the zulu lightning round
circa rhizome and their net.art news, but I wrote it:
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Drawing on the success of the Johannesburg Biennales of the nineties, local chemist/ composer, Dimitri Voudouris, decided that it was time to bring attention to South African electronic musicians by connecting them with other internationally-renowned talents. Hoping to promote experimentation and interdisciplinary collaboration, he initiated the Unyazi Festival, so–named for the Zulu word for ‘lightning’ (there is no non-anglo word for ‘electricity,’ in South Africa–an absence with spiritual connotations). Unyazi will be the first festival of electronic music and sonic art in Africa. Local highlights include interactive pieces from Toni Olivier’s Studio for Interactive Sound, a collaboration between loop masters Carlo Mombelli and Joao Orecchia, and more experimental trips by the likes of James Webb, Chris Wood, Pops Mohammed, and Brendon Bussy. Pioneering performers include American-Egyptian Professor Halim El-Dabh–who began his tape work in North Africa in the ’40s–and Pauline Oliveros, an American philosopher and composer who works with a concept she calls ‘Deep Listening.’ The festival will feature a broad slate of workshops, multimedia theatre, interesting music, and film, all of which students and teachers can attend free. The storm is coming. The lightning round begins September 1st. – Nathaniel Stern |
