Akei

Listen to Akei

Binaural version · Headphones recommended

About the work

Akei (2025) is a multichannel electroacoustic composition developed as part of Christian Rosales Fonseca’s doctoral artistic research into the use of colonial phonographic recordings.

The composition brings together mechanical noises, crackles, and the recorded voice of German ethnologist Konrad Theodor Preuss, whose 1914 recordings among the Kággaba are held at the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv. Through filtering, distortion, and changes in speed and pitch, these materials expose the recording apparatus and question the authority of the collector.

These archival traces are brought into relation with contemporary field recordings made in Kággaba territory, guided by encounters and ongoing dialogue with people from Teykú. Rather than reusing the historical recordings of Kággaba songs, Akei develops a compositional approach shaped by questions of reciprocity, responsibility, and the conditions under which sounds become available for artistic use.