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‘It’s shocking no-one’s done this before’: the 13-hour gig digging up the African roots of global pop

With a marathon performance and album, the wildly ambitious Chromesthesia charts centuries of intercontinental music. Its creator explains why she’s asking big questions about the true owners of culture

Contacting some of her favourite producers and musicians from across the African diaspora, spanning 20 locations including Egypt, Kenya, Brazil, South Africa, America and England, Elsisi founded Chromesthesia, an independently released compilation album and a forthcoming 13-hour performance at Le Guess Who? It’s a gargantuan undertaking – aiming to somehow illustrate an evolution of sound from Yoruba drumming to slavery-induced migration and onwards – but rather than present a comprehensive overview, Elsisi stresses the project is about “making connections… forming through-lines between continents and rhythmic tropes. Performances at the 13-hour live presentation will range from Yoruba djembe drumming ensembles to an exploration of Egyptian electronic music and Arabic poetry from producer 3Phaz and singer Msylma, Haitian revolutionary music with jazz saxophonist Jowee Omicil, and South African civil rights with rapper Yaya Bey, a rich and populous gathering that also “fights the tokenisation of POC in festival programmes,” Elsisi says.

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