Ecos Do Legado: Chopi Timbila Music from Southern Mozambique

The Chopi Timbila is one of Africa’s great orchestral traditions, rooted in Zavala, Mozambique, and continually referencing Chopi ancestors. Their mwenje wood xylophones are tuned in seven equidistant pitches, giving them a microtonal quality starkly different from the tempered scale. In 2008, UNESCO listed it as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The seemingly monolithic, chaotic sound of Timbila Ta Venâncio at full tilt is disorienting at first, until the undulations wash over the listener and become invigorating. The group are all brothers, sons of the celebrated timbila master Venâncio Mbande, who died in 2015.

Ecos do Legado (Echoes of the Legacy) was recorded at Studio Bom Dia in Inhambane Province in 2026. Its ten pieces unfold in a traditional sequence across two sides, standing as a monument to Mbande, a tribute to the Chopi people, and an interpretation of his work.