Youth Stand Up! album ready for release

The charitable project on Autonomous Africa will be out at the start of October.

Over the past year we’ve been keeping tabs on the development of a very exciting initiative started by the ever-imaginative folks at Glasgow’s Green Door Studio. Reaching out to young musicians at the Lebeha Drumming Centre in Belize and the Tafi Cultural Institute in Tafi Atome, Ghana and with help from lottery funding and the support of JD Twitch’s Autonomous Africa label, bands such as Golden Teacher and Whilst have been contributing to this cross-cultural reach-out programme that has a very real potential to change the lives of many children in countries where access to modern music technology would be limited at best.

The process has involved Green Door’s Stuart Evans and Emily MacLaren travelling to both countries with donated musical equipment in tow, conducting writing and recording sessions with children in the area assisted by various members of Golden Teacher. Following these trips the ensuing material was then mixed and mastered back in Glasgow, while the equipment has remained in the interests of giving children in the areas access to synthesisers, drum machines and more besides.

Following last month’s leak of “Set Upon The River”, Autonomous Africa has announced that the resulting album of these works, Youth Stand Up! is now ready for release. The ten tracks feature a mixture of input from the various parties involved, led by the title track written and performed by 18-year-old singer Edem Dokuma. Ahead of the album hitting its full release at the start of October you can preview the track “Come With Me” below, which features the vocals of 11-year-old Belize girl Leandra Ramos.

A fundraiser for a planned recording studio and cultural centre in Tafi Atome will be held at The Vic Bar in Glasgow on November 27, with JD Twitch, Golden Teacher, Sacred Paws and Ghana Soundz on the line-up. The proceeds from the album will be divided between the Tuteme Band in Belize and the Tafi Cultural Institute.

Autonomous Africa will release Youth Stand Up! by Various Artists on October 9.

Tracklisting:

1. Youth Stand Up
2. Ava Wo Nane
3. Come With Me
4. Crawling By Me
5. Beat The Drum
6. Set Upon The River
7. Lagueda
8. Tsorna
9. Tuteme vs Tafi Atome at the Green Door
10. Digital bonus – ‘Akpe Lo’

Autonomous Africa on Juno