Like To Get To Know You Well: ILHA

5 Minute Read

Music

Written by Lily Mumby

ILHA are a long distance sound relationship between Messrs African Ghost Valley and Nandele who recently made a return to Ransom Note Records with their latest EP, Mwedy. Nandele has also got an amazing extended player on our sister label Human Endeavour Maputo that came out last month too.

Through their practice and combination of noise, ILHA empowers listeners to travel through known & unknown landscapes of the mind. Nandele, a key figure in Mozambique’s electronic music scene, has earned a reputation for his hypnotic analogue beats shaped by his wide-ranging tastes; grunge bands, boom bap and hip hop collectives. African Ghost Valley brings spacious and eerie atmospheres together to create trance-inducing electronic noise vibrations, with heavy, loud and floating soundscapes created through recordings of hardware devices, concrete sounds and field recordings.

We sat down with them for a few questions to get to know more about them and their latest release! You can buy / listen to Mwedy here

I am…

AGV: Childe Grangier

Nandele: Nandele

Where am I?

AGV: Living between Europe and Canada

Nandele: Living between Mozambique and Netherlands

What am I?

AGV: An intermedia artist, using most of sounds and drawings, following one unique road, riding different vehicules.

Works have been exhibited and performed for INA-GRM Paris, Musée d’Art Contemporain (MAC) -Lyon, Galerie Forde in Geneva, Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Berghain in Berlin…

Been featured on Wire magazine, The Quietus, Inverted Audio, Groove magazine, Ransom note, ATTN magazine, Noise not Music, Badd Press, Magnet, Joyfull Union or Cassette Gods…

Hudson Mohawke, Miley Serious, Trevor Jackson and other artists and DJs have used tracks in their mixes on BBC Radio 1, RinseFM, NTS, Noods radio (Stay Awake and Edited Arts), Station Station (Into the Loop Paris), Internet Public radio.

Nandele: A beatmaker, sound artist and radio host with great influence with locations, and all kinds of sounds. Have a few albums and remixes and scored a movie called Resgate aka Redemption and a few contemporary dance pieces.

You may know me from other things like…

AGV: No just those two, African Ghost Valley and Childe Grangier

Childegrangier.tumblr.com/

Nandele: Yeah I love rivers my favourite river is Incomati and the food in Mozambique, my favourite dish is Mapatapa.

A bit about the release…

AGV: It had been made in a very simple way, not so much words, instinct more and a kind of magical understanding and also a respect of each other. Nandele and me we are connected and do not need to speak a lot… It went smooth and yes a feeling.

Nandele: It’s always great to work with Childe he pushes you to this wonderland kind of place, which is great for my practice and my creative process. It brings something new on my production skills.

What to expect in the future…

AGV: More ILHA and maybe we could work an LP… Waves and moons will tell us…

Nandele: More ILHA for sure. Maybe who knows are works will turn into a sound installation or we might work on a movie soundtrack. There is a of possibilities sound wise.

My earliest memory is…

AGV: I would go in music and sounds, I used to live upon an highway as a kid and the sound of the cars coupled with their lights at night is something that I kept in mind and also my father’s records collection and the covers, it was through that I was sharping my two principal interests for the rest of my life.

Nandele: My early memory would be when I first held a vinyl and my dad thought me how to play it on his stereo system. That itself triggered a lot of things. I think that’s how my music journey began.

"It's always great to work with Childe he pushes you to this wonderland kind of place..."

The opinion I care most about is…

AGV: Mine. I have a ink on my harm that’s say Honesty, Integrity, Kindness.

Doing my best everyday to stay close to that. Not easy.

Nandele: I am not a person that concentrates my energy on opinions. I let the work speak for itself because everyone are worthy of their own opinion. And I trust mine, and off course there is always room for learning and improvement.

Doing my best everyday.

My strangest irrational fear is…

AGV: I have none and I think it’s because I went through some that were haunting me before. Used them to rebuild something. I’m more in rational fear as far as fear can be rational. Not a feeling I hate.

Nandele: I would say to be lost in open sea

My proudest accomplishment is…

AGV: Never giving up, always keeping my way and being able to share with the public and collaborating with artists. Knowing that I’m appreciate for my sincere attitude and yes that my kids feel me as a good person, not always perfect they also know that, but human.

Nandele: My proudest accomplishment it’s when my first album came out that was the first step and it was a dream come true. I worked all my life for that moment and it’s happening again with this project in particular it brings the same feeling and energy. It’s love and working with a great team it’s the best feeling in the world.

My favourite book to read again and again is…

AGV: Will be 2 books from the director Wim Wenders, named “The truth of pictures” and another one on some of his photos he took in the US when he was travelling there.

Many bios also, like Kraftwerk, Cage, David Lynch, Federico Fellini, Lester Bangs…

Poetry a lot in fact too, Galway Kinnel, Rimbaud, Whitman, Georg Trackl…

Nandele: Notes on Grief – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I laugh most when…

AGV: I hear a good word that is coming at the right moment, a speciality of my wife, English humour at her best. I love laughing and I’m always looking for it. Could be in a movie, a book, with friends, on my own… Life is full of those moments, it’s a fishing game… Like with ideas.

Nandele: I love laughing I think humour it’s part of everybody’s culture we are funny creatures and it helps us get through day.

The strangest food combination I enjoy is…

AGV: I have to say that at home, we cook a lot of different type of food, so we are trying always new stuffs, a strange combination for me is fenouil with chocolate, something nice to try.

"When my first album came out [...] it was a dream come true. I worked all my life for that moment"

I get most frustrated when…

AGV: I loose it for nothing and got regrets after.

Nandele: When there is injustice in world that frustrates me a lot.

The last film I went to see was…

AGV: “Junkyard dog” a French movie

Nandele: I have not been to the cinema for a while.

When I was small I wanted to be…

AGV: Kind of who I am. Honestly, if I could have avoided some bad moments it would have been even better but really I’m enjoying what I’m doing, not always pinky but it is not stopping us, me and family.

Nandele: This one is a tricky question, but I think when you are small you are always changing your mind about things, you want to be many things because that’s when your imagination is at is best in my opinion until you are old enough and decide.

If I could choose to do anything for a day it would be…

AGV: Drawing a complete day with family and friends and after that morning drawing let’s do some music together.

Nandele: If I could have silence for an entire day. And of course quality time with the family is always great.

If I could only eat one meal for the rest of my life, it would be…

AGV: Salad, ricotta and tomatoes, but also pastas and bruchettas and the list is too long. I’m crazy of chocolate too.

Nandele: Matapa or Fried Fish I can’t decide lol

If I could go back in time, I would travel to the year…

AGV: Sitting with the german painter Martin Kippenberger in the 80’s in a café and speaking together all night long.

Nandele: Man I would travel back when Lee Scratch Perry started his music career and just enjoy a session with him.