andré has been a DJ for nearly 20 years. He is a social activist who uses the arts, specifically music, as his weapon of choice.

andré is a product of the Cape Flats – and proud to have grown up alongside the Cape Town’s house music scene as it took root in the City’s traditionally coloured clubs.

Before launching the COLOUR: Spirit of the Flats, a promotional forum for underprivileged artists living on the Cape Flats, and DALA FLAT MUSIC, he lived in the UK for two and a half years where he worked as a buyer for HMV, studied music management and played at various clubs and nightspots in the UK.

andré has also played with live music outfits, including electronic Khoi cross-over band RockArt which experiments with jazz, electronic and Khoi rhythms, and an experimental trio called Jazz Dance HiFi. And whether he’s DJing or playing live, he often surprises audiences by pulling something special out of his record bag – including his own re-edits and mixes to compliment is unique style of playing.

Apart from heading up DALA FLAT MUSIC, DJ’ing and producing, andré, also works as the head of marketing for the Early Learning Resource Unit (ELRU), an NGO specialising in early childhood development.

andré’s most recent international exposure includes stints in clubs in Melbourne during the 2006 Commonwealth Games, as well as a couple of gigs in Kuala Lumpur in May 2006. He represented DALA FLAT MUSIC at the NextWave Alternative Arts Festival where he exhibited the label’s Speak with Music project. He was also one of a small group of South Africans chosen to be a part of the British Council’s InterAction Programme for emerging African leaders.

South African jazz/electronic/ethnic musician, Alex van Heerden, started playing the trumpet as a teenager in his school marching band in order to avoid compulsory military training, and soon was playing jazz in the local townships of Port Elizabeth. He moved to Cape Town, and was initiated into the township/Cape jazz traditions while playing in the bands of local legends such as Robbie Jansen, Winston Mankunku, Hilton Schilder and Mac McKenzie. During this time he embraced the ethnic music of the Afrikaans-speaking people, with whom he performed vastrap, langarm and church koortjies across the magical landscape of the Karoo/Namaqualand. These experiences led to his first solo project, the group 'Gramadoelas', popular performers of 'psychedelic vastrap!'

In 2000, he grew fascinated by electronic music, and since then has travelled yearly to Stockholm to collaborate with Håkan Lidbo and other Swedish producers, while also recording several solo projects ('Tales of Droeland', 'Hemisfär', 'Bushtech' and 'Becoming Insect') for publishers 'Smallfunk.' (www.smallfunk.com) His main focus has been the seemingly impossible task of combining the focused, detailed sound of Swedish minimal electronic music with the rich, organic, wild rhythms and textures of his native South Africa.

In the course of his live performances both in Europe and Africa, he has developed a unique performance style, combining laptop virtuosity with understated trumpet and vocals, performing either solo or accompanied by pianist Magnus Bank.

Although he is constantly seeking new genres with which to express his unique musical background, (including avante-garde string quartet, in the album 'Sagtevlei' with Derek Gripper), electronic music has held the deepest fascination for him as a medium of expression. 'I discovered that so many of the subtle aspects of the landscape of my home on the outskirts of the Karoo desert can be expressed via electronic music, which is free from cultural references and allows the resonances of unspoken stories and hidden landscapes to be amplified. It can render the abstract funky, the ancient futuristic.'

All her life Trudy’s been surrounded by music. Her first “public” appearance was in Sub A (Grade 1), when her class teacher made her stand on the table and sing for the inspectress! She took piano lessons as a child, which gave her a good foundation for her teenage years, when she started playing the guitar. She taught herself, with the help of a book, and accompanied her schoolmates at Harold Cressy’s Bible Class. Shortly after starting to play (in 1978), she began composing songs.

For many years, she sang and played at fundraisers and weddings, and later took classical lessons and voice training. For a while, she also took voice production lessons with her mother, accomplished opera singer, May Abrahamse.

Her first stint at professional music was in a duo was called “Flipside”, with keyboard player, Eddie Peteresen. After that, she worked as a vocalist with a 9-piece band, “Deadline”, a 5-piece band, “Just Us”, and a 3-piece band called “Splash”. In 1993 she did a demo recording of four cover versions, with Splash.

In 1997, when she decided that it was time to record some of her original songs, she turned to Merton Barrow to assist her with the finer points of the arrangements. Shortly after recording the demo, called “At Last” with Merton Barrow on keyboards, Alvin Dyers on guitar, Charles Lazar on electric bass and double bass, Denver Ferness on drums and Jeff Geffen on percussion she performed with the same line-up at the 1998 Jazzathon at the V&A Waterfront.

After the Jazzathon, she dropped off the performing scene for a few years, devoting her attention to her family life. In March 2003 she became part of a duo with Keith Tabisher, on guitar and in February 2004, they were joined by Donald Gain, a double bassist. Together they are called “Jazz, etc.”.

