Madala Kunene

Madala Kunene has been making music since he was a child, busking on the streets of Durban, playing a guitar he made from a cooking oil tin and fish guts. He had been working in several professional aggregates when he was signed by M.E.L.T. 2000 to record his first solo CD. This put Madala in the company of such luminaries as Airto Moreira (Brazilian percussionist extraordinaire) and South African musician Busi Mhlongo.

Madala's music is not glossy; it is rooted in ritual and tradition, and he frequently goes into trance when he performs.

Madala has developed a completely original style of playing guitar based on ancient divination music, and most of his inspiration comes to him in dreams. Kunene is renowned for the transcendental and ethereal quality of his songs. While performing, he goes into a deep trance.

"When I am playing my brain is not there. Each time I go to a place I've never been before." His music reflects all of this, with its dreamy, almost hallucinatory images.

— Courtesy Calabash Music