On tour in sub-Saharan Africa, pioneer German electronic musician Burnt Friedman teams up with South African percussion legend Tlale Makhene for a one-off concert – a feast of rhythmic experimentation that will explode the boundaries between electric and acoustic, traditional and experimental, texture and melody.
Other dates of the Burnt Friedman Tour in sub-Saharan Africa:
04/10/2013 Lagos, Nigeria
07/10/2013 Nairobi, Kenya, with Otieno Wakake
10/10/2013 Kampala, Uganda, with Hakimu Kiwanuka
Burnt Friedman is one of Germany’s most established and highly rated electronic musicians with a career spanning almost 40 years. Born in Coburg, Germany in 1965, he has lived in Berlin since 2009. After initially being a student of art in Kassel in northern Germany, Burnt started to focus exclusively on music from the late 1980s onwards. He went on to attend the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne as a postgraduate student and began to publish his musical works along with his studio productions in 1979. He also began performing live around the same time, and soon attracted the attention of the Cologne electronic music scene. From there he progressed to various notable music collaborations throughout the 1990s on projects with the likes of Jaki Liebezeit, Hayden Chisholm, Root70, Mark Ernestus, Steve Jansen, David Sylvian and Atom™. In 2000 Friedman launched his own record label, Nonplace, with 35 releases to date.
Working under the solo artist name of Burnt Friedman, he sought to address public prejudice at that time regarding the authenticity of programmed music. His studio and on-stage partnership with Jaki Liebezeit, the former drummer of CAN, now dates back 13 years; the two musicians have developed pioneering electronic-acoustic music over that period. On the strength of their craft and universal musical vocabulary they have consciously distanced themselves from the traditional formulas of Western European and Anglo-American music.
Burnt Friedman’s work has been critically acclaimed by the international music press. Data Transmission in the UK described his recent album release with Jaki Liebezeit as “destined for cult success“. After carrying out a tour in sub-Saharan
Africa in association with the GoetheInstitut, Burnt Friedman will be releasing a new album in November 2013. www.burntfriedman.com
Born in Soweto, Tlale Makhene moved to Swaziland at a young age and began drumming at
the age of four. Today, he is one of South Africa’s most remarkable drumming talents, often
referred to as “The Groove Master” because of his amazing practical and conceptual skills as
polyrhythmic percussionist. Highly regarded by musicians and musical fans alike, he has been featured in and produced more than 300 jazz and world music albums and is a much sought after indigenous music teacher, musical director, session musician and performer.
His album ‘The Ascension of the Enlightened’ won the MTN South African Music Award for Best Contemporary Album in 2005.
Born in Soweto, Tlale Makhene moved to Swaziland at a young age and began drumming at the age of four. Today, he is one of South Africa’s most remarkable drumming talents, often referred to as “The Groove Master” because of his amazing practical and conceptual skills as polyrhythmic percussionist. Highly regarded by musicians and musical fans alike, he has been featured in and produced more than 300 jazz and world music albums and is a much sought after indigenous music teacher, musical director, session musician and performer.
His album ‘The Ascension of the Enlightened’ won the MTN South African Music Award for Best Contemporary Album in 2005.
Tlale Makhene has worked with a very wide range of high-profile South African and international musicians, including Keiko Matsui, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Marcio Tubino, Sawubona, Judith Siphuma, Sibongile Khumalo, Pharaoh Sanders, Corrine Bailey, Angelique Kidjo and Jamalia, Caiphus Semenya, Arturo Sandoval, Bashiri Johnson, Branford Marsalis, Louis Nash and Herbie Hancock, McCoy Mrubata, Paul Hanmer, Simphiwe Dana, Flo D, and Shannon Modday. In 2012, he performed at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, worked as Musical Director and mentor for the Sibikwa African Indigenous Orchestra and participated in the “Refuse the Hour” tour with William Kentridge, performing in the Netherlands, France and Italy.
http://myspace.com/tlalemakhene
SOUND MIND LAB: MPHO MOLIKENG
SoundMindLab is an exciting new Johannesburg-based artistic venture that provides a regular platform for innovative contemporary, electronic and experimental music, as well as creative conversations and workshops around contemporary sonic and interdisciplinary practice.
Lesotho-born Mpho Molikeng is a multi-faceted artist, musician, poet, actor, dancer, painter and cultural activist/entrepreneur who fuses African and Western instruments. His extraordinary sounds are a combination of natural sounds, electronics, music from instruments made of recycled materials, as well as lesiba, ’mamokhorong, setolo-tolo, mbira, djembe and others. His journey of teaching people how to play and listen to Basotho music has taken him round the world.
