Digital Indigenous 05: Katula

Hailing from northern Malawi, this gospel choir began their recording career by accident when they began collecting money to build a new Presbyterian church in Katawa and an overseas donor gifted them a Yamaha keyboard. The instrument lent a new aspect to their a capella choral singing and they went on to record a dozen albums as they toured Malawi, playing at festivals and church gatherings. In 2020 the compilation Ufulu 1991-1997 brought the best of their early albums to the world’s attention and this volume takes the story on with a bunch of recordings made after 2005 when Auden Nthala became their producer and founded a simple digital studio in which the computer became the main instrument augmented only by a single microphone, a MIDI keyboard and, of course, the choir’s uplifting voices. The results could have been horrible but Nthala clearly knew what he was doing, for his mastery of the technology is total, conjuring a sophisticated palette of digitally-generated orchestral sounds complemented by exuberant local rhythms – ingoma, malipenga, kamchoma and others – all manipulated with consummate skill. Above all, the technology is never allowed to eclipse the Katawa Singers’ greatest asset as it underpins and emphasises the glory of their rich vocal harmonies.