Nyokabi Kariũki: the Kenyan composer using field recordings to conjure Nairobi from afar

‘Field recordings are my own musical language’ … Nyokabi Kariũki. Photograph: Muthukia Wachira

From Nairobi, Kenya
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“When we talk about art coming out of Africa, there’s this overemphasis on ‘complex polyrhythms’, or ‘call and response’,” Kenyan composer and sound artist Nyokabi Kariũki says, rolling her eyes. “But I think it’s so much deeper than that. When you’re looking back on African music, so much of the thought and philosophy was erased during the periods of colonisation.”