Dancehall to Gengetone and back

This project will investigate the similarities and differences between strains of dancehall and sound system culture from Jamaica currently being cross-pollinated with electronic music from Germany, and urban youth cultural phenomena from Nairobi, Kenya in the form of the popular genres of “gengetone” and “arbantone”.

The interaction will explore linkages within their work, and related youth culture movements. It will reframe this dynamic as part of a larger decolonization of musical languages and open up dialogues that will inform new strains of global hybridity. Through a reciprocal residency Gavin Blair (Gavsborg, Equiknoxx Music), a Jamaican producer, DJ and performer based in Berlin, will collaborate with SnSe and Rafiiki, part of the Santuri East Africa collective.

The results of this dynamic exchange will be presented in Nairobi as a public talk and a performance. Further performances at the Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin, and at Open Ground in Wuppertal, will follow.

The project has been ideated between Santuri, Gavin Blair, Piranha Arts and Open Ground.