Taa! – Our Language May Be Dying, But Our Voices Remain (Botswana)

A project from Hidden Musics, an international music series of field-recorded albums produced by award-winning music producer Ian Brennan and his filmmaker wife, Marilena Delli, Taa! Our Language May Be Dying, But Our Voices Remain is a compilation of mantras and prayers in Taa, a Botswanian language with heavy click consonants, on the verge of extinction. This unique record, created by solo and layered voices, handclaps, stomps, found percussion and thumb piano is a documentation of a small population's history and language. Without the polish found in commercial music, the album demands attention and respect for its raw, pure and authentic artistry.

Meaning is carried by soft environmental flutters, as well as the clicks of the language in each song, while the titles themselves tell stories of landscape, existence, change and culture, for example, in ‘The Bushmen Are Starving (We’ve Been Made Poor by the Rich)’ and ‘This is the Land Where I Come From’. It's an acquired taste, both simple and complex insofar as it is candid in its capturing of Taa culture, language and history; an experience for music lovers, art lovers and linguists.