Santuri East Africa is a community-focussed music innovation hub based in Nairobi, Kenya.
We exist to bring about a more equitable, authentic and diverse music industry.
Kilele is over, but we’ve prepared some videos and gallaries so you can re-live our alternative universe.
Click through!
Award-winning music education in Nairobi
Studios, Santuri Salon workshop space, gear hire and more
The region’s first music tech and innovation summit
Artist development, events, bookings and more
Incubating creative enterprises
︎︎︎We specialize in providing progressive, globally-focussed music education for producers and DJs through the Santuri Electronic Music Academy (SEMA).
︎︎︎We connect artists to knowledge, music technology, production & recording facilities, and cultural dialogues at our Santuri Salon space.
︎︎︎We create opportunities for sonic artists through showcase events, residencies and collaborations
︎︎︎We provide an environment that lives our commitment to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
︎︎︎We build partnerships and develop networks globally to support artists and creatives
︎︎︎We host an annual music tech and innovation summit - Kilele
A quick look back on Kilele 2025.
Over 6 glorious days Kilele returned to The Mall, and delivered that ‘difficult second album’. It proved to be the step forward we hadn’t dared to imagine - a rich, vibrant, thought-provoking mix of showcases, panels, workshops and installations that truly lived up to our mantra of Kilele being ‘a space for adventurous music and culture in East Africa.
Here’s some highlights while we sift through the various strands that made up the event. We’ll be releasing content over the next months including some of the panels and presentations, radio recordings, a documentary, and more.
First up, the trailer for the after-movie is here:
Top Facts - we weclomed 2400 guests, and 87 particpants from 20 countries.
50.5% of those were non-male
18 Showcase performances
14 panels and talks
12 workshops
Radio broadcasts listened to in 15 countries
Image Gallery - general impressions
Rooftop / Basscamp - sundowners, showcases and networking
Instrument Makers Lab
This year we initiated a new space for experimentation around instrument building. Safe to say this was a major highlight. Huge shout to Elektron for the support!
Special attention should be paid to the Embaire project, which saw Samuel Karugu, Basile Huguenin-Virchaux and Astrid Bin create a xylophone / synth out of skateboards. This project was supported by Pro Helvetia Johannesberg.
Panels, presentation and workshops
Showcases
There were outstanding showcaes through the week, including the opening ceremony featuring Odd Okoddo,and the return of Mzizi Ensemble amoung others
Sound Communties @Unseen
We took a break to check out some films from the community at Unseen. Some impressions here.
Want to support some of the artists you saw at Kilele? Check out this Buy Music Club list:
https://www.buymusic.club/list/kilele_summit-kilele-sounds
Calotropis Radio
What to say about our roving radio alchemists? This was a wonderful addition to Kilele, bringing not just live streams from the Summit but a new perspective on proceedings. We are thankful!
Collaborators:
The Clearing w/ Bizi Bingi, TCHNO, BYT, COSMOS / Le Guess Who?, Kibera Creative Arts (Kica), Mathare Social Justice Center, Creatives Garage, C&, The Mist, Petriole, Unseen Nairobi, and many more!
With thanks to our donors, partners and friends
Africalia - Africalia's mission is to contribute to the recognition of culture as a
key sector of development cooperation, as a vector for sustainable and
inclusive human development, and as an area where international
solidarity between communities and individuals can be expressed in a
creative and enriching way.
Pro Helvetia - the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia supports and promotes Swiss culture in Switzerland and throughout the world
Australian High Commission Nairobi - the AHC are supporting the FEMX stream of Kilele, fore-grounding non-male participation in the summit
Goethe-Institut - the Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany with a global presence
Santuri Culture is the sister organisation of Santuri East Africa and responsible for delivering Kilele 2025.
Tech Partners
ADAM Audio - ADAM Audio was founded in March 1999 in Berlin. Since then the company has been developing, manufacturing and distributing loudspeakers in the field of Professional Audio.
Elektron - is a Swedish developer and manufacturer of musical instruments founded in 1998, as well as having its headquarters, R&D and production in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Focusrite PLC is an English music and audio products group based. The Focusrite Group trades under eight brands: Focusrite, Focusrite Pro, Martin Audio, ADAM Audio, Novation, Ampify Music, Optimal Audio and Sequential.
Image-Line - Makers of the legendary FL Studio, one of the most iconic peices of music software of all time.
Orchestral Tools is a forward-thinking sample library development team with offices in Berlin and Freiburg, Germany. Originally founded in 2005 by Hendrik Schwarzer, the company creates premium-quality sampled instruments that encompass both the traditional orchestra as well as modern sound design, with influences from classic film scores, contemporary orchestral music, post-punk, field recordings, and musique concréte.
Contact:
kilele@santuri.org
East Africa’s music tech and innovation summit is back
The 2nd edition of Kilele will land February 18th to 22nd, 2025. Here’s what you need to know.
Kilele is a space for adventurous music and culture.
With a rich mix of showcases, panels, workshops and installations, Kilele’s purpose is to spark conversations, collaborations and innovations. It’s for musicians, producers, DJs, technologists, activists, academics and anyone interested in the future of East African (and global) music. We bring everyone from international music brands to underground collectives together, and celebrate music and culture in an open and inclusive space.
When and where is it happening?
February 18th to 22nd 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Most of the events will happen at our homebase, The Mall, in Westlands.
We’re also planning some additional (still secret) locations for special events,
so keep an eye out for the full program.
Tickets on sale now
What’s On?
This year we are grouping our programme into distinct thematic areas, which are namely;
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After a year marked by ever increasing climate-related crises in Kenya and the world at large, how are artists and the music industry responding and relating to the issues of climate justice?
