[Cover photo features Waliko Makhala, who is an ethnomusicologist and broadcaster who also plays a number of traditional instruments and was a key consultant for the Sounds of Malawi sessions.]

The wider world is not very aware of Malawi in musical terms. For every Malawian artist that’s toured Europe, there are so many more who are only known to their communities and their countrymen. Even within Malawi, many of these traditions and musicians are little known and in danger of being lost, so it’s with great urgency that organizations like the Jacaranda Foundation have been working to highlight and present Malawian artists.

Though primarily a school for orphans, every Thursday Jacaranda takes over the Alliance Francaise de Blantyre stage in the heart of the city of Blantyre, for their weekly Sounds of Malawi concert series. It’s become a popular showcase for artists from every corner of the country, coordinated in part by Malawian ethnomusicologist, and a performer himself, Waliko Makhala.

Luc Deschamps, director of the Jacaranda Foundation, says:

 The goal was to try and promote and preserve the heritage of Malawi, to pass it on to the youth, the young musicians so that it can go on.

Now a popular stop for visitors to the country, the series has gathered a loyal following of Malawian music fans as well as international visitors looking to learn about Malawian culture.

Working with Deschamps and Makhala, in 2024 Los Angeles recording engineer/producer and record label director Harlan Steinberger spent ten days at Jacaranda Studios in the outskirts of Blantyre city recording as many Malawian artists as possible.

Steinberger had been coming to Malawi since 2009, working with artists and producing previous albums from Keturah and The Kasambwe Brothers, but this trip was more extensive. During the ten days of marathon recording sessions, Steinberger recorded 18 bands and 85 songs total.

Once word spread of what he was doing, hopeful singers dressed in their Sunday best showed up hoping to get recorded. It was an impossible choice narrowing down the offerings, but Steinberger is releasing fourteen songs from these recording sessions as Sounds of Malawi, Vol.1, coming July 24, 2026 on record label Hen House Studios.