The Sunday Mail
Andrew Moyo —
AFRO-fusion group Mokoomba might be struggling to gain influence on the local music scene, but it continues to raise Zimbabwe’s flag high around the globe.
Mokoomba is often mentioned among some of the most exciting performing acts on the continent, having toured over 50 countries and performed at high profile festivals.
Made up of Mathias Muzaza, Trustworth Samende, Abundance Mutori, Donald Moyo, Miti Mugande and Ndaba Coster Moyo, Mokoomba is showing no signs of slowing down.
The group is set to release a new album “Luyando”, in March following a four-year hiatus having released their last project “Rising Tide”, in 2012. The name of the album simply means love in Tonga, which is the group’s native language.
Anticipation for their new project has attracted global attention with The Guardian listing them on their “Future sounds: the best pop and rock of 2017”, alongside other heavyweights including Drake, Iggy Azalea, Black Sabbath, Major Lazer, Nelly Furtado, The Weekend and Craig David to name just a few.
Last week they released a single.
It is titled “Mokole” (The smoke that thunders), which describes the beauty of Victoria Falls, and the importance of the Zambezi River and its life giving force. The full album will be released online on March 10 with the official launch set for March 24 at Theatre in the Park, Harare.
The 10-track effort will be different from their previous projects, with the band stripping down the instrumentation and taking the semi-acoustic contemporary route.
The album was produced by members of the band with every individual contributing to the song-writing, instrumentation and arrangement. The songs were recorded in Zimbabwe and Germany. To ensure the sound was up to scratch, they sought the services of Steve Dyer to do the mixing and mastering.
Speaking to The Sunday Mail Leisure, Mokoomba’s manager Marcus Gora said the album would redefine their sound.
“This is a different approach where we have gone for a semi-acoustic concept which concentrates more on melody and storytelling,” said Gora. “This project is different from our usual Afro-fusion sound and what this means is that we now have two different concepts, which makes us more flexible to play at different kinds of venues, different festivals and for different audiences.
“While the music is grounded in tradition it is very contemporary in the sense that we have brought our own creativity to make a blend that is easy for everyone to listen to.”
Gora said the band will embark on a pre-release tour this month, making stops in seven European countries as they sample the new sound in various settings. From Europe the band will return to Zimbabwe briefly before leaving for the US.
“We are just going to reach as many parts of the world as possible and I think for the next two years we are just going to be touring aggressively in order to push this album.”
Their European tour will see them performing in countries that include Germany, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland.
On the local front, they have rarely done nationwide tours with most of their shows being staged in the capital but this time around they intend to take their new set to various parts of the country.
With the success of their last album, which spread to all continents, getting airplay on different radio stations around the world, Gora said this one will be no different.
He added that they have included a Shona song on the album, which he hopes will introduce the band to new audiences who would not have paid attention if it was in a language they did not understand.
“Because the guys are staying in Harare now, they have been learning Shona, which is why they managed to come up with a Shona song on the album.
“This will definitely provide an entry point for a lot of people who have never really heard Mokoomba’s music or understood what the music was about. We have played this song ‘Nyaradzo’, at our shows and people love it so the pressure has also been coming from our supporters to have it on our album.”
Despite that they have become huge on the global stage, the ground they have covered is very little in capturing the local audience. Gora said their strategy was not to go all out and become a popular band in Zimbabwe, but to rather have a more controlled growth.
“What we want is to win people slowly and we are confident that the people that we win will support us for a very long time. This is different from hype where music fans follow people because of the hype they have at that particular time but when that hype stops, they move to the next artiste.
“If we wanted, we would have made popular, or rather bubblegum music so as to compete with other artistes on the local front but we are going to try and create music that will be in people’s collections for a longer period.”
Meanwhile, Mokoomba is set to perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which starts on April 28 and ends on May 7.
They will share the stage with some of the biggest names in the music industry, like Stevie Wonder, Nas, Maroon 5, Snoop Dog, Pitbull, Meghan Trainor and Lorde among others.
