Kenyalectronic: The Owiny Sigoma Band and "Owour Won Gembe"

A collaboration between Kenyan musicians and an electronica band produced today's random tune, called Owour Won Gembe. The Owiny Sigoma Band was formed when British electronica, hip hop and soul band Elmore Judd traveled to Nairobi in 2009 in the euphoria after Barack Obama's election with no clear agenda other than to learn about the country and the music scene. Once there, they were introduced to Joseph Nyamungu, a master of the lyre known as the nyatiti, who also educated them on the music and traditions of his tribe, the Luo of western Kenya. A four-day recording session developed, followed fourteen months later by another recording session with additional Kenyan musicians drafted by Nyamungu. The collaboration has produced three albums. Owour Won Gembe features the singing and nyatiti playing of Nyamungu front and center, and can be found on the Owiny Sigoma Band's 2015 album Nyanza.

Listen to songs like this and more on the KUNM Global Music Show every Monday night from 10 pm - 1 am Mountain Standard Time. Live streaming, program information and the two-week digital archive can be found at http://www.kunm.org.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/8pzb/ .

Night Life: Owiny Sigoma Band and "Lucas Malore"

I've never been much of a party and nightlife kind of person, so any songs about my nocturnal adventures would be pretty boring. It would recount my adventures in cooking dinner, sitting at my computer, watching TV, maybe reading a chapter of a book or working some on a crossword puzzle, and then going to bed. I can't remember the last time I had an "epic" night that could be put to verse on the level of a Homerian epic. Well, maybe I can. In college I had a couple of epic nights that it would be best not to recount, and some years ago I enjoyed a most-of-the-evening romp through San Francisco with my good friend and then resident-of-the-city Rich. We went to a party, and then due to lack of transportation we walked most of the way back through the city to his apartment.

One thing I've noticed is that a city at night has a distinctly different feel than a city in the daylight. Of course the light and shadows plays a part in this difference, but so does the the ambiance of the city. The people out are different, with different agendas and goals (some of which aren't always on the up and up). The night makes some people more bold, some people more timid. You see people revel in the night, and you see people absolutely shrink from it, scurrying to get to the safety of their doorways. There's a sense of danger in the night, but also a world in the shadows waiting to be explored. And that's what we did that night. We explored the shadows, whether it was walking (trespassing really) through the grounds of the Presidio or wandering through the nightlife of the Castro District trying not to be too conspicuous in our heterosexuality. It was a fantastic night, and perhaps the epic night in my life that I could write a song about.

Today's artists, the Owiny Sigoma Band, use their song Lucas Malore to celebrate their own epic night. The song tells the story of a night that lead singer Joseph Nyamungu's spent out in London. The Owiny Sigoma Band is made up of musicians from Kenya and Britain. Their first album was based on traditional Luo folk songs from Kenya put to a more modern beat. They expanded their repertoire on their second album, Power Punch (2013), on which you'll find Lucas Malore. On Power Punch they introduced electronica and techno. One interesting fact about their music is that they highlight an instrument called the nyatiti, an 8 string lyre played with a violin-like bow. Lucas Malore is actually quite a simple tune - it starts out with an uptempo percussion beat with a plucked instrument like a guitar or some kind of stringed instrument, and then adds bass and more percussion in a rhythm that repeats itself, while Nyamungo provides powerful vocals over it all.