Luanda–Kinshasa

A band is in the middle of a jam session. Keyboards, guitars, drums, percussion and saxophone lock into a layered rhythm that loops, builds and shifts. A sound engineer listens from the booth while friends, journalists and record label staff watch.

The scene unfolds inside a reconstruction of Columbia Records’ legendary New York studio, known as The Church. In the 1960s and 70s it hosted landmark recordings by Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis. The musicians draw on African diasporic music that was moving through New York at the time, including Afrobeat songs like ‘O Boso’ by Manu Dibango. They blend jazz, rock and African rhythms into something new.

Canadian artist Stan Douglas constructs a speculative history: crafting a six-hour remix by sampling two compositions, ‘Luanda’ and ‘Kinshasa’. Through editing and synchronisation, musicians appear to collaborate across time and space, showing how sound and technology can reorganise history into new cultural possibilities.