Kamva’s “Third Space” event series in collaboration with Boiler Room is a unique voice in modern electronic music, bringing global underground rhythms in dance music to the forefront and shining light on communities and spaces whose influence on culture is often overlooked and neglected. We spoke with Amílcar Patel and Chris Kets from the collective about the project and their upcoming stage at Boiler Room Festival Berlin on 17th November.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind “Thirdspace”, and its actualization?
Third Space connects disparate diasporic scenes through shared dance and music culture. Each Third Space project we do gives us a new way to strengthen connections between underground artists from the Global South and beyond. Each project gives us a new lens through which to reflect on our shared histories and then use these conversations to collectively imagine and create new futures using dance and music culture as the starting point.
Growing up in South Africa, we experienced the power of music to both provide energy during the long fight for freedom and to draw people from abroad into the injustices. Miriam Makeba for example contributed to the through the messages of her songs, tours, and concerts that ended in political rallies and her anti-apartheid speeches at the United Nations. Musicians have unique access to people’s attention and hearts. Of course the form of live concerts has changed as so much youth music culture is experienced through electronic dance music in clubs and on online platforms often having viewership of millions. These are potentially powerful spaces to create awareness and social change. Through showing the buried connections between our cultures and exploring the throughline between past traditional music and cultural practices and present ways of youth expression we hope to shift the way we see ourselves – unmoored consumers, but citizens with a rich and connected history.
During the lockdown we formed KAMVA as a way to build on ideas of using popular culture as a tool for social and political change. During this time we created the Mzansi Gqom Shocase for Nyege Nyege’s hybrid festival of the arts featuring DJ LAG, Phelimuncasi, Menzi and more. This was our first attempt at working within this space of experimental long-form music video and dance. Within it we also began to draw the connections between traditional cultural practices from the region and the pre-colonial purpose of music in South Africa as a tool for healing and a source of power for those going into battle. We explored the ways in which music encoded and held onto history that colonial powers were trying to erase.
Shortly after this KAMVA was awarded the Boiler Room Broadcast Lab grant for our Third Space concept which saw Scratchclart, underground music pioneer grime dancehall vocalist Lady Lykez collaborate live and remotely with Durbans Gqom musicians Menzi and Phelimuncasi. Produced remotely under deep lockdown and in a very experimental style was very well received internationally and it laid the groundwork for Third Space and its actualization.
After this we went on to do the second and third installment “Beyond Baile Funk and Batida” which comprised of two episodes and a visual podcast, featuring artists from Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon and Angola and more recently “Beyond Bubbling and Kaapsqom” which looks into Carribean Bubbling in the Netherlands through artist De Schuurman and the evolution of the Kaapsqom sound with Cape Town based Surreal Sessions. These episodes explored modalities of worship, carnival observances, ceremonial drumming and queer culture all entwined in the expression of modern dance music.
The history of colonization is a central theme that you are addressing, can you tell us a bit about this and what outcomes you hope to achieve through this project?
Our global history has for a long period of time been the story of the formation of a global economic system that was based on the exploitation of colonised countries. This still continues in many ways in the present day. As South Africans, we see the way culture and music gave a platform for voices to tell their version of history. History is often a tool used to keep a certain system in power – and was written for this purpose during the establishment of the colonial project. Often, decolonial practices are written in the same language that excludes the people most affected by the ramifications of it. Third Space is simply shining a light, or giving a microphone to – those who are already re-writing their own histories through music and culture. It’s powerful to see in these projects that when we connect as people on the ground and tell our own stories to each other, the kind of conversations and collaborations that come out of it. There are so many parallels and when we start to make those connections we see the bigger picture and how we can unite to change it, even in seemingly small ways, and the power it has. There is already such a strong wave of creative energy coming out of the Global South and as Third Space, the best way to achieve our aim is to create a space where that can be nurtured.
“Beyond Grime & Gqom”, the first installation of the series, aimed to bridge the gap between communities, cultures and sounds. Could you tell us about the obstacles you faced with this project, being innovators in a space that still has much to be explored?
Beyond Grime and Gqom was our first installation, yes and it was a crazy experience making it happen. Working remotely, between London and Durban via zoom, with all its technical difficulties, rolling blackouts and data issues during the lockdown when we still all had to wear masks and have permits to work was surreal. Luckily we were working with great people who were open to this experiment and willing to take risks. Our collaborator and friend April Walker of the Crudo Volta collective held it down in the UK – filming through a semi-abandoned council estate in East London with minimal crew. We had amazing people at Boiler Room who were really pushing the boundaries of their broadcast technology – Lady Lykez and Phelimuncasi performed with each other via zoom between Durban and London, with language barriers and all. We learnt a great deal from that first installment and it’s only through taking risks, being open to failing and experimenting that you learn and grow. The outcome was really magical and worth it!
