From the Desire to Make Music to Recording in Small Home Studios: The Emergence of Local Music Production in Cape Verde

Abstract

This article sets out to reflect on the conditions of possibility for the emergence of local music production in Cape Verde within small studios and home studios, spearheaded by a network of resident artists. Their projects do not necessarily adhere to conventional parameters of performance, authorship, creation, or musical production and are often dismissed as ka múzika [“not music”], a denial of their artistic and musical status.

Based on narratives from musicians within this sphere, the text argues that the rise and development of this mode of music production in the capital, Praia, and elsewhere in the country (particularly from the 1980s onward) are tied to broader processes. These connect trajectories heavily marked by international mobility and circulation—alongside associated cultural influences, access to electronic and technological equipment—and intersect with the pursuit of existential territories and spaces of individual/collective affirmation. Such processes compel us toward alternative conceptions of music, authorship, and Cape Verdean music itself.