31st August 2009 - Day 1

A busy first day in Nairobi. We spent most of the morning looking round venues such as the Goethe Institute and Institut Francais before finally settling on our initial choice of the GoDown Centre.

It's close proximity to Ketebul Studios means that if we feel we've got something we're ready to record, we can just grab our kit and walk across in a properly equipped live room.

The GoDown arts centre was established in 2003 and provides a home to artists from all different backgrounds. We're lucky enough to have come to an arrangement with Susanna Owiyo to use her space and equipment at GoDown.

Here's what our neighbours are up to:

The rest of the afternoon we were tying up final arrangements to bring the Kenyan musicians onboard.

We've really please to have confirmed that Joseph Kumura, Ochieng Nelly and Kiruiku Wanganangu (A blind accordian player in his 80's) will be joining our Western contingent of Devon Sproule, Paul Curreri and Ben Mandleson.
Kumura is particularly excited about the project - being a Kikuyu he has never played with a Lua such as Ochieng Nelly. So much so, he now sees the project as a thing of musical unity in Kenya.