For each of you, is there any particular “Third Space” episode or moment that personally stands out?
Chris: For me, there were so many moments even behind the scenes that were really special. Whenever I hear the artists speaking to each other for the first time that is a really special moment because it’s when the ideas begin sparking and the initial energy is created. One crazy moment was when we sent an “Nkisi” doll from South Africa, made by Amílcar, to Portugal. Nkisi is an object that a spirit inhabits and the concept passed with the Atlantic slave trade to the Americas. The moment when our dancer Fabio encounters the Nkisi in Lisbon is a pretty powerful scene for me. If I can add one more! The moment DJ NK plays the actual remix of Baile Funk and Kuduro to traditional Angolan percussionist Simon Eva on a cellphone and he recognizes the rhythm as an old traditional song and starts playing it on the drum – that was pretty wild too.
Amílcar: In Beyond Bubbling and Kaapsqom we hear a poem written in Nama, one of the world’s endangered languages, and see it being spoken over the ocean in the place where the Portuguese colonists first tried to enter the Cape. Their ship got wrecked by the winds and currents of the Cape, or perhaps it was the ancestral spirits.
In Beyond Baile Funk and Batida, we see Yemaya’s, a West African water goddess with her sacred mirror under the water, and then cut to the hot streets of Rio, where our Passinho dancer Celly`s face is reflected in Yemaya’s mirror. We hear Yemaya’s melodic vocal underwater echoes, and then cut to our Cabo Verde Morna singer in a neighbourhood in Lisbon singing the same melancholic song of longing. This seeks to show the commonplace, everyday aspects of social life that are made to appear mundane or commonplace are actually linked to the spectacular, the epic – and that the divine mystery is always contained in us.
KAMVA is curating a stage at Boiler Room festival in Berlin this November. Could you give us some insight into what inspired the curation for the artists you have included in this event?
We are thrilled to have our friends Gabber Modus Operandi on our stage this year! Riotous and ritualistic gamelan metal makers GMO lead us into the witching hours of our stage. Their harcdore gabber is retranslated through Gamelans cyclical microtonal scales. They will collaborate with Tanzania’s singeli musicians Sisso & Maiko live on stage.
We time travel with Azu Tiwlaines exploring their spacey Tunisian Sahara dub-craft just after Nazar, the pioneer of a new hybrid style of Kuduro inspired by the Angolan civil war. Our host Juba, cultural maker and DJ from London’s BOKO BOKO collective will be our host for the night – tying together the stories in all of these sets.
Our line-up initially included Palestinian and Jordanian artists in the showcase – Mouri, Taymour, Bint7alal and Jude Heib from BLTNM as well as Toumba from Jordan – but given the current situation in Gaza and the escalation in the region they did not feel it was the right time and also with the current suppression of Pro-Palestinian voices in Berlin, it did not seem like the right place. We are working on the beginnings of an exciting project however with some of the artists mentioned outside of the festival. This is such an important moment in history to show our support, educate ourselves and make a global call for change.
This will be your second curated event with Boiler Room in Europe, can you speak on the responsibilities that you feel you have when hosting an event with such an influential platform?
Exactly in moments like this is when that responsibility is felt. How can we use these platforms to make a difference and to unite people – get people’s voices heard who have not had the platform before historically? This is so important and it is an ever-changing and evolving thing – we can only do it in collaboration and through good processes. A process of listening first, talking and figuring it out together. The journey is as important as the outcome in some ways – It’s only by being open to not knowing and being wrong that one can learn how to be better. It’s a big responsibility but when you see yourself as a servant to the change that needs to happen then you can align yourself better with what needs to be done in the moment.
As KAMVA continues to reach greater heights, what exciting projects are you looking forward to in the near future?
KAMVA is still learning to fly but we are getting there! Again it’s a case of also just being ready for whatever comes up, arming yourself with the knowledge and skills you need to respond when the time is right. We have a few concepts in the pipeline that have been in preparation for some time now – 6Sense is a film about visually impaired Gqom producer Mxshi Mo and his collaborative project with More Time records which will be coming out soon! We have been exploring public art, print and XR mediums. Third Space continues to grow and expand. Generally we want to keep making connections between the worlds of music, activism, nature, history and technology and looking at ways of finding ourselves within the digital revolution.
KAMVA x Boiler Room Festival 2023 Lineup:
Azu Tiwaline | DJ Sisso and Maiko | Gabber Modus Operandi | Juba (Host and opening DJ)
