`Bring the Noise is a project which provides a spring board for all involved to create and communicate through the language of sound and light. Together, we will challenge stereotypes and explore the multitude of cultural identities from the continent of Africa to the streets of London’.
Kelly Budge, Your Mum Visuals

London, 13 September 2007 Some of the most exciting contemporary musicians and VJ-artists from across Africa will collaborate in the UK to produce cutting edge live audio-visual performances as part of London’s Black History Month celebrations this October.

Fifteen performers from ten countries across the African continent will spend two weeks working with leading British musicians IG Culture, drummer Paul Clarvis and VJ-specialist Kelly Budge from Your Mum Visuals, on a unique Bring the Noise collaboration that will premier at the Roundhouse on 5 October and Shunt Lounge on 6th October, 2007.

Organised by the British Council as part of its Africa07 programme, Bring the Noise aims to challenge expectations that UK audiences have about African music by encompassing a range of  contemporary African music genres including reggae, Hip-Hop, jazz, electronica, gospel, and groundbreaking VJ (visual-jockey) artwork.

British Council Music Advisor, Lisa Moult, comments: `The collaboration takes its name from the Public Enemy song featured on their influential 1988 album ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.’ Some of the issues confronted on that seminal album were the most upfront statements about black American culture of their time. Bring the Noise takes the same direct approach as its namesake, as the artists confront the realities of the relationship between the UK and Africa in 2007, a year that marks both the bicentenary of the abolition of Slave Trade Act and the 50th anniversary of Ghana’.
Ghanaian music director, Ivor Placca, who is co-ordinating the collaboration adds: `It is a great opportunity for musicians and visual artists from different cultures to break down some of the effects of artistic globalization. I hope we all go back to our home territories with a new approach to creativity with a fusion of influences, derailing the global pop culture that is sapping the original art form’.

Musicians from Africa include reggae singer Johnny Ragga (Ethiopia), hip-hop musician Kunta Ali (Cameroon), gospel singer OJ (Ghana), MC Muthoni Ndonga (Kenya), MC Keyti (Senegal), singer Emmerson Bockaire (Sierra Leone), singer/songwriter Lisa Shakir (Sudan), reggae musician Ragga Dee (Uganda), traditional musician Paul Ndunguru (Tanzania), and hip-hop artist MI (Nigeria).

The musicians will collaborate with digital visual artists such as Em’Kal (Cameroon), music video maker Abdulai Awudu (Ghana), animator Alfred Muchilwa (Kenya), documentary film maker and photographer Fatoumata Kande (Senegal), and graphic artist Akinwale Ekundayo (Nigeria).
The UK premier at the Roundhouse and Shunt Lounge will be the first in a series of performances across sub-Saharan Africa between November and March, 2008. As well as bringing a new kind of visual experience to live performance for audiences in Africa, Bring the Noise aims to establish new creative partnerships with musicians and artists across the continent and the UK.

* BRING THE NOISE LISTINGS *
5th October: The Roundhouse www.roundhouse.org.uk Doors open at 7.30pm
6th October: The Shunt Lounge www.shunt.co.uk Doors open at 8pm