NGOMADS

Culture of Mobility

Field: Music City: Zanzibar, Tanzania

Radek Bond Bednarz, Łukasz Dembiński, Piotr Gospodarczyk, Matylda Gerber, Filip Zakrzewski (Culture of Mobility)

Radek Bond Bednarz, Łukasz Dembiński, Piotr Gospodarczyk, Matylda Gerber and Filip Zakrzewski representing the NGOMADS music group, will travel to Zanzibar to join the Pamoja Zanzibar Festival in July. Apart from concerts, the festival program will include cognitive, pro-social and educational events. Group members will take part in meetings with local musicians from Zanzibar, Tanzania, Kenya and artists from other parts of the world. Thanks to the cooperation with the Dhow Countries Music Academy, the musicians will conduct workshops with the participation of students and teachers of the DCMA Academy.

NGOMADS is a new alternative trio that does not limit itself to percussion instruments and uses a wide range of possibilities to create sounds. The musicians Łukasz Dembiński (Foliba, Ŝanĝo), Radek Bond Bednarz (Silent Witness, Hang Em High, Miloopa) and Piotr Gospodarczyk (School of Rhythm, Uni Orchestra), known from many projects and high activity, in November 2020 recorded their original material for the premiere EP, which came out on the 1st of March 2021. The recording session took place in the Eklektik Art space in Wrocław, and the material was mixed by Swiss producer Roli Mosimann cooperating with the Eklektik Session platform and festival. Last year, they received the "Man with Golden Ear" award during the 12th edition of the Soundedit music producer festival in Łódź.

Łukasz Dembiński, percussionist musician and music promoter. Founder of the Foliba band. Passionate about drums and percussion instruments, especially African drums. In the last 15 years with the groups Foliba, Zebra and ŜANĜO he played over 1000 concerts in Poland and abroad (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Tenerife, Morocco, Moldova). Apart from concert activity, he conducts numerous African drum workshops in cooperation with cultural institutions all over the country.

Piotr Gospodarczyk is an economist by education, pedagogue and business coach, and a musician by passion. He runs his own cultural, entertainment and educational activity "School of Rhythm". He designs interdisciplinary lectures, workshops, trainings and concerts for educational and business leaders, in Poland and internationally. Creator of the intercultural project Uni Orchestra.

Matylda Gerber is a saxophonist and composer associated with the improvised music scene in Wrocław. She is currently a member of the jazz-funk band Sneaky Jesus and an improvised music quartet Ślina. For three years she has been a member of Polish-Japanese-British project Butoh Techno, with which she toured Europe and Japan. As part of the development of her solo career, Matylda has played improvised concerts in Europe, the United States and Japan and is releasing a solo album on the Szara Reneta label.

Filip Zakrzewski - guitarist, sound engineer, promoter, event organizer. Currently mainly associated with the bands Torteks and Ślina.

Radek Bond Bednarz for two years has been developing cultural activity in Zanzibar and East Africa by organizing periodically Pamoja Zanzibar Festival - music sessions with the participation of local and international artists. He initiates and engages in many other projects of cultural and educational character, cooperating, among others, with the Polish Embassy in Tanzania and Dhow Countries Music Academy. The Academy promotes and preserves the musical heritage of the Dhow region, which includes countries along the coast of the Indian Ocean. The main objective of the festival, organised by Radek Bednarz, is to establish international and local artistic interactions. "Pamoja" in Swahili means "unity", which symbolizes the main assumption and message of the residency, based on the idea of multiculturalism and mutual respect for stylistic and cultural differences. In addition to concerts, the programme will include events of a cognitive, pro-social and educational character.