Chromesthesia: the Colour of Sound

The rhythms of contemporary Afro-diasporic electronic music – from the hypnotic thump of dembow and batida to the propulsive grit of gqom – are the focus of an expansive new project from award-winning British-Egyptian historian Dr Hannah Elsisi. Chromesthesia is both a compilation series traversing baile funk, Arabic trap-bow and multiple other styles, and a 13-hour durational performance intended to survey “over a millennium of Afro-diasporic musicking on the move,” Elsisi tells Songlines.

At its core, Chromesthesia (denoting the ability to see specific colours when you hear certain sounds) explores the “sonic and sensory rites of African migration” within what Elsisi terms ‘The Global Mangrove Archipelago’, borrowing the term ‘mangrove’ from Caribbean theorist Edouard Glissant to denote former colonial territories held in a liminal space, in the mangrove’s case between land and water. Elsisi’s ‘mangrove’ world follows migratory patterns from West and Central Africa to South America and the Caribbean, and then up to Mexico and back across to the Persian Gulf and Asia. “I wanted to construct a sonic archive of the music of this whole mangrove world and the stories they attached and told to make meaning of those musicking spaces and practices, and to relate them to ideas of community and belonging,” explains Elsisi.

The nine-track Chromesthesia: the Colour of Sound Vol 1 release unites 18 of the biggest and brightest producers working in today’s global electronic circuit: Sho Madjozi, Asher Gamedze, Nick León, Deena Abdelwahed, Kelman Duran, GAIKA, Lord Tusk, Cõvco, Julmud, LYZZA, DJ Babatr, Baby Cocada, 3Phaz, Lafawndah, Double Zuksh, Lamin Fofana and Maurice Louca. For Elsisi, these artists “honoured and referenced history and colleagues and the past, without being foreclosed to new and totally unimaginable things,” grounding their craft in what she describes as “the rhythms of the whole mangrove world.”

The Chromesthesia project will be brought to life in an adventurous 11-part performance at this year’s Le Guess Who? festival in Utrecht, overseen by Congolese choreographer Natisa Exoce and Dutch-born Sudanese audiovisual composer and Radiohead collaborator Tarik Barri. Rounding up over 20 acts, the durational performancekicks off with a transcontinental group of percussionists, vocalists and hornists, many of whom are affiliated with Kampala’s Nyege Nyege Tapes label, and finishes up with a closing set guaranteeing a dose of “red-hot perreando” from Nick León and Kelman Duran. Along the way, the performance stops off at the Black Jacobin Revolution in Haiti (Jowee Omicil) and the musical traditions of pearl-diving and Swahili communities in the Gulf (Maurice Louca). There will also be batida from Príncipe-signed DJ and producer Nídia, as well as a reinterpretation of one of the very first pieces of electronic music to be recorded: by Halim El-Dabh of a zar ceremony in Cairo in 1944.

Chromesthesia will continue to evolve with two more volumes of music and plans for an interview-led film and short TV series mapping global sound system and street music cultures in the pipeline, ultimately continuing with Elsisi’s quest to “forge the sonic as a space of archival inquiry serious and proper.” 

Chromesthesia: the Colour of Sound Vol 1 is out November 8; Le Guess Who? takes place November 7-10 in Utrecht, Netherlands

This article originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today