Jacob Mafuleni: Batanidzo

The mbira maestro from Zimbabwe Jacob Mafuleni and his wife Martha Thom on vocals and percussion team up with French electro-funk prodigee Gary Gritness for a fresh and surprising take on traditional Shona music. Gary Gritness’ subtle electronic arrangements take already hypnotic compositions to a higher dance-floor friendly trance without altering the fragile nature of mbira music. This natural and respectful collaboration already resulted in two already classic ‘afro techno’ tracks ATUKA MONDHORO 808 and CHIKONI 808, released on the NYAMI NYAMI records. The present album BATANIDZO (Green Hornet) was recorded live in 2 days at the Red Bull studio in Paris in September 2016 when the band was invited by the Red Bull Music Academy team to participate to their second live music festival.