London-born, Cape Town-raised songwriter Ama Gaisie has shared a surprising new single, drawing on her South African upbringing for an Afrobeats meets R&B single titled “Be Sure”.
The last time we wrote about Ama Gaisie, we named her an ethereal weaver of jazz and electronic indie-pop, but she’s changing direction with “Be Sure” and it’s a welcome left-turn, not simply for the genre-bending approach, but also because of the insanely strange and experimental writing process.
In a world-first musical experiment, producers and collaborators Tristan Coetzee and Rudolph Wilemse built the beats of the song using a PlantWave device, translating electrical signals of plants into MIDI sounds, which were recorded and layered to form the composition.
Dolf says, “By connecting sensor pads to various African plants, we have landed on Marula rhythms, Rooibos beats and so forth, sampled and engineered into pure melodic joy.”
Gaisie calls them “Afrobeatanicals” and the result is a visceral, sensory experience that takes you right into the metaphorical beating heart of the African savannah. Listen for yourself if you don’t believe us.
