Victor Kunonga

  • Victor Kunonga
© Victor Kunonga
Singer, Musician
Principal country concerned : Column : Music

Victor Kunonga's music is not easy to pin down to a particular 'style'. Listeners may associate Victor with a chimurenga style, but 'different'. Yet Victor's music is not chimurenga, really. It follows its own path.
 
The main characteristic of his music derives from cross-cutting mbira patterns employed on two lead guitars, or guitar and mbira, with interwoven bass and drum lines. He departs from typical chimurenga patterns to create a hybrid of sounds, with clever and unexpected use of spaces and times signatures, and complex poly-rhythms through the interlocking guitars.
 
In a broader and historic music sense Victor's real legacy is closer to the legendary Zimbabwean guitar bands of the 1970s and 80s, and his guitar sound and style, while chimurenga-patterned in parts, owes much to this generation who performed before him.Lyrically, Victor Kunonga's social commentary is poetic and profound, but accessible, painting a poignant vocal picture of what he observes as he touches the pulse of society, charting its trajectory.
 
Victor has taken mbira-derived and other forms of Zimbabwe's guitar culture to totally new and unexpected destinations and created a deep and rich tapestry, a soundscape of truly Zimbabwean sounds rooted in the rocks and trees that surround us. He has thus created a unique blend of musical odyssey describable not by genre but identifiable by just two words- Victor Kunonga.
 

Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Media, Sports and Entertainment Group (MSE)
  • Gens de la Caraïbe
  • Groupe 30 Afrique
  • Alliance Française VANUATU
  • PACIFIC ARTS ALLIANCE
  • FURTHER ARTS
  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
  • RDC : Groupe TACCEMS
  • Rwanda : Positive Production
  • Togo : Kadam Kadam
  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
  • Africultures Burkina-Faso
  • Bénincultures / Editions Plurielles
  • Africiné
  • Afrilivres

With the support of