John Katokye carries the vocal traditions of the Banyankore people of Western Uganda through deeply immersive performances shaped by memory, landscape, and repetition. Rooted in ekyeshongoro — a form of improvised poetic singing — his music unfolds in long, cyclical vocal passages that blur storytelling, meditation, and collective ritual.
Having spent much of his life herding cattle across the plains of Western Uganda, Katokye developed his voice within the rhythms of rural life and oral tradition. His songs reflect on family histories, regional identity, ancestral knowledge, and the landscapes where Ankole longhorn cattle graze, drawing from a tradition where music functions as both cultural archive and living conversation. Performing alongside overlapping backup vocals that extend and mirror his phrasing, Katokye creates dense streams of sound that can stretch beyond ten minutes, locking listeners into hypnotic patterns of call, response, breath, and resonance.
Released through Nyege Nyege Tapes in 2025, Obuhangwa bwa Banyankore na Bahororo introduced Katokye’s music to a wider international audience through raw, minimal recordings that foreground the physicality and intimacy of the voice. Captured with remarkable closeness in accompanying films by Vincent Moon, the performances feel immediate and unfiltered — suspended somewhere between oral history, devotional practice, and trance. Rather than adapting tradition into contemporary form, Katokye’s work remains grounded in its original social and ceremonial function, carrying generations of vocal knowledge forward with clarity and force.
RIYL: Ogoya Nengo and The Dodo Women's Group, The Good Ones, Abel Selaocoe, Kokoko!, BCUC, Madalitso Band, Moor Mother, Nyege Nyege, Le Guess Who?, Nyege Nyege Tapes, Banyankore oral traditions, ceremonial music, longform repetition.
Concert included in the AW26 season pass!