Ogoya Nengo, Stella Chiweshe

Ambiance I opens the three-part series that the Berlin club night and collective African Acid Is The Future made with The Vinyl Factory. Each instalment pairs a 12" of live recordings with a 12" of remixes by the crew's own DJs. This first volume brings together two singers from opposite ends of Africa. One is the Kenyan dodo singer Ogoya Nengo with The Dodo Women's Group, the other the Zimbabwean mbira player Stella Chiweshe, both recorded in Berlin.

Dodo is a women's song tradition of the Luo communities in the Siaya region of western Kenya, and Nengo is one of its best-known voices. Her two songs were taped at an intimate session in the living room of AAITF member Wolfonacid, with backing singers, drums, flute and shaker. Chiweshe sings and plays mbira and shaker on a concert recorded in front of a full crowd at the Funkhaus. Louis McGuire recorded and mixed the sessions, and Noel Summerville mastered them.

Side A holds Nengo's Dala Ma Siaya and Okana Tali, sung in call and response over drums and flute. Side B moves to the Funkhaus for Chiweshe's Bird Song and Inner Voice, where the interlocking patterns of the mbira run under her voice. The second disc turns to the dance floor. Dauwd rebuilds Bird Song as the Wired Re-Bird, Wolfonacid offers his own Tribe's Remix of the same piece, and side D closes with his Spring Remix of Dala Ma Siaya.

In the liner notes AAITF founder Maryisonacid recalls the Funkhaus concert: "When the whole room was bird whistling together, time stopped." The parties themselves travel from afro to techno, on the premise that "Africa is the mother of beat, and beat is tempo". Chiweshe, often called the queen of mbira, had spent much of her career in Germany. She was one of the first women to win international recognition on an instrument traditionally reserved for men, and died in Harare in January 2023.

Two 12" discs on 180-gram black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner and outer sleeves. With an African Acid Is The Future booklet and artwork by Vava Dudu, edition of 500 copies.