Kgomotso Makhene's Page

Hey Kgabo,
Hope you are ok.Stay blessed

:-) Thanks for your answer!

I really can't wait to hear your expertise, so of course you are cordially invited to listen.

If you just click my picture you'll be taken straight to my Sawubona page, and you will find my personal tracks player at the top of my page. There you will find all the tracks I have made for the official Sawubona Lyrics, as well as for the Sawubona Poems Of Good Hope. The artists names in list will give a hint if the song was made all on my own, if I had other musician's in it, or if I simply contributed to someone elses artwork.

If you experience any difficulties with that online player, don't hesitate to ask me for an mp3 for download - I will provide them in one of the forums or I could send them by mail.

This really means a lot to me, for I am eager to learn from you, and other points of view - so really it's not fishing for complients, but rather fishing for honest opinions and input for future works.

And, hey, maybe you will find some of the parts are somewhat funny... ;-)

P.S.: Don't worry if it takes some time - here in Germany we are approaching each end of a year with a maximum of hazzle and project panic :-D

:+) Carsten (+:

...well, great I happened to meet you here, because maybe you could help me to a better understanding of your musical culture.

One of the key challenges for me is the quest about an "antonym of happiness" in the (South-)African music culture.

I heard some statements that esp. my music was to be not suitable for Africa - which by nature may be true somehow since mine can only be European music with some African elements, because I can't pretend sincerly to have any African musical background.

But I was always wondering about the mystical elements in African music and culture - where in my expectations "mystical" and "happy" are labels that would not melt completely.
And of course I was wondering about lamentos and music about personal loss etc., which again would not simply melt with a kind of Reggae feeling (right, Reggae isn't even of African origin, though many use to see it that way).

I had several encounters with those questions, e.g. trying to apply a mystical sphere for "Rainbow Scatterings", and even more in trying to find common grounds for the two faces of the "Ouma" lyrics:

- The outer parts which describe "funny" family life of the Mbelengwas,
- and the intersection which flashes back to the fierce fire raid at the children's sleeping room;

I decided to split those lyrics into two parts, taking the same musical theme to an a capella mouth percusion "scherzo" for the family life, while applying the raid into
- first a version as a kind of movie theme,
- then (after reveiving complaints having handled that one too gravely) into a lightweight Jazz Police Story style.

How do you feel about it?

:+) Carsten (+:

Moin, Kgomotso,

couldn't say it better than you did - your words in fact do hit the core of why I am here in this project. You might already have found that I investigated a great deal into musical collaboration with other artists here - and not only with musicians, but I also tried to bring some tunes to the works of some African poets - which has been great fun, because the view of the world from another angle has a unique mixture of similarities and differences between what a culture would consider to be "normal" or "desirable".

Are you also into exchanging arts, thoughts, poems, tunes, puns...??

:+) Carsten (+:

Moin, Kgomotso,

and welcome to this site.
What do you think is substancial for getting more South Africans embracing this kind of cultural exchange?

:+) Carsten (+:

Hi Kogomotso, thanks very much!
"Sawubona/Songs Of Good Hope" is a very long story - the roots are going back to 1994, when I wrote an article about IBM in South Africa.

We try to get South African musicians as much as we can. It would be great if you could communicate this project to other musicians you know. Lucky Thobela was part of the project from the beginning - he knows almost everything about it. Maybe it could be a very good idea to meet Lucky (lives in Soweto) with others from Jo'burg?

We are looking forward to collaborate with you!

Best regards, Dieter

......"this website is so african"?

Gosh!!! Thank you, this is the greatest compliment I've ever heard.
This will motivate me for the next 2-3 lightyears to keep on track!
blessings, Andreas

Sawubona Makhene, great to have you on our platform!!!
Siyabonga for joining us!!!

Dieter

Hello Kgomotso,
welcome to MUSIC WITHOUT FRONTIERS.
Great to have you here!
cheers, Andreas