The name Kunzwana is adopted from the original project by the late Keith Goddard, broadly following his ideas and legacy. The Austria-Zimbabwe Friendship Association (AZFA) and Kunzwana Trust have been engaged in cultural exchange projects between Austria and Zimbabwe over the past 20 years, involving Zimbabwean celebrities like Thomas Mapfumo, Chiwoniso Maraire and Oliver Mtukudzi, but also promoting the generally unknown musical art form / Tonkunst of the Valley Tonga by featuring the group Simonga from remote Siachilaba, both within Zimbabwe and abroad.
Parallel and interwoven with this musical journey and exchange runs the Tales of Resilience project as another collaboration between Austrian and Zimbabwean artists researching and celebrating the resilience of Tonga and Mbira music and culture. This project will present its outcome as an arts installation in the context of HIFA at the Book Café in Harare, along with the "echoe/S" installation by Klaus Hollinetz/Werner Puntigam and an exhibition of photos created by Simonga women under the guidance of the Gwanza Month of Photography curator Calvin Dondo.
Over the last few years the two protagonists of the international abstract music scene have worked together. In the process they have developed instant composed music and form and shaped their sound patterns and abstract constructs as experimental improvised music.
Hope MASIKE / ZIM - (vocals, mbira) – Awarded the Zimbabwe Arts Council's National Arts Merit Award for 'Outstanding Female Musician of 2012', Hope Masike is one of Zimbabwe's most sensational mbira-players to emerge in this decade. She is arguably responsible for unearthing new musical possibilities in mbira in this era. Best known for her sizzling voice and her role in the popularisation of modern mbira music, Masike takes pride in dressing mbira in news cloaks. Her music is a together-blend of different music styles, with a fascinating repertoire ranging from ancient traditional mbira classics to jazz- driven instrumentals in irregular time, and funk. It is well received in Zimbabwe and the region, with collaborations in Europe in the last 3 years with artists from Norway, Sweden and Mozambique.
Kunzwana # 1 will also feature other musicians from the Southern African region, such as Josh Meck (guitar/bass), Washington Guveya (chimurenga guitar), Blessing Chimanga and Orthnell 'MANGOMA' Moyo (percussion) amongst others.
The artists collaborating for the Tales of Resilience project are: Tina Auer, Tim Boykett and Andi Mayrhofer from Time's Up / AT (http://www.timesup.org/); Calvin Dondo and Annie Mpalume / ZIM.