As part of an ongoing series of festival development and capacity-building work, the British Council will support two UK artists, Ty and Pen Pastwn, to visit Sudan to perform and collaborate with local artists in Khartoum and Port Sudan during February. The festival in Port Sudan will be the first music event there of its kind for over 30 years.

Ty will also host workshops with local emerging hip hop artists resulting in a performance and Pen Pastwn will collaborate with the Sudanese musician Sidi Doshka.

Pen Pastwn are a group from Wales, led by Richard James (formerly of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Music Director of Laugharne Festival) and including a flexible line-up of Wales’ most talented musicians, including Gareth Bonello, Andy Fung, Edward Mugford and Eugene Capper.

Ty is an internationally-acclaimed rapper and producer from London. He was nominated for the Mercury Prize for his album ‘Upwards’ and has previously worked with many other artists including Estelle, Scratch Perverts, Talib Kweli, Black Twang, Arrested Development, and Soweto Kinch.

Dates:

Thursday 2 February – Ty at Corniche, Port Sudan
Friday 3 February – Pen Pastwn at Corniche, Port Sudan
Sunday 5 February – Pen Pastwn at National Museum Khartoum
Monday 6 February – Ty at National Museum Khartoum

The British Council in Sudan has been developing a programme of music events and capacity building workshops for over 2 years. Originally running a successful series of monthly events called Words and Pictures (WaPi) this event provided a platform for young emerging talent for hip hop, underground bands, spoken word and creative arts.

We continued to develop a series of music events, workshops and skills training in partnership with other cultural agencies such as French Cultural Institute, Goethe Institute and the Sudanese Ministry of Culture. The first of these music events took place in March 2011 at the National Museum in Khartoum, when two UK groups, Akala and Les Triaboliques, travelled out to Sudan to perform and host workshops.

In October 2011, rising star of British folk music Sam Lee (and Friends) visited Sudan to perform at the Khartoum International Music Festival, which was being staged for the first time in 13 years. As well as performing a set of his own material, Sam also worked on a collaborative performance with two of Sudan’s most talented musicians, Omer Ihsas and Dr Alfateh Hussain.

Read a blog about Sam Lee's visit to Sudan