'N Gewone Blou Maandagoggend
(An ordinary blue Monday)
by Naomi van Niekerk, South Africa

2016, 3 min 20 sec.
Based on the 2008 poem, by Ronelda Kamfer. Voice: Ronelda Kamfer.

What about the law? (What abou' DE lô?)
by Charles Badenhorst, South Africa

2015, 3 min 14 sec.
Animation to the poem, What abou' DE lô? by Adam Small.

Repair Nations Pt. 1 by Kieran C Murray, Scotland

2018, 4 min.
A visual narrative on contemporary unresolved racism and violence in the USA taken from various films to which Kieran composed with sampled sounds from East West Composer Cloud, Avid’s piano and XLN Audio’s Addictive Keys virtual instruments. The listener is invited to interpret, explore and ask questions, in the hope that answers and solutions may be found.
The harmonic language of Repair Nations Pt. 1 utilizes a hip hop style beat, with disparate musical elements and instruments on top to represent tension and release, and suggestions of different nations coming together or clashing. While the uprising is taking place (00:33 and 03:02) there are staccato syncopated horns and syncopated synth bass with a bed of supporting chords on an electric piano, when the images switch to the America Southern plantation house and big trees, violins suggest an older European influence.

Yellow Whale (Geel Walvis)
by Alida Bothma, South Africa

2016, 2 min 26 sec.
Stop motion animation to the poem, Geel Walvis by Nathan Trantaal.

Hūkerikeri by Alec Tolland, Ruby Brett,
Schacola Marsters & Yifan Ma, Aotearoa | New Zealand

2018, 1 min 31 sec.
A turbulent wind stop motion animation for their bachelors in film and media at Waikato university.

Inhale / Exhale by Kaitlin Stewart, Aotearoa | New Zealand

2018, 1 min 50 sec.
Made as part of her bachelors at Waikato university.

Forbidden Dub by Kieran C Murray, Scotland

2018, 5 min 10 sec.
Music and Sound Design: Kieran C Murray
Original Film Credits: Film: Sputnik
Director / Designer / Producer: Maxim Zhestkov
Compositing: Alexander Kulikov
Animation: Dmitrii Kolpakov
Character design: Ben Mauro
Mo-cap actor: Yaroslav Andronov
FX artist: Artur Gadzhiev
Character CG producer: Maxim Miheenko
Character artist: Konstantin Illin
Additional character artist: Nikita Replyanski

The Nyabinghi Order along with their drums and chants have been outlawed and banished from planet earth, their music deemed a threat to the planet’s sinister new rulers. The last remaining recordings of The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari (1973) were smuggled onto a space probe by the Nyabinghi Order before they were banished forever to a prison on Mars.

The probe continues its search for the planet Kete, from where it knows the sacred sounds contained within can be broadcast across the galaxy. It is discovered on one of Kete’s moons by an ancient Guardian Of Sound who ensures its sonic waves are bounced over to Kete and finally broadcast across the galaxy. This fulfils the role of this traditional African-Jamaican music in re-generating the spiritual energy required for society to come alive and sustain and preserve the unity of humankind with the cosmos.

“Traditional art generates and stores the spiritual energy that can make the society come alive and remain so. It establishes, sustains and preserves both the unity of the human group with the cosmos.” (Dr Olive Lewin)

The music video soundtrack for Forbidden Dub incorporates a sample of Jamaican Nyabinghi drumming from Narration by Count Ossie and The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, which fades into a four-on-the-floor style instrumental dub reggae track. Alluding to forms of Jamaican religious trance music, the drum kit is locked to the feel and groove of the Nyabinghi drum sample and the key stays in E flat minor throughout, with some diatonic chord movements occurring during the space forest journey at 03:15 suggesting forward motion as the Guardian Of Sound caries the space probe to the village. Samples (permission obtained) of Jamaican singer U-Roy’s voice are heard on the wind along with ethereal voices.

Kieran plays a bass line on Forbidden Dub that references Exodus by Bob Marley and The Wailers when the probe is lost in the moon’s desert, (01:24) and during the Sound Guardian’s journey across the desert (alluding to the period of wandering from the book of Exodus in the Old Testament). The journey theme (beginning 02:50) gives a nod to the Jamaican dub pioneer Augustus Pablo, but instead of using Pablo’s signature instrument the melodica he used a harmonium sound similar to one used in The Beatle’s We Can Work It Out. A generic guitar ‘cheke’ rhythm and B3 organ ‘bubble’ supports the drums and bass providing an effective riddim for the synth and otherworldly sounds and themes to sit on top of. Some of the almost atonal synth sounds are reminiscent of Forbidden Planet thereby triggering association with that classic nineteen fifties sci-fi film.