Music as Divining Rod
May 13, 2010
The best music, in my opinion, serves as a divining rod to truth and equality. Once a song becomes a metaphor in one’s life, all notions of social class or strata from which it was derived disappear. This was in essence part of the concept for this album. Upon my travels throughout Africa and particularly in Rwanda, I discovered countless musicians and artists who were world class in talent, but lacked the concrete opportunities that we largely take for granted. Sometimes the only qualifying factor between rock star and humble subsistence farmer is accident of birth. The other half to the concept behind this project was to give fair representation of a country that is largely known only for the 21st century’s most efficient genocide. Rwanda, and to a further extent Africa, is home to more than just the traditional musicians we’ve grown accustomed to through educational tv programming. It is also ripe with a vast array of modern singers and rappers, for example, that one would only expect in Western society.
I hope you enjoy these collaborations that span the globe as much as I enjoyed putting them together.
Darcy Ataman
