In the last year a few journalists and writers reached out to us to speak about the project. I will highlight passages from the interviews but it is definitely worth it to read them in full.

Here you’ll find the article and interview by Wanjeri Gakuru in the People’s Stories Project, speaking with team SON and Lutivini Majanja, a participant in the City Walks workshop. The excerpt below is a question and an answer (by Lutivini) that I find very nice:

WG: Why is it important that this sound archive exists and continues to expand?
LM: I think this archive is as vital as photographs and written text. There will always be something to learn from them. There is memory and story embedded in these recordings. It’s interesting to note how the sounds of places change over time and how this changes our emotional connection with these places. I think about how generations of Kenyan children have grown up singing versions of  By shot I love you baby  and  Public van public van number 28. How sound travels. Now here is a story. I wonder what songs we are composing based on the sounds of our now. 

This is an interview on hyperlinkhex, a blog by music writer S. David which he did with Raphael Kariuki from SON-team. Here’s an interesting out-take:

SD: What do you feel the role of noise/sound in African urban life is?
RK: This is something we are learning about as we build the archive, so can’t really give a simple answer. It’s a complex, fascinating question to consider. Sound of Nairobi exists on the premise that there is knowledge in sound that enriches societies and individuals. It promotes an alternative to traditional written archives which hold the universally recognized power of knowledge production. What this sonic knowledge exactly is and how we make use of it is there to find out. Let’s talk about this in about a year’s time!

With Nicklas Hallén I did an interview for his African Street Literature Blog. It was about SON in general but also about the Sounds Like A Pandemic? project specifically. This is an excerpt I find very relevant for the archive:

NH: How do you select the particular spots where you make your recordings? Do you typically decide on a place beforehand or do you switch on your equipment when something interesting happens?
SB: First, we work with teams of about a dozen people who volunteer for sound walks. Before the sound walks, we have workshops where we share basic concepts of acoustic ecology investigation and practice. We do not direct the people to record specific places. Everyone is free to decide on the sounds of places and situations that they judge to be worthwhile, a useful representation of the city at that moment in time and contribute them to the archive.
The beautiful idea about Sound of Nairobi is that everyone can contribute their very subjective perspective and make it part of history. This subjective ear is an integral part of the archive. We do not want to create the illusion of an objective collection of sound. It rather reflects and validates the many different people with their uniquenesses that contribute to this archive.

And just recently Lutivini Majanja published an article on Soundoflife.com, a KEF project. In this passage she speaks about the changing sounds she realized during the recording sessions for Sounds Like A Pandemic?:

As one of the writers participating in these recording sessions, my first observation of what stands out between 2019’s recording experience and this year’s recordings is that street vendors who chant their wares, now include masks and sanitisers in the list of items on offer. “Masks hamsini” masks for fifty shillings, is for now a fixture wherever there are hawkers. I wonder when and if this phrase will peter out. In April there was a sudden absence of loud music from busy shops and stalls at the start of the pandemic while at residential areas there was a surge of early returns from work because of the 7:00 p.m. curfew.

All the interviews/articles are worth a full read. Here’s the list:
A Sonic City – Wanjeri Gakuru on People’s Stories Project
A conversation with Sound of Nairobi’s Raphael Kariuki – S. David on hyperlinkhex
Interview with Sophia from Sound Of Nairobi – African Street Literature
Rediscovering the sounds of Nairobi during a global Pandemic – Lutivini Majanja on Soundoflife.com/aKEFproject

Enjoy!

Today we begin the SOUND OF NAIROBI blog. For those who don’t know: SOUND OF NAIROBI is an online, open access archive of the sounds of the city of Nairobi. It employs sound as a material that can be archived, researched and explored as a source for information, telling  the story of the city. It is intended as a resource for artists, researchers, recordists and anyone interested in knowledge through sound.

To launch the SON blog today is not by accident. It is exactly one year after we ended our first exhibition LISTEN at the Goethe Institute, Nairobi. From the 7th to the 20th of November we presented field recordings from the workshop City Walks, which we did in September 2019 with a group of interested soundophiles. You can read more about that here (City Walks) and here (LISTEN). But the closing evening of the exhibition on the 20th November 2019, for me was something truly special: it was the performance by DJ Raph featuring Mc Blak and Jublack on the mic. In the first 35 mins, DJ Raph, only using the field recordings from the exhibition, sent me on an imaginary journey through Nairobi not only through space but also through time. I was transported by the sounds of the city which mingled into one another and let me drift away, opening images in my head that were informed by reality but not quite there. I went from Nairobi’s green outskirts into the city centre and here I was met by rhymes of the two MCs Blak and Jublack, who took me out of my trance and brought me back to the now before drifting away again by the city sounds arranged by DJ Raph. One of the things I love when listening to a mix (and I think DJ Raph is a pro in that, not only with field recordings) is when the sound takes me on a journey so smoothly that I don’t realise I am on it and by the time it ends I have no idea how I got there. 

Long story short, we have a recording from the performance, the first 22 min and you can listen to it. Or for the ones who were there remember the vibe 🙂 Hear, this!