Our program at Kilele will include a wide range of responses to this question, from community activism within affected neighbourhoods, workshops on sustainability and creative recycling, as well as focussed sessions connecting and listening to the natural world.
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“Everything sounds somehow Western—very mechanical, not organic like the rough tones and raw drums I heard growing up in Nairobi. Even as I try to break away from the loops and the 1-2-3-4 drive of these music tools, I always end up back there somehow.” - Slickback
At Kilele 2024 we heard Astrid Bin’s comparison of the musical interfaces (midi controllers etc) with ultra processed food - generic, functional and predictable. This year we are diving into instrument creation from another direction. What can instrument builders learn from local creators, and what forms of hybridity are possible and desirable in the instruments of the future?
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Over the past decades community as a concept has been drained of its meaning, co-opted by corporations, governments, state institutions. In our own context around the industry of culture, we paradoxically see the emergence of true social communities that share values, connections, and ways of living, and the unseemly competition for resources, opportunities and recognition.
At Kilele we welcome Sound Communities from outside the mainstream - local, regional and global - to participate, collaborate, and share their passions, seeking new ways to reject polarization and foster understanding.
After a year marked by ever increasing climate-related crises in Kenya and the world at large, how are artists and the music industry responding and relating to the issues of climate justice?
Our program at Kilele will include a wide range of responses to this question, from community activism within affected neighbourhoods, workshops on sustainability and creative recycling, as well as focussed sessions connecting and listening to the natural world.
“Everything sounds somehow Western—very mechanical, not organic like the rough tones and raw drums I heard growing up in Nairobi. Even as I try to break away from the loops and the 1-2-3-4 drive of these music tools, I always end up back there somehow.” - Slickback
At Kilele 2024 we heard Astrid Bin’s comparison of the musical interfaces (midi controllers etc) with ultra processed food - generic, functional and predictable. This year we are diving into instrument creation from another direction. What can instrument builders learn from local creators, and what forms of hybridity are possible and desirable in the instruments of the future?
Over the past decades community as a concept has been drained of its meaning, co-opted by corporations, governments, state institutions. In our own context around the industry of culture, we paradoxically see the emergence of true social communities that share values, connections, and ways of living, and the unseemly competition for resources, opportunities and recognition.
At Kilele we welcome Sound Communities from outside the mainstream - local, regional and global - to participate, collaborate, and share their passions, seeking new ways to reject polarization and foster understanding.
PERFORMERS
(click the images to step through the aritsts’ bios / socials)
and more to be announced.
Panels, presentations and workshops by:
Mina
Sam Achola / Usanii
Adam Yawe
Mashariki Vibes
Afrikaan Kodo
Tech Workshops:
FL Studio
Focusrite / Novation
Focusrite / Novation
Ableton
ADAM Audio
ADAM Audio
Elektron
Orchestral Tools
Orchestral Tools
Instrument Makers Lab
This year we are delighted to debut the Instrument Makers Lab - for the duration of the Summit
we’ll have a space dedicated to the creation of instruments - building, crafting, coding,
programming and recycling - anything goes. We can’t wait to hear what comes out of this,
and will be presenting as much as possible during Kilele week.
Curators
Over 50% of the Kilele programme is sourced by you, our community.
We received scores of proposals and pitches from around the world,
from which a mix of talks, performances, panels and installations were selected.
The full programme will be out in January.
The programme is curated by a collective of artists and cultural practitioners, including;
Nyokabi Kariũki
[ᴍᴏɴʀʜᴇᴀ]
Bernt Isak WærstadSanturi Culture
Collaborators:
The Clearing w/ Bizi Bingi, TCHNO, BYT, COSMOS / Le Guess Who?, Kibera Creative Arts (Kica), Mathare Social Justice Center, Creatives Garage, C&, The Mist, Petriole, Unseen Nairobi, and many more!
Live streaming and sound art from around the festival by Calotropis
Tickets on sale now!
Contact:
kilele@santuri.org
KILELE 2025 OFFICIAL PROGRAMME
LIVE STREAM
Stream A
Stream B
Calotropis is a community-based radio that believes in the importance of the ongoing pulse of music and making; aiming to stretch the radiophonic by dancing in the archives, collaborating with the underground, and, in their words, ‘never forgetting the skies beyond the sky’.
Calotropis orients the vocabulary of its practice around two principles of faith:
1) access to the event, and
2) the becoming of the radio.
Intuitively somatogenic in their practice, and in their forms of gathering, inviting all ears to experiment, breathe, oscillate, (g)listen — they overall insist that the radio must continue sharing and stretching its loving transmissions all while resisting against all who want to steal/kill ‘our’ sound.
The place of the radio, and so the place of Calotropis in the Kilele Summit 2025, involves a three-part installation that embeds itself to the core of summit — by streaming, recording and thus taking part in the archiving of elements of Kilele [available thru calotropis.xyz] — while altogether radioing into the summit by transforming its space into a playful and restful elaboration of 'the becoming of the radio'.
PROGRAMMING
The Rinse Room
What is the body saying? Are you still enough to listen? Is there tension in your shoulders? Is your jaw clenched? When was the last time you caught up with yourself? Inner ear, what signal are transmitting?
Situated in a room close to the basement elevators
— The Rinse Room is a place to rest the senses, because the radio is a place to rest the senses, because The Rinse Room is a part of the radio.
You may arrive here: one can soothe the senses, rest away while within the radiophonic of the summit and its sounds. In this room you can listen and not see, see and listen/or not, participate in some tactile play through crafting and be held.
Karibuni.
We will be situated in Calotropis HQ at the clocktower where we will also have a merch station right outside on the rooftop. Here, we shall continue to ask ourselves: what does the Inside of a radio look like?