Witch Camp - I've Forgotten Now Who I Used To Be

Cat. no: 6570361305
Format: LP
Barcode: 657036130517
Release Date: 10 Sep 2021
Genre: World Music

Landmark collection of powerful field recordings produced by Grammy Award-Winner Ian Brennan in collaboration with Marilena Umuhoza Delli.

Six Degrees Records is proud to announce a landmark new album from Witch Camp (Ghana); I’ve Forgotten Now Who I Used to Be. Produced by GRAMMY Award-winning producer and author Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Zomba Prison Project) in collaboration with his wife, Italian-Rwandan filmmaker, author, and photographer, Marilena Umuhoza Delli, whose idea it was to record the album inspired by her own upbringing.

Recorded at multiple locations in Ghana, the songs featured on I’ve Forgotten Now Who I Used to Be are largely “instant compositions,” created using all and any objects from the immediate environment for instrumentation; corn husks, a teapot, tin cans, tree branches, and even a balloon left over from the political rally. Over six hours of music was recorded in 100 clandestine gatherings from across three villages, with all but one person singing solo for the first time. Sung in regional dialect or the lesser-spoken languages of Mampruli and Dagbani, the lyrics are untranslated and indecipherable even too many locals as they are not in the dominant languages of English or Akan. 

Marilena Umuhoza Delli and Ian Brennan have dedicated their lives and careers to providing a platform for the censored or unheard, spanning those targeted for albinism on Tanzania’s Ukerewe Island and genocide survivors in both Rwanda and Cambodia, to the homeless community in Oakland, CA, prisoners at Zomba Prison in Malawi, and now, the women of Ghana’s witch camps.

HIGHLIGHTS:
The Guardian **** review:
“It is music with no ulterior motive. Song collectors’ obsession with undiluted authenticity (often equated with suffering) has always been problematic in the wrong hands but Brennan and Umuhoza are respectful listeners. Plunging you into lives unimaginably different from your own, I’ve Forgotten Now Who I Used to Be invites you not just to empathise with the women’s surreal plight but to marvel at their ingenuity.”

NPR Goats & Soda: https://n.pr/3zeQrCW
PRI The World:https://bit.ly/3kkcsK2
NPR All Songs Considered: https://n.pr/3B65FdK

Tracks: I Must Build A New Home / Hatred Drove Me From My Home / Wizard Drum / Protection / Witch Song / I Am A Beggar For A Home / Only God Can Judge Me / I Was Accused / Everywhere I Turn, There Is Pain / Hunted / We Are No Different Than You / Love / I Have Lost All That I Love / When I Was Ill, You Didn’t Come To Visit Me / Love, Please / Abandoned (Forced Into A Life Of Prostitution) / If The River Runs Dry, The Canoe Cannot Rise / I Trusted My Family, They Betrayed Me / There Are No Promises In This World / Left To Live Like An Animal