Track By Track: Nandele – KaMPFUMO

Conceived during Nandele Maguni’s residency at the ZHdK – ICST Spatial Studio in Zurich, this release transforms the everyday sounds of Maputo into an immersive auditory experience. The iconic chapa 100 – its engines, voices, and rhythms – becomes more than transport; it’s a metaphor for collective memory, movement, and resistance. Field recordings captured across the district interweave with distorted electronics and ancestral resonance, creating a soundscape where ritual meets machine, chaos meets rhythm, and the mechanical becomes mystical.

Working under the mentorship of Johannes Schütt, Maguni learned to sculpt sound in three-dimensional space, treating each composition as an architecture of memory. The advanced ambisonic technology at ICST enabled him to spatialise Maputo’s sonic reality, making the city itself seem to breathe through sound.

What follows is a track-by-track breakdown of the three pieces that form KaMPFUMO – each one a transport line through the district’s unseen geographies, each carrying fragments of the city’s restless energy and spiritual vibration.

“KaMPFUMO was composed, mixed, and spatialised entirely during my residency at ICST–ZHdK, one of Europe’s most advanced immersive audio studios. Johannes Schütt’s guidance was central to this work – technically, artistically, and personally. His mentorship pushed me to expand how I think about sound, space, storytelling, and the emotional architecture of composition.

The project blends Zurich’s immersive technology with the lived sonic reality of Maputo, forming a bridge between the two cities – one I hope to keep crossing in future works.

All tracks were composed, spatialised, and mixed during my residency at ICST–ZHdK in Zurich, with field recordings captured across Maputo’s KaMpfumo district. The residency, guided by mentor Johannes Schütt, fundamentally shaped the way each track breathes, moves, and occupies space.”

1. Capela Militar

Colour:
Deep earth brown—the colour of Makonde wood carvings. Rough, spiritual, full of lineage. A colour that holds stories.

Season:
The end of the dry season, when the air becomes heavy and contemplative.

Inspiration:
This piece is rooted in the presence of the Makonde people in Maputo. Their carvings, masks, and rhythmic craftsmanship inspired the meditative, repetitive nature of the track. I wanted their layered cultural energy—ancestral yet present in everyday life—to enter the composition.

The track’s identity was also shaped by the movement of chapa rides around Capela Militar; passing voices and engine drones appear subtly in the spatial field recordings.

Setting:
The raw sonic materials were captured in KaMpfumo, but the true form of Capela Militar emerged inside the ICST Ambisonic Studio. Under Johannes Schütt’s mentorship, I learned to position and shape sound in three-dimensional space. He helped me think of sound like sculpture—to carve space the same way Makonde artists carve wood. His guidance was essential in giving this track its depth, air, and slow circular motion.

Ideal listening: alone, on headphones or in a dark room, where the spiritual weight can unfold without distraction.

Photo: Johannes Schuett

2. COOP

Colour:
Concrete grey – the colour of Coop’s buildings. Solid, geometric, sun-marked, full of urban vibration.

Season:
Summer, when the city reaches maximum density and rhythm.

Inspiration:
COOP draws directly from Maputo’s architecture – from the way buildings create shadows, shapes, and unexpected percussive structures. It’s the rhythm of stacked apartments, staircases, open windows, and the choreography of daily life around them.

The sound world is also influenced by chapa 100 buses moving through the area. The repeated slamming of doors and drivers calling out routes became percussive gestures inside the composition.

Setting:
Field recordings were captured in the COOP and broader KaMpfumo region. But the full spatial identity of the track was built at ICST, where I worked daily with Johannes to push the movement of sounds beyond a stereo mindset. He guided me through higher-order ambisonics, spatial panning, and motion—this track benefitted from his precision more than any other.

We shaped COOP like a moving city: sounds shifting around you like turning a corner, entering a narrow alley, or feeling the city rise vertically.

Ideal listening: while in motion – rooftop, car, night walk – or anywhere you can feel the pressure and rhythm of architecture.

3. Malhangalene

Colour:
Warm market red—soil, fruit skins, rust, meat, humidity. The colour of a living system.

Season:
The rainy season, when the market feels fuller and more organic.

Inspiration:
Malhangalene is the mercado, the pulmão – the lungs of KaMpfumo. Everything circulates: people, produce, sound, history. The inspiration came from being physically inside that system—hearing metal tools, shouted prices, footsteps in narrow passages, water running into gutters. Those textures became the foundation.

Setting:
All field recordings were captured directly in and around Malhangalene. Later in Zurich, I brought them into the ICST Ambisonic Studio, where Johannes helped me anchor them into an immersive ecosystem.

We approached the track like a living organism: bass as breath, mid-range as movement, high-frequency details as the flicker of small actions. His mentorship allowed me to control depth, elevation, and circular motion so the listener feels inside a breathing marketplace.

Ideal listening: on a bus at dusk, walking through a city at night, or any place where movement and reflection coexist.

Kampfumo is out now pre order here

Photo Credits: w.hat_i_see Through My Lens