Staff Photographer
‘The hardest part about the project is that African roots music is disappearing … Some parts of Africa are so invaded by bad kwaito, very bad hip-hop from Europe and other music, that indigenous instruments are dying because young people aren’t taking them up,” bemoaned Lionel Corsini, aka DJ Oil, of the three-year-old Ashes to Machine project.
The 37-year-old deejay from Marseilles is well placed to make a judgment call: the Ashes to Machine project has taken him and fellow collaborator, Jeff Sharell, to more than 30 countries — mainly in Africa — since its inception. Last year alone he spent 35 weeks on the continent.
Creating computer-generated music using Ableton software, the duo’s collaborations with artists in various countries are much less about the clash of modernity and traditionalism. Rather, it is about exploration of the musical past and the present’s memory of it — about the razor-thin line that sometimes (doesn’t) exist between the organic and the electronic, both in music and in humanity.
Listening to Corsini describe the project, it becomes apparent that it has a strong guerrilla element, unshackled by preconceived musical notions: “We go in for about 10 days, invite musicians we would like to work with and workshop until we have about 10 original songs, which are then performed live,” he says.
If it sounds a bit like musical speed-dating one’s way through exotic locales, it is not. Corsini will be in Johannesburg next Saturday — minus Sharell — to resurrect a highly successful earlier collaboration with ethno-jazz master Pops Mohamed and urban groovers Kwani Experience.
The duo met Kwani and Mohamed during a 2006 tour of the country. A “very good and unique” improvisational session at Shivava café in Newtown led to a follow-up at the Africa Day Festival in Marseilles in 2007 and a performance at Arts Alive in Johannesburg in September of that year.
An album, Ashes to Machine, has been recorded. About his fellow musicians, Corsini is effusive: “Kwani have a freshness in the way they make music which we haven’t seen in France for a very long time. Musically, Pops is experimental, he adds the ambience and colour,” said Corsini.
While this project appears to have burgeoned, Corsini admits that bringing together electronic and organic music does have its difficulties. A lack of exposure to technology among local artists and the waning of indiÂgenous music are cited as the two main stumbling blocks to collaborations that have taken in countries like Syria, Honduras, Zanzibar and Guatemala.
A highlight for Corsini has been working with Ethio-jazz founder Mulata Astatke, who has been fusing Western jazz and funk with traditional Ethiopian folk music and ancient Coptic Church music since the 1960s.
“That was incredible, as was working with the Garefunas in Honduras. They’re [inspired by] slaves who had been living together for more than 300 years. Playing with them you can see how the musical style and rhythm of South America, from Cuba to Brazil, has its roots in Africa. You understand how music travels and how it all comes back,” he said.
According to Corsini, the Ashes to Dust project started as a once-off in Kenya three years ago. An invitation by the French Institute in Nairobi to collaborate with 10 artists was recorded and the video compelled 25 other French Institutes around the world to send out a similar invitation to work with locals in those countries.
When not wandering the musical globe, Corsini works with other musical explorers from France. With inimitable flautist Magic Malik and DJ Rebel, he performs as Shogun, while he also works with the outfit called the Troublemakers. Their second album, Expressway was recently released on the Blue Note label.
His debut solo effort, Watch Your Step, described as a “mix of jazz, hip-hop and electro” will be released later this year.
The Ashes to Machine collaboration between DJ Oil, Pops Mohamed and Kwani Experience takes place at Afrotronic # 2 on June 6 at Carfax, 39 Gwigwi Mrwebi Street, Newtown, Johannesburg. The line-up also includes the French-Malawian combination The Latitudz who meld hip-hop with rock music, two-time Sama-nominated rap artist, Zubz and DJ Black Coffee. Doors open at 8pm, R80