The voice thunders with huge SA collabo

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Voice of Thunder (VOT) studios, a popular recording studio among local gospel musicians, is working on a collaboration of 25 artistes who are based in South Africa titled Build Zimbabwe Diaspora.

Voice of Thunder (VOT) studios, a popular recording studio among local gospel musicians, is working on a collaboration of 25 artistes who are based in South Africa titled Build Zimbabwe Diaspora.

By The Master

The project is aimed at uniting local musicians and those in the Diaspora.

Music producer Gibson Makumbe, who is the director of VOT, said he was invited to South Africa recently by some Zimbabwean gospel musicians based there for recordings and spent a week and a half flying between Johannesburg and Durban, working with the artistes.

“Twenty-five Zimbabwean gospel musicians, who were impressed with the work that is been done by our recording studio in producing their music, invited me to their base in South Africa to record individual albums and also singles. We then decided to record a collabo, being a single titled Build Zimbabwe Diaspora,” he said.

“We are almost through and are putting finishing touches to the album and fans should expect the album soon, most probably next week. We would have have launched it on Radio Zimbabwe by then.”

The artistes on the song are Rumbie Zvirikuzhe, Carol Guvamombe, Judith Phiri, Phebion Tagarira, Jennifer Phiri Njanji, Innocent Njanji, Daniel Masamha, Mai Shereni, Collen Kakwesi, Modesta Makoni, Delight Mhere, Obvious Chikondo, Mai Njanji, Judith Phiri, Kelvin, Ephraim Dube,Tatenda Hera, Kevin Jeremiah, Able Mashayamombe, Victoria Madenyika, Elton Mutamba, Kuda Chimombe, Minister Tinashe, Maltida Domeke, Kgaugagelo Makhubera and Reason Hove.

“The message on the song is to unite all those musicians in the Diaspora as well other workers in the Diaspora to unite and have one goal to build our country,” Makumbe said.

He said the gospel musicians in South Africa were doing so well that even the locals in that country were attending the shows they were organising.

Makumbe urged promoters to bolster the good work being done by the musicians by organising big shows for them in South Africa.

“They are making a huge impact, this can be seen from the shows they are organising. Some of them are attended by South Africans even though they would have been arranged by Zimbabweans, showing the growing popularity of their music in a country that is endowed with great gospel artistes in the mould of Rebecca Malope,” he said. “But what is lacking are the promoters who can organise big concerts for them because they have a strong fan base there.”

He added that there were a lot of talented upcoming gospel artistes that he and other gospel musicians such as Reverend Togarepi Chivaviro had helped to produce the debut gospel projects.

“We have those we have discovered to have talent and helped and we have big artistes like Reverend Chivaviro who also bring talented artistes to us and finance their recording.

“We have helped artistes like Edson Mushangwe who reached number 15 and 13 with the songs Drug Abuse and Nharirire respectively. he had no funding so we made arrangements with him to pay in instalments and it took him almost a year to finish payment. That’s when he collaborated with Agatha Murudzwa and the music was so good that he got into the charts with that first album with two songs.

Makumbe said plans are afoot for him to travel to the United Kingdom soon to produce music for Zimbabwean gospel artistes based in that country and he hopes to embark on similar projects while in the European country.

In the past VOT has produced songs for top gospel musicians, including Pastor Olinda Marowa, Zvirikuzhe Mathias Mhere, Trymore Bande, Murudzwa, Noel Zembe, Munyaradzi Munodawafa, Rumbie Gatawa, Flame B, Peter Dhewa Moyo, Baba Harare, Carlos Green, Progress Chipfumo and Vabati VaJehovah, among others.

lYou may contact the columnist, Albert Masaka, on e-mail: [email protected]