For @kilelesummit this year, Pwani Tapes Residency; a co-creation by @pwanitapes and @santuri_east_africa on “Amplifying and Remixing Kenyan Coastal Music Heritage” felt like a meeting point between generations. Where rhythm, voice and memory from the coast took on new life beyond their origin.
From Mrezi’s embodied percussion, to Mazera’s timeless voice, to @_hotkeys reimagining of sound for the dancefloor, a reminder that our heritage isn’t static. It moves. It evolves. It travels.
Grateful to have been the visual lead in documenting this moment. Proud to witness coastal culture being held with care and shared on a larger stage.
Thank you @alinaohhhh and @david_tinning , always a joy 💐
Shoutout to Nassoro Mwinyi for continuing to hold and shape the archival work of coastal heritage.
Pwani to the world.
It's Friday, 27th again, an auspicious date for a throwback! Exactly four weeks we were in the Kilele world and at the height of our 2-week Pwani Tapes x @Kilele Residency. Thank you for dancing! ✨🕺🏿🩷💃🏾 ✨
Residents: @_hotkeys , Mazera and Mrezi
📹✨: @lulukhalef / Kilele26
Two days to go until our panel "The Ethics of (Re-)issuing African Music" on Thursday with Izzo, Nassoro Mwinyi and Matt Swallow, moderated by Megan Iacobini de Fazio. Then on Friday we'll have the much-anticipated performance by Hotkeys, Mazera and Mrezi for the ongoing Pwani Tapes Residency. Come by!
Poster: @designsbynonay@kilelesummit@santuri_east_africa #kilele26
Leo ndio ile day! The stage is set. 🙌🏾
Here’s what you don’t want to miss at #Kilele26:
@pwanitapes digitising Kenya’s cultural music heritage.
@keiriashishay walking us through Kenya’s archival history. 📚
Sundowners with Frequency Shift spotlighting Nairobi’s next wave of electronic DJs. 🌇🎧
Past. Present. Future. In conversation. ⏳
This is not one sound. It’s many timelines meeting in one space. When we preserve sound with context, we resist being flattened into one story.
Which set are you most curious about and why?👇🏾
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#CulturePassKE #SoundAndSolidarity #NairobiCreativeScene #HackingTheFuture
The journey to @kilelesummit continues.
1: Mazera and Mrezi assembling an uteo, a key instrument in coastal music.
2: Nassoro finding a required adaptor for the project in Westlands Market.
3+4: Mrezi, Hotkeys and Mazera performing the works in progress.
5: Nassoro handling some cassette experiment.
#kilele26 @braidfund@santuri_east_africa
As vernacular cassette-era recordings gain hype, artists are often left with limited options: sign away rights for a one-time fee, place music in Western-run archives, or upload to streaming platforms that barely pay.
At this panel, Pwani Tapes (@pwanitapes ) and Alrassa (@al.rassa ) unpack the politics of access, ownership and distribution and imagine fairer, more hopeful (DIY?) alternatives.
Drawing from Pwani Tapes’ work archiving and monetising coastal Kenyan music (1960s–2000s) ensuring long-overdue revenue for Mijikenda and Swahili artists and Alrassa’s research into Sudanese music shaped by sanctions and war, the conversation asks: who benefits when African music is rediscovered?
Location: Creatives Garage
Date:26.02
Time: 11:00–12:30
This panel is supported by Braid Fund
#Kilele2026 #RoadToKilele #soundandsolidarity
Kilele Residency imeanza leo! Our participants arrived at the Santuri Salon this morning, they met some of the Kilele team and other residents, they visited the Instrument Makers Lab and proceeded to the studio in the afternoon.
1: Astrid Bin explaining the embaire made of skateboards that she built with @sam_karugu and @bazil.muzik .
2: Mrezi assembling his marimba.
3: Mazera and @_hotkeys in the Santuri Salon.
4: With Adam Yawe at the Instrument Makers Lab.
5: Mrezi is showcasing his marimba that he’s playing in the band Kenya Mtamwi.
6: Adam explaining his pararira system.
#kilele26 #pwanitapesresidency #santurieastafrica #braidfund
Kilele '26 brings Pwani Tapes Residency, a co-creation project between @santuri_east_africa and @pwanitapes "Amplifying and Remixing Kenyan Coastal Music Heritage."
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Bringing together coastal musical lineages and contemporary dancefloor energy, this performance unites Hamisi “Mrezi”, a mtamwi musician from Silaloni, Kwale County whose practice spans marimba, handmade percussion, and embodied rhythm; Mazera, a mwanzele singer from Tsunza and a longstanding regional icon whose voice carries decades of lived coastal history; and Nairobi-based producer and DJ Hotkeys @_hotkeys (Horace on the Keys), whose groove-driven blends of African traditional sound, house, and dance music keep the floor moving.
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The performance follows a residency in collaboration with Pwani Tapes, funded by @braidfund , and takes place on 27 Friday at the Zahabu Showcase.
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Find more details on our website via link in bio
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#RoadToKilele #Kilele26 #SoundAndSolidarity
Last but not least let’s welcome our third artist to the residency:
Hamisi, also known as Mrezi, is a musician from Silaloni, Kwale County. His birth place is the heartland of the Giriama genre mtamwi. Learning various instruments at a young age, Mrezi already started performing music in primary school. After finishing 7th grade, he joined Gwaru wa Baya’s band Kenya Mtamwi in 1993 as a marimba player. Mrezi also holds knowledge about other percussive instruments from his region, e.g. he can make and play an uteo, a coastal shaker of broken bottle glass, and he knows stomping, which, when musicians layer multiple slippers over their feet, can be recorded as a strong sound that sends studio walls shaking.
