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Finally, some time for reflection. Beginning with where to begin…

The last few weeks in Angola were a little bit hectic. To begin with, it’s a difficult country to work in for myriad reasons that need not be listed here. Suffice it to say that aligning and maintaining a group schedule with the band was very challenging. Still, albeit down to the wire, we came out with an epic multilingual composition, the footage to pull together a nice video, and anticipation of another project somewhere down the road. I look forward to finalizing our work soon.

The flight came unexpectedly, by means of a debacle. The sudden, unexpected goodbye stirred up emotions of nostalgia, loss, and longing at the same time as excitement and alacrity. These emotions tend to lead us to a deeper place within ourselves… despite the setback for the Project, I am grateful for the chance to sit down and reflect in this way.

Angola is a place with many problems. Widespread poverty, collapsing infrastructure, stark corruption, a broken economy, a big-brother government, and crippled cultures are a few. Though signs of all of these revealed themselves to make this project difficult, I am proud of what my friends and I accomplished in Menongue. As I’ve mentioned in the past, there is another Angola emerging, although slowly and out of the view of the public, with an eye toward the future. It’s the toughest place I’ve been to for an innovator, tourist, conservationist, or outsider in general, but that doesn’t stop us all, and it couldn’t stop us from creating an ode to the wilderness here. Hats off to the guys in Progresso (the band) for becoming Angola’s first Conservation Musicians.

The morning I flew from Luanda, my friend Kerllen showed me a spot on the “Ilha” where we could jump into the ocean while our breakfast was prepared. It was the first time I had ever been in this side of the Atlantic, and the first time I had been in an ocean for over a year. As our plane traversed the skies above Johannesburg en route to the airport, the morning’s mental snapshots of faded-but-colorful hillside favelas gave way to expanses of fire flecked darkness away from the streetlights, and an ever-building skyline on the coast became an assemblage of shining silhouettes, surrounded by a sea of black and white, yellow and red sparkling civilization.

And so I arrived in the City of Gold with the salt of the Atlantic in my hair and in the creases of my eyes. ~Alex

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Dear Friend,

We’ve been very busy here in Africa, from Lesotho to Botswana and Angola. Along the way, I’ve been fortunate to realize my current life’s calling – using music to encourage conservation in developing countries!

Together, myself and many talented players from Lesotho, Botswana, and Angola are collaborating to write inspiring and educational conservation music. Through the radio airwaves, we are able teach these lessons to everyone, regardless of their reading ability, or how distant they may live from urban centers. Our videos will be given to local TV stations and promoted online for those with a little more access!

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From all of us here in Angola, HAPPY EARTH DAY! A day to reflect on our nature as humans, and what we can do to help nurture it. We hope you enjoy this quick 1-minute clip of the work we’ve been doing here!

The Conservation Music Project is founded on the belief that every person on the planet has a gift that can be used to do something much greater than ourselves. We’re using music to speak to the heart and the mind about caring for the planet, in many different languages! This section is in Umbundu, which is spoken further North and West within the Okavango basin, and speaks of the wealth of fish, frogs, and crocodiles to be found in Angola’s rivers.

Hey! The past few days have been a bit slower production-wise, mainly on account of the various band members’ day jobs. Not to worry, though, I’ve spent that time improving my audiovisual knowledge and practices, as well as beginning to map out our first upcoming video!

On that note, we’re recording our first track tomorrow! You may have heard the preview clips in my previous post. If not, you can find those right here! Very excited to get the ball rolling on some nice audio production.

I’ve also reached out to Angolan celebrity Matias Damásio, who according to my contact has expressed interest in the project. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be able to work with Damásio to prepare a conservation production in time for World Environment Day, which will be hosted in Luanda this year. That would be great! Here’s a clip of Matias Damásio at work:

Now I’m off to see the band at their weekly Friday night gig at Ponto Verde bar. Tchau!

Today I met with Abias Cavuvi, band leader of the soon-to-be Conservation Musicians Progresso. We set out a plan, and agreed to meet tomorrow to begin to compose a new tune about protecting and respecting the numerous rivers that radiate out from the Angolan highlands. Especially those heading south towards the Okavango Delta!

Here’s a clip I scrapped together from some odds and ends of footage that I captured while I sat in on a band practice about a week ago. The style is Kwasa Kwasa, a particular rhythm and dance which has spread out from the DRC since becoming popular there in the 1970s. The first time I heard it was down in Seronga, on the edge of the Delta, composing the first CMP conservation song ever, Ke Rata Okavango with Gongwe Wamana. As soon as I heard this Progresso tune, I recognized the style!

Like I said, it’s scrapped together, but I hope you enjoy it! ~Alex

It’s 4a.m. in Menongue, Angola. The stars are in full form this morning, the Milky Way extending towards the road that my colleagues will take out of the Angola today. If only the road were as smooth as the Via Láctea, as they call it here, perhaps they wouldn’t need to leave quite so early.

The National Geographic supported 2016 Okavango Wilderness Project biodiversity survey of the Cuanavale River and its surrounding sourcelands is complete. The remaining team of scientists, producers, ba’Yei polers, and my colleagues in logistics are going back home. Myself? I’m alone in Menongue.

The reason is that for the next 3-and-a-half-odd weeks, I will be working with Angolan musicians to help spread awareness of some of this river-clad region’s most glaring environmental problems. I truly believe that through music, the world can learn so many lessons. By transcending language and literacy, by speaking as much to the heart as the mind, and by harnessing the learning power of rhythm and repetition, musicians can teach and inspire like nobody else. Thus, in 2015, The Conservation Music Project was born, and now, with the generous help and advice of the leadership team at The Okavango Wilderness Project, I have a chance to work with players from a deeply troubled country, and create something positive, informative, and looking towards the future.

The issues the we’re hoping to tackle initially are:

• Water Conservation
• The Bush Meat Trade
• Burning the Countryside

I will be documenting everything on this blog, on Instagram, on Twitter, and Facebook. Please feel free to contact me through any of these means if you have any questions, ideas, or suggestions! Best, Alex