[APWW #676] [Originally aired in 2013]
Technology is one of the great drivers of musical change, and often one of it's least understood.  In this episode, we will explore the synthesizer, looking closely at the history of this ubiquitous (and often debated) piece of musical technology, and investigating how and why it was first used in a variety African musics. Enabled by groundbreaking reissues of synth pioneers like William Onyeabor (Nigeria) and Hailu Mergia (Ethiopia), disco stars like Kris Okotie, and South African bubblegum superstars like Brenda Fassie, we will take you back to the 70’s and 80’s, listening to the birth of a distinctly African electronic sound.

Afro-Tech: Stories of Synths in African Music

ehhh, but this is my favorite band in the wholewide world. COLDPLAY

Sometimes (2019) is a piece for vocal ensemble and live electronics inspired by (and in tribute to) Olly Wilson’s Sometimes (1976) for tenor and tape. Olly Wilson was one of the founding members of Oberlin’s TIMARA department, and with his passing in March 2018, I wanted to ensure his compositional and educational legacy was honored at TIMARA's 50th Anniversary Kaleidosonic Music Festival. The piece incorporates bits and pieces of the original melody, accompanied by varying vocal textures, including direct harmonization, hissing/whispering, and other extended vocal techniques.  Given the original is also based on the Negro spiritual, Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, the piece also incorporates elements of call-and-response and improvisation traditional to the Africana aesthetic. To further develop the immersive sonic world, the vocal parts are then spatialized throughout a speaker array using the spat5 Max external, to further play with the distinction between its “traditionally choral” elements and the extended techniques. 

	Attached is a recording of its premiere at the Kaleidosonic Music Festival in November 2019, performed by the Oberlin College Black Musicians’ Guild.  The 16-channel diffused file was encoded with Ambisonic UHJ formatting in order to simulate the spatialization in stereo.

Sopranos: Helena Colindres, Amber Rogers
Altos: Georgia Heers, Nicole Odreman, Adriana Vergara
Tenors: DaQuan Williams, Seyquan Mack
Bass-Baritones: Max Addae, Anthony Anderson

"Sometimes" for vocal ensemble & live electronics

This song is about the complexity of emotion when it comes to intimate relationships. So sit back (with a pair of headphones), relax, and enjoy the acapella sounds of an amateur jazz voice major trying to make music. First of many...xo!

Lyrics:
(cash back, heart attack, I'm glad, I'm mad, cash back, heart attack, yo bad, yo bad)
No I don't do like that
Tell you all my feelings
And I don't do like that
What's the point of healing?

No I won't do like that
Just to get no respect
But I need you like that
My feelings I cannot protect

{Is this feeling so sublime? Like cherry wine, so sublime. I don't mind. Feel like cryin'. This has got to surely be love.}

I'm tryna find it inside of me
Not tryna find an apology
At 18 didn't know 'bout none
Still don't know sh*t, almost 21

I'm trying to find it, I'm trying to find out (repeat)

{Is this feeling so sublime? Like cherry wine, so sublime. I don't mind. Feel like cryin'. This has got to surely be love.}

Easier Sad Than Done

Sometimes you gotta follow your instinct

Verse
Stuck on the side of the freeway
Don’t know, I don’t wanna stay
I gotta keep moving
But the GPS isn’t working
What do I do, this isn’t even my car
The worst part is I’m very very far
I just crossed the line

Pre-chorus
But instinct told me
Just keep going
But instinct told me
Just keep going     

Chorus
So that’s when I said
Tell me where to go
Lead the way and let me know
Tell me where to go
Lead the way and let me know
Tell me where to go
Lead the way and let me know

Verse
Don’t want to get out of bed today
I have no reason to get away
Why is today so boring   
I’d rather just snuggle, stay snoring
What do I do, my day isn’t up to par
But a change in attitude, will help my go really far
I need some inspiration 

Pre-chorus
But instinct told me
Just keep going
But instinct told me
Just keep going     

Chorus
So that’s when I said
Tell me where to go
Lead the way and let me know
Tell me where to go
Lead the way and let me know
Tell me where to go
Lead the way and let me know
  
Bridge 
From the pyramids of giza
To the hagia sophia
Or the leaning tower of pisa
Or is pronounced just pizza
There's so much to see 
And I get lost

Chorus
So that’s when I said
Tell me where to go
Lead the way and let me know
Tell me where to go
Lead the way and let me know
Tell me where to go
Lead the way and let me know

Instinct

Produced, Mixed, and Mastered by Mark Ligonde
Vocals by Cyril Amanfo

Kodak Moment (feat. Cyril Amanfo)

Weighted Love [feat. Gabe Morales]

Produced, Mixed, and Mastered by Mark Ligonde

Co-Produced by Sydney Ligonde

Album Art: Alex Huynh 
Features by:
Daniel Spearman 
Gabe Morales

Kanse (Nouvo Kompa Club Mix)

Oberlin College & Conservatory '21
Computer Science & Technology in Music and Related Arts (TIMARA) 

Programmer | Vocal Arranger | Composer