Takula

Takula is the eponymous debut of a five-piece from Malawi and Norway, comprising singer-guitarists Peter Mawanga, Faith Mussa and Georg Buljo, percussionist Marlyn Chakwera, and bassist Samuel Mkandawire. It features re-imagined and reinterpreted songs drawn from the archives of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, the country's sole recording facility for decades. Field recordings and radio sessions comprise a second disc from those archives, discovered and unlocked by Norwegian broadcaster and African music aficionado Sigbjørn Nedland, using vintage tape machines from Norway's Cold War-era civil defence radio station – no other facility had preserved this redundant technology [read more in #144, p9].

The songs sport traditional Malawian rhythms and harmonies as this band of players unlock their history from long-locked-in sound archives, reinterpreting tribal chants and catchy original songs in a smooth, accomplished and melodic style, with soft harmony vocals, pop hooks and ensemble playing that applies a cool sheen to the archive sources. The six archive recordings themselves are a mix of original singer-songwriter material and tribal group chants that are powerful and resonant fields recordings. While the new interpretations are smoothly soulful and attractive, I was more drawn to the archive, of which this is a tiny sliver. A fuller release would be welcome.