October - November 2022 — Music

tracy september is a South African musician, performer, producer, and music researcher based in Zurich, Switzerland. Her practice explores themes of memory, spirituality and protest, which inform the new project Ritual & Communion that she will be initiating during her research trip from 17 October to 6 November 2022 at Abuntu+ in Accra, Ghana.

The project serves as an exploration of music that is made and shared collectively. She explains: “The music we make for a reason bigger than our individual selves. Music on which communities are built. Music we make to animate the intangible. Music void of the ego and the baggage of being ‘an Artist’. Music that can only be made together for a specific reason. From music sung in death rituals, protest songs, songs of faith and war chants … to more contemporary iterations like Ballroom House chants, football songs or the work songs of miners. This music sings the emotion and shared intention of a moment.”

Ritual & Communion is an exploration of the power of ritual to transform a moment communally. The goal of the project is to co-create a sonic documentary that captures a moment that amalgamates times. Beginning in Accra with the view to future iterations, the site-specific project will explore how the history and geography of a place influence the rituals: how people incorporate ritual in their daily lives, how people create their own rituals to exist in this moment in history, and the influence of technology on modern and ancient rituals.

The research trip will take tracy into different contexts of ritual and communion with the aim of developing the project concept and putting together the collective that will co-create the sonic documentary.

BIOGRAPHY

tracy september is a South African musician, performer, producer, and music researcher based in Zurich, Switzerland. She has solo and collaborative projects and also creates music for film, theatre and dance productions. Her music is a reflection of the many places and spaces she inhabits literally and figuratively. In her practice she works around themes of memory, spirituality and protest, with a particular passion for improvisation. tracy is also a DJ under the name youngseptember.