Angolan musician and composer Victor Gama joined Colombian musicians and composers Pedro Ojeda and Urián Sarmiento on a journey in 2013. They travelled by boat down the Guapi River in the south west of Colombia. On their journey through the waters and lush forests they recorded songs, voices and sounds. They then worked together on the sounds they had collected at the Chocó Base.
The experience allowed them to reflect on the musical practices and life in a country plagued by violent disputes over land, exploitation of natural resources and the plight of communities left exposed by their political leaders.
Pedro Ojeda then joined Victor Gama in Angola to learn about his long-term project “Tsikaya”, which involves recording music from some of Angola’s most remote regions, an archive of music to help prevent its demise. The results of this exchange can be seen the texts Houses in the Desert, by Victor Gama and Sounds Like a Mountain, Sounds Like the Jungle, by Urián Sarmiento and are published in Better Than.