ITALAVASI FREE CULTURE
 
     
 
ITALAVASI FREE CULTURE is an outlet for cultural expression in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The music recording studio is free to use and works to prevent political, religious, racial, tribal and sexual discrimination. Our mission is to combat local social problems by promoting talented musicians and spreading PEACE AND UNITY. ITALAVASI FREE CULTURE ni mlango kwa usemi wa utamaduni Tanzania, Dar es Salaam. Studio ya kurecordi muziki ya kiungwana na inafanya kazi ya kuzuia ubaguzi wa siasa, wa dini, wa warangi, wa ukabila na kuwa nausawa wakibina adamu kati ya wanaume na wanawake. Misioni yetu ni kupigania matatizo ya jamii na vile vile uendeleshaji na kuwasaidia wenye vipaji vya muziki hapo hapo na kunjua AMANI NA UMOJA.
 
 
Music Crossroads International - Interregional Festival 2010 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
CROSSROADS
May 2010
This year's Music Crossroads Interregional Festival will be held the 16-17 July at the University Grounds (Sayans) in Dar es Salaam. If you're in Tanzania then you really shouldn't miss this opportunity!

The festival brings together some of the best up-and-coming artists from Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The artists have all won their place at the festival through local and national competitions. This means that the musicians and live performers have all come a long way to get there.
You can read more and check out this year's line-up at the Interregional Music Festival Web Site. There you'll also find a documentary from 2008 about Music Crossroads. Here's a sneak peek:
The rest of the documentary is available here.


Among the special guests performing at the festival is The Naima Train - the alter-ego of Maria Nyström, from Gothenburg, Sweden. Maria builds her music by sampling and looping her own vocals and instruments live, constructing an experimental, electronic pop music, the likes of which have never been heard in Tanzania.
You can listen to more music by the Naima Train at her myspace page.


The poster and documentary are both (c) Music Crossroads International.

 
 
R.I.P. GURU
April 2010


Guru


We have just received the tragic news of Guru's death overseas. Together with DJ Premier, Guru evolved east-coast hiphop during the 90s and inspired a generation of MCs with conscious lyrics. Last night, on April 19th, Guru passed away from cancer.

Hiphop will never be the same, rest in peace Guru.



 
 
EXPANDING
March 2010
Italavasi is expanding with more members in Sweden and branching off to work with lots of new audio and visual stuff this spring. Meanwhile, fresh material is being produced in Tanzania to be recorded later on. Stay tuned!


 
 
WINTER TIME
February 2010
The Gothenburg studio.
   
We've finished recording the vocals for Alpha & Mary's latest song 'Ndani ya Maisha' and Tobias and Mathias are now back in Sweden to mix and master the track.

   
Because of some serious disagreements with Juma about the nature of free culture we have decided to move the studio to another location. We'll set the new place up and continue recording as soon as we get back to Dar es Salaam.
Until then, we will continue working with the recordings we've got from a studio in Gothenburg, Sweden. You'll find the finished song online here later when it's done!

Check out some wicked Masaai hiphop from X Plastaz in the meantime:

The music video is a parody of the Bongo Flava bling-bling videos in which artists tend to display cars, houses and money that's not theirs. If you enjoy African hiphop you should check out [Afrolution Records] and especially [Cashless Society] from Johannesburg, SA.

 
 
TINY UPDATE
January 2010
Just a small update to let you know the UPS is in place and an LCD screen has been purchased from Zanzibar.

Zanzibar is blacked out since a transformation station exploded in mid December and the government has announced that entire island will probably be without electricity until the end of February.

For a society which relies largely on the tourist industry, this is catastrophy beyond measure to hit during the peak holiday season.

   
Tobias from Sweden joined in the studio work around a week ago, we'll be working together with the studio hardware and software, construction and painting. Also, we've finally got padlocks for all doors so now we dare bring more stuff into the studio and guest rooms.

   
[Bomba Dubstep Session]


 
 
SOUND CHECK
December 2009
December sees Alpha Sen and Mary Vumi joining Italavasi Free Culture in Dar es Salaam. Alpha, recently returned from extensive performances in Oman and Saudi Arabia, masters numerous musical styles including taarab, reggae and the immensly popular bongo flava.

Bongo flava draws its inspiration from Jamaican, American and traditional Tanzanian music and is always performed in the kiswahili language.
Bongo flava is no doubt the hottest music coming from East Africa right now - Alpha Sen and Mary Vumi being two of the most promising young artists on the Dar es Salaam scene.

   
Since a few weeks back the Italavasi sound system is up and running on a new amplifier brought from the neighbouring island of Zanzibar where prices are considerably lower. We are still trying to get hold of a UPS so that we can safely connect the desktop studio computers in addition to the laptops used now.

   
Strong music pumping from the sound system has boosted our energies while finishing the construction of the studio. The outside walls have now been painted yellow while the inside has been given a clear light blue color. Sockets, light switches and bulb holders are in place and working as well!

   
The next step will be to connect and set up the remaining studio equipment while we continue acquiring talented and passionate musicians and producers. We are also planning on putting some finishing touches on the outside of the studio, bringing in a few candle lights and purchasing pad locks to secure the building.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Keep supporting FREE CULTURE!
 
 
[Stonetown Dubstep Session]

A GOOD START
November 2009
The construction work is going swiftly. Only one week after arriving in Dar es Salaam there is already a new roof in place over the studio and the outer wall has been raised by about 40cm for increased security. On the inside, old doorways have been bricked up and new ones have been torn open.

The studio space is divided into two small and one larger room. In connection to the studio, under the same roof, there will be a small shop (possibly selling music from the studio) and a 2-room hostel providing cheap accomodation for visitors.

Work is currently focused on the construction of the inner roof, applying plaster to the walls and installing electric wiring. There is still a lot of work to be done before any studio equipment can be brought inside.
   
   
The studio equipment consists of a Roland M-160 16 chanell line mixer, two stationary studio computers with M-Audio FastTrack Pro and M-Audio Delta 1010LT sound interfaces, 3 condenser microphones and a bunch of studio headphones. For sound processing we have an Alesis Midiverb III, a Lexicon Reflex and a Behringer Supressor DE2000. There is also a Roland VS-840 digital portastudio but unfortunately we don't have any zip100 disks so we can't put it to use.
   
In addition to the studio we hope it will be possible to fit a truck with a PA-system turning it into a mobile sound system using the Denon DN-2000F dual cd player and Numark DM1002EX dj mixer we've got here. The left cd player seems broken though, but by connecting the portable M-Audio sound I/O and a laptop computer it will be possible to mix mp3s.
   
At the moment we lack equipment for playback. There are no studio monitors, no amplifier and only an incomplete set of loud speakers for the mobile sound system. In order to plug in the stationary computers a UPS is also needed for protection from spikes that are common to the Tanzanian power grid. Stay tuned for updates on the progress of the studio!