Toto Bissainthe was one of the most prolific singers to come from the Caribbean. Haiti’s turbulent history and incredible culture are seemingly contained in any of Bissainthe’s overwhelmingly moving folk songs.  Raw emotion and true to form vodun traditional melodies. She is the truth, and a testament to the purpose of music in its purest form: to express, heal, remember, and celebrate. Her full catalog is for sale on her official website.

There is so much to say about the situation in Haiti, but for now I prefer to let Toto speak for me.
1. Papa Damballah
2. Dey
3. Soufflé Van

Born in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti in 1934, Bissainthe was also an accomplished actress.

all Toto Bissainthe photos copyright Miléna Sandler

Her career started as a founding member of theater company Griots, the first African theatre company in Paris.

A Raisin in the Sun, with Bashir Touré

Ways to Love Haiti

The Monome Community is donating 100% of proceeds of compilation Haiti2010 to Médecins Sans Frontières (msf.org).

Fabulous (Haitian) glove designer Miss Numa is selling “I Glove Haiti” t-shirts to help fund her small organization’s trip home to Haiti to find and help family.

Conflict area rogue photojournalist Jeff Antebi is selling limited edition prints through Stolen Space gallery in London to benefit Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam.

photo copyright Jeff Antebi

And of course you can’t go wrong with Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières.

If you’d like to donate in general to save the world, check out Women for Women International, who have changed entire regions by working directly with the women of war-stricken areas by providing opportunities for economic revitalization and education. They recommend donating to Partners in Health for Haiti specifically.

Donate close to you by being kind to those you love. Revolution starts at home, in the heart.

MY PROCESS!!!!!!!!!!
its pretty random there`s no one way
i do things
im just feeling ….
regardless of anything
the
approach
or
the gear
i may use
There all
different pieces
that invoke
different moods
and emotions
overall different feelings
so i incorporate it all 2 make one thing when making recordings
and that is my Afrikan Space Program thats my Electronic Arkestra

But my process as of late has been
2 just freestyle/feelstyle out
pieces 4 my lil beat tapes i make that i just bump
@airports and on airplanes @bus stops pretty much shit i just blaze up 2

I use the
(S).PACE (P).ROGRAM 303/404
and
MPC 2000XL
or I even find myself doing little silly things
wit my array of crazy sound toys and the mic on my cpu recording it in
GarageBand and coming up with something otherworldly and of the unexpected
this piece of my beat tape that i present is 3 beats i made from my
“Raw Fruit” beat tape
hella dirty everywhere i went i heard so much clean and pristine sounding music
it left me feeing 2 hear some dirty music so this is the result
but its me just feeling it smoking trees @ SPACEBASE or in hotel rooms,
airports,on airplanes etc

RAW FRUIT [tracks 1,2 + 3]

Track 1
The first joint i made when i got back from Philly
i had a little paper so what did i do but go digging
@ the Germ aka (Amoeba Hollyweird) ended up getting that Peter Tosh documentary
“Stepping Razor Red X Tapes”(If u ain`t seen it u sleeping need 2 get that asap)
sampling it up in one of my machines,i chopped up “those drums”(heads know) cause it was the first thing i seen and caught that part in the dvd where Peter find his inner JAH used that BUMBACLOT!!!!!!! Caught a guitar thizzle boom 15 mins later u got what u hearing now

Track 2
so i have the dvd on pause and im watching em do Rastamon Chant
caught them bingi drums and some keys sampled em in my 303
started flipping it instantly caught a flute from the dvd….
and the part were the likkle youth is singing his tune
just bought a crazy experimental record in philly for like $3 caught something random on there sampled it up
bam… 15 mins later thats what u here

Track 3
Is something i started on the 404 in the Hotel in South Africa basically the drum beat wit the change up
i caught a few records @ MABU record shop in Capetown
came up on some heat(thats another story) but one the records i came up on was a random highlife record started off wit that vocal sample u hear now and a sound effects record i don`t know why the panning of that racecar was sooooo dope 2 me till i
came home and put it all together in like 2-3blunts haha
Jea…………………

Where do you live?

On the sunny side of this western planet
which is where im born and reside
that i like 2 call myself
EL AY(ALIEN)
C.A.(Crazy Alien)
ALLLLLLL DAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
i live everywhere i would like 2 be just by
living/dying and experiencing it on a daily
i close my eyes im where ever i wanna be…
im a very visual person i see alot things
i can read about something and place myself there in a thought and actually be THERE
it becomes even more visual and i feel really there in these travels 2 such greater known and unknown places
in mind when im meditating/medicating off some herbs such as cannabis or psilocybin

How long have you been making music ?

