A Sample of Me was a project which sets out to investigate the audible potentials of personal and non-personal expression using sampling and sound recording devices and processes.
A Sample of Me is a project that set out to investigate the audible potentials of personal and non-personal expression using sampling and sound recording devices and processes.
Students from the Fresh Start course at City of Westminster College participated in a sequence of workshops to gather, scrutinise, deconstruct and fuse sound-based information. This archive of sounds and recordings generated audible collages using the participants’ histories and contemporary surroundings and that of The Showroom’s neighbourhood for research.
These workshops form part of Achiampong’s wider research project that will include seminars, interviews, talks, performances and screenings over the course of 2011.
The resulting record, MEH MOGYA (Sample Of Me), was launched at The Showroom in October 2011.
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MEH MOGYA or MY BLOOD (when translated from Twi, a Ghanaian language, to English) is a beat tape like no other; it’s rich palette traces the sounds of Larry’s Ghanaian heritage via records that his mum and dad once owned, in particularly Highlife music created during the genre’s Golden Era (the 1960s and the 1980s).
A heart-warming, harmonic, rhythmic sound of the sun that predates Jazz music, the Highlife sound peaked in popularity between the 50s and 60s in its association of musical legends such as Alhaji K. Frimpong, African Brothers International, Ebo Taylor as well as Fela Ransome Kuti who pioneered the Afrobeat sound by merging Highlife and Jazz.
This exciting, funky, fresh project represents Larry’s interest in navigating, sampling and re-presenting the musical legacy that connects his African origins.
The historical, cultural and political sentiments that surrounded Ghana are brought to life and made relevant today via remixed vocals taken from a speech made by former and the first Prime Minister of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah. In 1957 Nkrumah oversaw Ghana’s independence from British Colonial rule and made the legendary speech.
The amalgamation of History and contemporary flavour creates a new, fresh, dynamic sound that is both raw and catchy.
Overwhelming championing of the project has so far come in from the likes of Gilles Peterson via BBC Radio 1 and respected producer and DJ Mr Scruff.
An LP containing the EP version of MEH MOGYA (as well as a collaboration project with students from Edgware Road, London) on a limited vinyl run of 200 including silkscreened sleeves has sold out.
Released September 5, 2011
Produced by Larry Achiampong for Look Mama Records
This project is commissioned as part of Communal Knowledge which is supported by The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The John Lyons Charitable Trust, and Westminster Arts. Sample of Me has been carried out within the framework of ‘Survival Kit. Art linking society, knowledge and activism’ and with the support of the Culture 2007–2013 programme of the European Union.
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Larry Achiampong's solo and collaborative projects employ imagery, aural and visual archives, live performance and sound to explore ideas surrounding class, cross-cultural and post-digital identity. With works that examine his communal and personal heritage – in particular, the intersection between pop culture and the postcolonial position, Achiampong crate-digs the vaults of history. These investigations examine constructions of ‘the self’ by splicing the audible and visual materials of personal and interpersonal archives, offering multiple perspectives that reveal entrenched socio-political contradictions in contemporary society.
Achiampong’s recent project titled ‘Relic Traveller’ is a multi-disciplinary multi-site project that builds on themes of lost testimony, fallen empire and displacement by deconstructing the architectures of colonialism. The project is currently formed of a ‘First Phase’ involving an original score, two short films and installations, an audio-visual performance and a flag project which recently displayed atop Somerset House in London. Achiampong is a Jarman Award nominated artist (2018) and he completed a BA in Mixed Media Fine Art at University of Westminster in 2005 and an MA in Sculpture at The Slade School of Fine Art in 2008. He lives and works in Essex, and has been a tutor on the Photography MA programme at Royal College of Art since 2016. Achiampong currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) and is represented by C Ø P P E R F I E L D.
London-based artist Achiampong has exhibited and performed in various spaces within the UK and abroad including Tate Britain and Iniva, London, Novas Contemporary Urban Center, Liverpool, Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam and Antje oeklesund, Berlin.
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