INSPIRED by their theatrical hit Black Brass from the 2021 Perth Festival, African-born musicians Mahamudo Selimane and Mararo Wangai have put together a purely musical venture which launches at Clancy’s in Fremantle on April 28.

The pair now live in Perth and will release their album Khululeko, which means Freedom in one of the languages of the native Bantu people of southern Africa.

Kenyan-born Wangai, who has forged a name in literary circles and last year was awarded the Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli Fellowship at the WA Centre of Stories, says the album celebrates the unity which music brings.

• Mararo Wangai and Mahamudo Selimane (above) will perform at Clancy’s Fremantle, and (below) Peter Gabriel who signed the Mozambique band Eyuphoro, which Selimane plays in

He says it’s a “healing balm, a sound of peace throughout a world full of war, oppression, and indifference.

“Music asks us to feel and connect with our spirits regardless of the languages it is sung in, or the particularities of the bodies singing it.

“Music will always defy borders, divisions and the arbitrary walls that so-called world leaders create.

“Music connects me with my continent, and its history.” 

The collaborators met in Perth and worked on Wangai’s show Black Brass, which was centred around music and went on to tour the Sydney Festival and South Africa’s Bloemfontein Festival.

Wangai said it was the encouraging feedback from audiences that prompted them to work on a solely musical project, and he acknowledges that Selimane’s experience in the industry brought something special to the music.

Selimane is a member of Mozambique’s most successful international exports, Eyuphoro, one of the first bands to be picked and promoted by pop icon Peter Gabriel’s world music label Real World.

Eyuphoro use traditional rhythms from Mozambique’s Nampula province, such as tufo, namhandga, masepua and djarimane, blended with a cosmopolitan mix of Latin and Arabic styles, reflective of the areas role as a meeting point of cultures.

Selimane and Wangai teamed up with local musos Lucky Oceans on steel guitar, Michael Bose on drums, Tom Greble on the saxophone and John Wilson on bass to record the album.

by MAX BENNETTS