Nabalayo, "Changanya"
East African musical landscapes mapped out in spacious rhythms and multi-layered vocals
When an artist decides to self-title their own genre, it either signals an exceptional amount of artistic vision or a regrettable level of hubris. For Kenya’s Nabalayo, it’s fortunately the former. The Nairobi-based singer developed the concept for her “changanya” style while studying music at Kenyatta University, solidifying it in the album she released of the same name in 2020. The word means “to mix” in Swahili and is based on a blending of folk and modern music, which was not a new idea in 2020 but feels fresh in Nabalayo’s hands. Both influences are bent in service of a minimalist sensibility and singer-songwriter intimacy that centers Nabalayo’s voice as the most immediate feature of her music, regardless of which instruments and softwares shape her sparse arrangements. It’s less a synthesis of old and new as of wanderlust and confidence, Nabalayo’s exploratory harmonies stepping through each track as though guiding listeners to a place she knows exists but has only ever visited in dreams.
Although Nabalayo sits within the contemporary African underground (and has gotten shout-outs from some of that underground’s leading lights), Changanya feels further outside of it than her more recent work. There’s a curatorial edge to the album that’s fitting for a project meant to reclaim Kenya’s cultural heritage from a colonial history that actively attempted to bury it. Nabalayo has plenty of source material to use for this purpose. Kenya, which has a slightly smaller population than Italy, has over 42 native languages that represent a similarly broad range of musical styles. Changanya stretches its roots deep into this cultural soil and comes up with a suitably eclectic collection of East African touch points: echoes of mwanzele music developed by Kenya’s coastal tribes; Pokomo folk dances spliced with violin melodies reminiscent of Sudan Archives; synthesized Kenyan drums accompanied by the Okobano lyre (aka East Africa’s answer to the double bass). Tied together with R&B-tinged production and a healthy love of Björk, the album earns its namesake, paying homage to its influences even as it combines them into something markedly original.
Bonus Pick: Fans of Nabalayo may find a kindred sound in the vocal-driven bedroom pop of Wuhan-based electronic artist Shii.
