Zimbabwean Artist Tinashé Plays Beautiful Music On Instruments I’ve Never Heard Of

This video of London-based, Zimbabwean born artist Tinashé playing his song Zambezi using an instrument called a Mbira is simply breath-taking. Also, what the hell is a Mbira?

Tinashé has been playing his unique style of music- a kind of fusion between modern Western pop music and traditional African instrumentation- for a while now, however he only released his debut full-length record, ‘Saved’ last year.

It is a record full of guitar, synth, and plenty of gloss, at times sounding much more Western than it does African (see in particular single and title track Saved). However underpinning everything is a very raw and natural talent, and this becomes even more obvious when you strip everything away and leave just the man and an instrument.

Whilst Tinashé’s studio work is certainly worth a look, I honestly believe that it is his acoustic music that really shines. For this reason I’ve ripped the audio of the above YouTube clip; you can download it here. But if you like it please support more obscure music like this by purchasing ‘Saved’, or checking out his other work available on iTunes.

Not only does Tinashé play wonderful music, but it serves as a welcome reminder that the scope of the music that we are exposed to is at times so unfortunately narrow.

Myspace | Facebook