Robert ‘Abia’ Moore is a Zimbabwean musician who grew up influenced by diverse sounds, leaning strongly towards soul, rock and funk. He is a founder member of the legendary band Soul and Blues Union (SABU) formed in 1967, performing in concerts across the country. In 1978 he joined Osibisa, the Ghananian-English Afro rock band, recording a number of albums over a period of four years. The band performed in Harare at a special Independence celebration in 1980, touring across the country and internationally to Kenya, across the UK, Europe and India where their acclaimed album Osibisa Unleashed (Live in India) was recorded. Moore returned to Zimbabwe in 1982 and resumed the band SABU as Sabuku which continues today.
Tinofireyi Zhou aka Aero5ol employs the spoken and written word, street art and sound-based intervention to engage and interrogate the world. He has performed at festivals and participated in exhibitions locally and internationally, including WHOSE LAND HAVE I LIT ON NOW? SAVVY Contemporary Berlin (2018) and That, Around Which The Universe Revolves Chapter 3, a SAVVY Contemporary project in Harare (2017). He co-produced the Pan-African Space Station PASS Popup Harare for the exhibition We Need New Names by Kudzanai Chiurai at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (2017) and co-founded Revolutions Per Minute, an itinerant vinyl archive and DJ project (2015).
Through word and sound, Zhou composes soundtracks to the life and journey of music-maker and world-maker Moore. Reflecting on his time as a member of the band Osibisa, the sounds follow, lead, illustrate and dance around the story of Moore. They sometimes walk into scenes he has been, and other times walk not too far from him, guiding across Zimbabwe, Ghana, India, Switzerland, UK, US and the Caribbean. Composing a period of radical art-making, self-making and world-making, Pan African ideas around Black Liberation, and decolonized perspectives on African rhythms, sounds and practices deeply informed by anti-colonial movements of the time are interwoven into the roots and beat of Afrorock, Afrofunk, Zamrock and Zimheavy. A meditation on the contribution of Moore, a moment of questioning, of coming together, this moment of a shared unknowing, shared journeying and adventure enfolded within the story of Osibisa.
