tsikaya project has developed a network of musicians and cultural actors in the field of music in rural areas of Angola and we intend to continue throughout the country. Documenting the work of musicians who still play traditional instruments such as the tsikaya, mburumbumba, ungu, tchisumba and a new generation of musicians who play contemporary instruments, we have created the first digital archive of music from the interior of Angola having worked in five provinces: Cuando-Cubango, HuĂla, Benguela, Cunene and Huambo. Additionally, we introduced samples of archives made by the former Diamang company in the 1950s and 60s in Lunda and Moxico, as well as a sample of German musicologist Ulrich Martini’s archives made in Andulo in the late 1960s.
Percussion instrument by Ovana Voinaimwe.
IMPACTS Increasing awareness towards musical heritage, preservation, conservation and archiving; Training that opens perspectives into new modes of working with music on various levels using digital technologies; Showing alternative routes to music promotion through electronic distribution and social media networks; Using documentation and archiving methods with current digital equipment such as digital cameras, portable recording equipment, computers and mobile devices; Promote employment in the area of music production, entertainment and cultural industries.
Manuel Garoto playing txisumba, Dombe Grande, Benguela
“wedding sound to surroundings. Amazing music from Angola” New Internationalist (5 stars) “It’s a shining beacon in the use of the net to get ethnomusicological material out there and making a difference” fRoots (top ten best new album) Distribution through Amazon, Spotify and Apple Music
Three areas of activity
Over twenty years of experience we have identified three main areas where we focus our energy and resources.
A mobile studio capable of reaching any community in Angola
HOW TSIKAYA WANTS TO WORK IN THE NEAR FUTURE
MOBILITY From our experience of covering many different regions we believe that the best option for a project of this nature is to be able to rely on a resource that concentrates several aspects of logistics that are unavoidable. Transport, accommodation and conditions for the work of the teams on the ground. An expeditionary vehicle will offer great advantages in reaching more remote communities in Angola’s vast countryside.
Avelino Chico playing coroa
OUR TEAMS In Huambo and since then, we have a partnership with the delegation of UNAC, União Nacional dos Autores e Compositores, musicians and local producers.
InA Huíla and Cuneneinclui the um team is formed by members exposição INSTRMNTS programa de actividades com concer tos, palestras, jogos of Angolan NGO ADRA, the cultural e oficinas para todos os grupos etários. officer of the municipality of Xangongo and PangeiArt’s production director.
In Benguela the team is formed by members of Bismas das Acacias, the cultural officer of the administration of Luongo in Catumbela and one of the musicians.
TREASURES FROM THE PAST A cortesy of Diamang Digital has allowed us to include a sample of the archive of the former Diamang Company kept by the University of Coimbra in Portugal. A physical copy of the archive is currently in the Dundo Museum in the Lunda province in Angola. It contains precious information gathered by ethnomusicologists in the 40s, 50s and 60s with detailed drawings of musical instruments and their measurements as well as photographs and recordings.
Txissanje rhiquembe
Paul Hamlyn Hall, Royal Opera House, Londres 2012
EXCHANGE PROGRAM ANGOLA-COLOMBIA INTERCAMBIOS SUR-SUR With the aim of bridging cultural expressions that result from continuities between the African continent (particularly Angola) and regions on the Pacific coast of Colombia predominantly inhabited by afro-Colombians, PangeiArt and Mas Arte Mas Acciรณn have collaborated in an exchange project called Intercambios Sur-Sur. A research trip was undertaken by musicians Pedro Ojeda (Colombia), Urian Sarmiento
(Colombia) and Victor Gama (Angola) along the rivers Guapi, Napi and Timbiqui. The work with groups of musicians who play the marimba de chonta, a type of marimba very close to the Angolan marimba and other instruments is now presented in the the recent COLOMBIA SOUND MAP in the online Tsikaya platform at: www.tsikaya.org
Genaro Torres playing marimba del PacĂfico
THANK YOU percussionists playing ngoma drums in Hanha do Norte, Benguela
A PARTNERSHIP PANGEIART Frederiksplein 54, Amesterdão, NL victorgama@pangeiar t.org www.pangeiar t.org
SUPPORT UAVALA ASSOCIAÇÃO Rua Alves da Cunha n6, 1º esq, Ingombotas, Luanda , Angola