SHOWCASES
Each night of Kilele will turn the focus directly on the music, showcasing a wide range of live acts, DJs and everything in between.
Monday
Sundowner at Basscamp - opening concert by Nabalayo
+ DJ support.
Nabalayo is a Nairobi based producer, singer- songwriter and performer; channeling indigenous Kenyan ancestral energies to create electronic music. Her music blends ethereal soundscapes and rich local folk idioms with light airy vocals in-order to transport her audience to other realms of existence. Her artistic practice is driven by the val ues of storytelling, archiving and showcasing the beauty of diversity.
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Shelter Club, Woodvale Grove, 8pm
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Wednesday
Slaughterhouse / The Mall Basement
Sharon Onyango-Obbo is a Ugandan music producer audio engineer, DJ, and creative consultant. Through her musical palette, the listener indulges in the nascent shaping of Safari Trap, a sonicscape the sound artist concocts through eloquent blends of alté, R&B, experimental, and electronic textures.
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Monday
Sundowner at Basscamp - opening concert by Nabalayo
+ DJ support.
Nabalayo is a Nairobi based producer, singer- songwriter and performer; channeling indigenous Kenyan ancestral energies to create electronic music. Her music blends ethereal soundscapes and rich local folk idioms with light airy vocals in-order to transport her audience to other realms of existence. Her artistic practice is driven by the val ues of storytelling, archiving and showcasing the beauty of diversity.
Tuesday
Shelter Club, Woodvale Grove, 8pm
Khonjo Kolio is the name of Philip
Charo and his band from Kijiwetanga, Malindi. Charo is one of the
inventors of the zaire style which, despite its reference to Congolese
music, was created amongst musicians of the coastal Kenyan Giriama
community.
Khonjo Kolio has recorded at the legendary Mbwana Radio Service in Mombasa and elsewhere and has a very active following. Khonjo Kolio's showcase will be made possible by the Braid Fund project "Amplifying Kenyan Coastal Music Heritage" (2023-2024).
Khonjo Kolio has recorded at the legendary Mbwana Radio Service in Mombasa and elsewhere and has a very active following. Khonjo Kolio's showcase will be made possible by the Braid Fund project "Amplifying Kenyan Coastal Music Heritage" (2023-2024).
Wednesday
Slaughterhouse / The Mall Basement
Sharon Onyango-Obbo is a Ugandan music producer audio engineer, DJ, and creative consultant. Through her musical palette, the listener indulges in the nascent shaping of Safari Trap, a sonicscape the sound artist concocts through eloquent blends of alté, R&B, experimental, and electronic textures.
vigliensoni is a Montréal-based electronic music artist and performer exploring workflow as experimentation within contemporary music. As a music technology researcher and long-career artist, he is well-versed in both state-of-the-art and experimental music production techniques, analog and digital
machinery for music-making, as well as the many underground and avant-garde subcultures surrounding house and techno.
Bamanya Brian is an experimental multidisciplinary artist from Uganda and performs and records under the name Afrorack. He is one of the people pioneering the making of electronic music instruments in Africa. He has always found fascination in tinkering with electronics, building circuits, hacking devices and messing around with microcontrollers. He has done projects in sound art, electronics, radio, space, electronic music, experimental visuals, renewable energy and kinetic sculptures.
Feldermelder is a swiss Composer, musician, sound designer and installation artist. Co founder of Encor.Studio Co founder of Zürich based label OUS Records.
This performance is being presented thanks to support by Pro Helvetia.
BYTE Collective
- "In the twenty-third year of the twenty-first century, a call was transmitted from BYTE—an ever-conscious planet existing in a parallel timeline of the far, far, far future. Musicolinguists possessing the skills required to nurture and grow its living consciousness heard this call. Having accepted the summons, they took a quantum leap into the future consciousness, where they believe they are the sole inhabitants of BYTE, although that may not be the case. They spend days sharing learnings, stories, and methods—each of them listening to one another, internalizing how they can contribute to building this new planet they now inhabit. In the realm of their current consciousness, preparations are underway to deploy an experience at the Kilele Music Symposium exploring AI modeling, Trans-instrumentation, Live coding, and Software synergy
- The musicolinguists include:
- YumaRuki - Software developer and music technology enthusiast.
- poppingtonic - Co-founder of Fahamu Inc and Sound of Nairobi. Creative coding formed his interest in programming.
- Christine - Software engineer with a curious nudge for visual coding.
- A9C - 388 - A trans-disciplinary artist and creative technologist using emerging technologies for social good.
- Furaha - A storyteller connecting to her technological roots.
- mkw - Software developer and music technology enthusiast.
- Ndung'u Mbithi - Live performer who has been rapidly advancing in creative coding practices.
- Sayankah - Visual artist exploring the visual articulation of the performance.
- [M] - A sound artist who explores creative coding as a means to navigate uncharted waters.
