Broadcasts on Art Radio are called Timescapes. I consider Timescapes like paintings. Each sound each song represents a different colour, a different brush stroke. Timescapes paint a picture.
Timescapes explore dimensions of time using sound; to imagine and reimagine. Timescapes extend, bend, explore and recreate time and memories (events in time).
Timescapes are rooted in my experience living and working as an artist in Africa. On a Timeline, Africa marks a significant period in my life. It is the place from which i observe the past, present and future and continue the transformation of myself into the artist Dj Afifa Aza.
Each Timescape contains artwork. Artwork adds flavour to your listening. The artwork comes from different series of digital photography that i create.
Some Timescapes form part of a special series, where i will be exploring a specific idea.
When played live, Timescapes are broadcast on the Time Machine.
The Time Machine is a sound system made of second-hand speakers connected to a music source.
November 2025. Bakau. the Gambia. West Africa.
My friend likes to quote from books to me in our reasonings. He is an academic, I am not but I appreciate what he wants to say and how he wants to say it. He makes reference to an authority on the matter. Authorities write books, but experience is the best teacher.
I decided to call the music I play African Roots; a selection of music I love with Africa at the Root. Africa for me is the sound of soul, the riddim of the drum and the interplay of echo and delay.
Writing in 1969 Francis Bebey musicologist and producer describes African music as “an expression of life in all aspects through the medium of sound”.
Today African music is the sound of Wizkid,Ayra Starr and Burna Boy. African Roots which take its inspiration from Bebey’s idea is the sound of Anita Baker, Angelique Kidjo and Bob Andy. African music records, collects, reproduces and reflects history and time; because African music is rooted in a unique experience on Earth. The African must always remember history. The African must know themselves. The African must see and feel the reality of life and tell that story. I do not separate music from my being. Music is life.
African Roots is not a challenge to existing sounds from Africa such as the popular Afrobeats sound which dominate today.
African roots is an attempt to organise the memory of Africa in sound, to call Africa together to produce a soulful sound which invites us to listen.
December 2025. Bakau, West Africa, the Gambia