Echoes Release Event

«Echoes» – a hip hop album with African accents

« Echoes » is the second music album of the international art collective «BTB Crew» supported by YAEP! Young Artists Exchange Project.

We recorded it in April 2016 in Kampala, Uganda and brought together several rappers and beat producers, a traditional singer/composer and a singer/songwriter.

The title «Echoes» stands for the diversity of voices, languages and sounds, as well as for the diversity of backgrounds and stories of the involved artists.

Musically, the album is at the crossroads between the urban, global world of hip hop culture and the local music traditions of Uganda. The music has been composed by Eric Onasis from Kenia, Johannes Küng (Joh Beats) from Switzerland and Giovanni Kiyingi from Uganda and is underlining the thematic context of the album.

The texts are written in French, English, Luganda and other traditional languages from Uganda. The message, though, stays the same: music builds bridges between cultures. The musical and linguistic diversity alone is a statement for the plurality of human creativity.

Moreover, the texts are addressing about important issues: the artists talk about their origins, their hopes for humanity, about longings that people have in common (love, family, sense of purpose), they call for positive social change and dream of a better future, in which peoples are working together instead of against each other.

Release Party in January 2017

The album is currently being prepared for release in Switzerland, Uganda and online. This is something we want to celebrate! Thus, we have invited several of the involved Ugandan artists to Switzerland to be a part of a release party. They will take part in a concert with Joce, the Swiss rapper on the album, and Joh Beats (Johannes Küng) as well as a band composed of Swiss musicians.

Help us make this event special!

The release party will take place at the Club Royal in Baden, Switzerland on the 21st of January 2017.

To ensure the coming of our Ugandan friends, we depend on all the support we can get! We need it to cover their travel expenses, which include their flights, their travel insurance as well as their subsitence during the duration of their stay.

Do you think this is a project worthy of your support? If this is the case, we would be immensely grateful for your contribution!

And to show you our gratitude, we offer you a variety of awesome presents.

Presentation

Unfortunately, not all Ugandan artists are able to make it to Switzerland, but nevertheless, we are happy to welcome Jora Mc, Moze Beatboxer and the photograph Kibuuka Mukisa Oscar in our country!

Jora Mc is one of the rappers on the album. His rythmical and melodic flow, among with his energy and passion, is an important contribution to the album. Also, Jora did not only contribute musically, he also worked on a lot of organizational matters during the process. He will demonstrate his rap skills on stage during the release party.

Moze Beatboxer took part in the creative production of the album. You can hear his unique capabilities on several songs on the album. You will be hearing a lot more of him at the release party!

Taye Mwasiba is another of the four rappers on the album. The drivenness and the diversity of his multilingual texts are a fundamental contribution to the album. Therefore, his presence at the release party and the concert is elementary.

Kibuuka Mukisa Oscar is the talented photograph that document the whole creative process and who directed the two music videos which will be released along with the album. He will make sure that the release party is also immortalized by his camera.

YAEP! since 2013

YAEP! exists since 2013. The first album of the BTB Crew called Borda to Borda / D’Une Frontière A l’Autre was recorded in Kampala as well. After that, we organized two concert and workshops tour in Europe, in 2014 and 2015. The first brought the art collective at the Imagine Festival organized by Terre des Hommes and at the Badehaus Szimpla in Berlin.