Thursday
Basscamp Sundowner with ANANSI Revolutionary Collective
Get ready for the first ever Conflux workshop series, a course where we'll teach you the technical intricacies of tele-production and the art of collaborating with artists spread across the map. The series will take place on Thursdays at 5PM EAT from January 18th through February 15th, culminating in an open studio session and live tele-performance during the Kilele festival.
Get ready for the first ever Conflux workshop series, a course where we'll teach you the technical intricacies of tele-production and the art of collaborating with artists spread across the map. The series will take place on Thursdays at 5PM EAT from January 18th through February 15th, culminating in an open studio session and live tele-performance during the Kilele festival.
MOOV Cafe, Kilimani 8pm
MOOV DJs & a special guest appearance by Kem Kem and Funk Butcher from the UK, with support from the British Council.
Olukemi Lijadu is a visual artist and filmmaker. She is also known as a DJ and music producer KEM KEM, and has performed around the world under this moniker. Lijadu engages with sound as a transcendent conduit of memory and reconnection for the fractured African diaspora. A trained philosopher; she holds a masters degree in Philosophy from Stanford University. She lives and works between London and Lagos. She has toured and opened for artists such as Tems, Princess Nokia and Liv.E. Over the years, her work and performances have been held at ICA London, Frieze, Mariane Ibrahim Chicago, Tate, Luma Museum Arles. Her original compositions have been played on the runways of Copenhagen fashion week and are woven into her films. As a DJ, KEM KEM has performed in Tokyo, London, Lagos, Gaborone, Berlin, Paris, New York and California. She was selected as a 2023 Villa Albertine resident where she is currently researching and developing a body of work around the West African influence on Chicago House music.![]()
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MOOV DJs & a special guest appearance by Kem Kem and Funk Butcher from the UK, with support from the British Council.
Olukemi Lijadu is a visual artist and filmmaker. She is also known as a DJ and music producer KEM KEM, and has performed around the world under this moniker. Lijadu engages with sound as a transcendent conduit of memory and reconnection for the fractured African diaspora. A trained philosopher; she holds a masters degree in Philosophy from Stanford University. She lives and works between London and Lagos. She has toured and opened for artists such as Tems, Princess Nokia and Liv.E. Over the years, her work and performances have been held at ICA London, Frieze, Mariane Ibrahim Chicago, Tate, Luma Museum Arles. Her original compositions have been played on the runways of Copenhagen fashion week and are woven into her films. As a DJ, KEM KEM has performed in Tokyo, London, Lagos, Gaborone, Berlin, Paris, New York and California. She was selected as a 2023 Villa Albertine resident where she is currently researching and developing a body of work around the West African influence on Chicago House music.
Friday
Basscamp Sundowner with Jungle Culture collective
Get ready for the first ever Conflux workshop series, a course where we'll teach you the technical intricacies of tele-production and the art of collaborating with artists spread across the map. The series will take place on Thursdays at 5PM EAT from January 18th through February 15th, culminating in an open studio session and live tele-performance during the Kilele festival. Join us either online or from the pop-up Basscamp studio in partnership with Santuri.
Get ready for the first ever Conflux workshop series, a course where we'll teach you the technical intricacies of tele-production and the art of collaborating with artists spread across the map. The series will take place on Thursdays at 5PM EAT from January 18th through February 15th, culminating in an open studio session and live tele-performance during the Kilele festival. Join us either online or from the pop-up Basscamp studio in partnership with Santuri.
THE MIST, from 8pm til late
Mizizi Ensemble
Introducing Mizizi Ensemble, a new groundbreaking live electronics musical ensemble featuring singer-songwriter and Orutu player Labdi Ommes (KE), live coder & electronic musician [M] aka. Monrhea Carter (KE), interdisciplinary artist and producer Bernt Isak (NO), composer and experimental vocalist Nyokabi Kariũki (KE), and saxophonist and live-electronics performer Alex Hofmann (DE).
For their debut performance at Kilele, the ensemble have created a site-specific performance for the renowned underground venue, The Mist. The performance will take place as a musical dialogue between the unique voices of the musicians and the distinctive visual and auditory qualities of the space.
Mizizi Ensemble was initiated as a part of “Études for Live Electronics”; an artistic research project that explores new forms for the preservation of computer music works, by establishing an active live-performance practice around them. The ensemble provides an arena for the musicians to explore the intersections of their diverse backgrounds — ranging from Kenyan traditional music, pop music, the western classical world and beyond — within the experimental and playful world of live electronics.
Sam Karugu
Sam Karugu is a musician, producer, and DJ who explores the boundaries of sound and noise. His music is influenced by grindcore, industrial, breakcore, and other electronic genres, as well as traditional African music. He uses noise feedback and wall of sound techniques to create sonic rituals that connect him and the audience in a visceral and cathartic way. He is also part of the duo Duma and Usura, among other projects, where he collaborates with other artists who share his passion for experimental and extreme music and sonic rituals. Sam is based in Nairobi, Kenya, where he is part of a vibrant and diverse musical scene. Sam is always looking for new ways to challenge himself and his listeners, and to express his artistic vision through sound - particularly on his new solo project set for release soon.