I been making music from birth like Sun Ra said “We are music” but i tuned in early making pause mixtapes of various radio shows for my dancer friends.
Which sparked a interest in collecting hiphop records of the stuff i was dubbing cause i wanted the instrumentals. Which lead 2 me wanting 2 Dj. So i got some 1200s little dj setup which then lead me deeper into collecting records. Which lead 2 me buying breaks of the stuff people was sampling and which then got my ear tuned like ” I like that loop or those drums i think i can do this” i need a sampler/drum machine!!! Sooo my cousin would come up from San Diego State wit a big bag of Mexico`s finest and his Sp 1200 And we would mess with stuff all night smoking mad phillies!! So our Grandmother lived around the corner from my moms spot so he would dip over there and when he would dip… i would dip … into the Sp 1200 haha!! making 2bar loops and recording em on cassette singles, just 2 take 2 school like yo im on beats! So eventually collecting all those dope instrumentals led me 2 djing @ Project Blowed. A open mic workshop in Leimert Park every thursday night. It was just sooooo random that the dj did`nt show up one night ,but they had a crate of records and needed somebody 2 do it so i stepped up and from that night on for about 2-3 years i was playing @ Project Blowed so after that ran its course(man i soooooo hated emcess by this point) i started getting more
into jay dee,portishead dj nobody,dj hive, mumbles and molasis, trippy early instrumental hiphop stuff and from there i just shook that project blowed scene got a mpc 2000xl and started putting in work building myself up 2 this point where we @ now and beyond
building up what has come 2 be known as “SPACEBASE”
SpaceBase is my place
Its my Space Station
/living
/death
/resurrection chamber

What’s your favorite piece of equipment/instrument to record with and why?

i like Garageband cause its Sooooooo Ghetto Sci-Fi it has everything i need and much more
I love my (S)pace(P)rograms 303/404 as well….i like these pieces mainly cause they do more than u would expect them 2
not really made 4 one way 2 use so many different way approaches

What do you listen for in a loop?

Other worlds……….I listen 4 the sounds
that build in my mind
upon continuous listening
it puts u in hypnotical state
2 where your just GONE………thats the great significance of Baba Afrika Bambaataa he`s a Master Teacher of Loops knows of many of them on many records he demonstrated that history has proven that he knew what he was doing i wanna demonstrate layering up those loops cutting them in funny ways different form of manipulation but like BAM keep it funky…. keep it spiritual…. and keeping it simple cause its a natural thing

myspace.com/rasg
poobah.com/rasg
twitter.com/Ras_G

tokimonsta.com

Chorale for One / Urszula Dudiak / Future Talk / Inner City Records 1979:

Urszula Dudziak was born October 22, 1943 in the Straconka neighborhood of Bielsko-Biala Poland. Voted “jazz singer of the year” by the Los Angeles Times in 1979, Dudziak is known for her five octave range, revolutionary use of electronic devices to process her vocals, and for using sounds, tones and scatting rather than words.

She frequently worked with leading contemporary musicians, including Archie Shepp and Lester Bowie, Bobby McFerrin, Norma Winstone, Sting, Michelle Hendricks, and Lauren Newton. She often worked with Gil Evans in the 80s, recording on five Gil Evans releases.

Dudziak studied piano and began to sing after hearing Ella Fitzgerald, taking two years of vocal lessons. She quickly became the leading jazz vocalist in Poland. She met and later married Michal Urbaniak, and recorded several releases with him. In the late 60s they began to tour overseas and in the 70s settled in New York.

Check out her gear in this late 80s clip:

And an example of her extraordinary vocal percussionism:

discography
wikipedia
avantgarde music
album cover photos by ron-dorothy

SNS Podcast No. 6 – Lil Dave Saturn Never Sleeps Mixtape [mp3]

Lil Dave of the incredible, incomparable Eavesdrop Radio blesses Saturn Never Sleeps with a mixtape of futuretronics.

GB – In Transit (Healing Tones)
Mike Slott ft. Muhsinah – Deux Three
Samon Kawamaru – No Te Puedo Ver
Flying Lotus – Luckiest Charm
Physical Sound Sport – Roadwork
Bei Bei & Shawn Lee ft. Georgia Anne Muldrow – Make Me Stronger (Floating Points rmx)
Pete Haslanger – Brave New World
Creative Swing Alliance – Monday
Shafiq Husayn – Cheeba (Instrumental)
Quadron – Come And You Can Go
Emanative – When On Earth (Wahchuku Mtronix version)
James Pants – I Choose U
Roy Ayers – I Am You Mind (Pepe Bradock mix)

see all available files