In 2004, I did two solo performances at events organized by the Women of the World group, headed by Merle Falken. I also performed some of my original compositions at Poetry Evenings, one organized by Off Moroka’s Richard Ishmail and two by Dala Flat Music. In December 2005 she was joined by Hilton Schilder at a series of gigs – Time with Trudy - where she performed her original material. Trudy is in the process of recording her debut solo album with Dala Flat Music.

Chantel is a writer, journalist, co-founder of community arts project the COLOUR: spirit of the Flats, and co-owner of community-based record label, DALA FLAT MUSIC.

While she has been writing since the age of 12, her involvement in arts and culture projects dates back to 1998 when she first got involved in stage productions at the then Peninsula Technikon. During 1998 and 1999 she served as stage manager for two major technikon productions, one of which she co-wrote. In 1999 she was commissioned to produce a video for the technikon's Leadership and Multiculturalism course. Apart from writing the script and co-directing the video, she also managed the entire project. Her formal involvement in Cape Town's arts and culture industry started in 2003 when she, together with her now business partner, André Manuel, launched theCOLOUR: Spirit of the Flats, a non-profit, promotional forum for artists from impoverished communities. In October 2003, she and André launched a Cape Flats-based record label, DALA FLAT MUSIC.

Chantel writes short stories and poetry and has facilitated workshops for youngsters at the Resource Action Group on the Cape Flats. She oversees the DALA FLAT MUSIC’s 38 Special Words and Music poetry and music project and is a member of the And the Word was Woman ensemble which has performed at the Celebrate Women Book Festival and the Women's Parliament in August 2004, the 2005 conference on Feminist Intellectualism, and the Mother City Book Festival at the V&A Waterfront (2005). She has done public readings at the COLOUR: Spirit of the Flats, Grassy Park Library, the DALA FLAT MUSIC's Flat Sounds Sessions during October 2003, World Book Day events in April 2004, in Montague and at UWC as part of the Third Symposium on Black African Writing in October 2005 and at the inaugural Spier Open Air Poetry Festival at Spier Estate in February 2006 At all times through her writing Chantel strives to maintain and uphold the ethos of DALA FLAT MUSIC and theCOLOUR: Spirit of the Flats – social upliftment through the arts.

She is currently in the process of completing her first book, The Meditation and Maths of Leaving – a compilation of short stories, poetry and letters to a long lost friend. Her work has been published in Women Flashing, a compilation of Flash Fiction by South African women writers (2005).

Born into the musical Schilder family, Hilton started playing drums and percussion at the young age of 3 years old. In 1978, at the end of his high school career, he started playing piano, an instrument he has become renowned for manipulating with his fast moving fingers and cutting-edge chords.

Shortly after finishing high school, he formed his first band, The Four Sounds, with his dad, Tony, and music industry stalwarts, Cliffy and Basil Moses. While he has had no formal music education, Hilton said he gained most of his musical knowlege by watching others.

It was during his stint with the Four Sounds that he met Mac Mackenzie - who would continue to play a huge part in his life for years to come – and joined the band Big Daddy. Like Hilton says, he'd "gotten a taste for the stage and didn't want to do anything else."

After his Big Daddy days, Hilton formed Love Supreme in 1979 with his uncle Chris - who he describes as one of his greatest influences - and saxophone great, Robbie Jansen. Hilton's career was defined with he played with Mac in an outfit called Soft Landing - it was the first time he'd played piano in a band. In Soft Landing, Mac and Hilton shared the responsibility of composing and "fed off each other's energies and ideas."

But Hilton has always wanted to explore another side of himself, a side in touch with his African roots, and he got this chance while playing in African dream with Steven Erasmus and Jonathan Butler. Thereafter followed a stint with Lionel Beukes and his wife Roslind in Feather. After returning to Cape Town Hilton started working with Mac again and they formed what they are probably best known for - the Genuines. Scathing, experimental, with radio UNfriendly lyrics, the Genuines was everything a "coloured group of jazz musicians" was NOT supposed to be. The Genuines were Mac on bass Gerard O'Brien on guitar, Ian Herman on drums, and Hilton on piano.

Between then and now Hilton has explored more avenues than can be fully explained on this site. He's played with The Sons of Table Mountain, formed the Hilton Schilder Quintet, experimented with hip-hop in his concept band, New Age and in the late 90s joined Mac in his outfit, Namakwa.

Together with Mac, Hilton is still playing an integral role in keeping Cape goema jazz alive through their latest outfit, the Goema Captains of Cape Town. With its raw energy and contemporary sounds, Hilton says the Goema Captains is "in a way an extension of the Genuines."

But unable to settle down, Hilton is also focusing his energy on concept group, Rock Art - a Khoi electric crossover band incorporating live musicians and a DJ. No Turning Back is Hilton's 24th recorded, and first solo album.

27-year-old Jy7even grew up in Westridge, Mitchells Plain, the biggest coloured townships on the Cape Flats. His relationship with music started when he was in Grade 3 when he started learning classical piano. Up until the end of his high school career, he mastered his instrument before moving onto jazz music which he studied for five years, adding the drums, bass and guitar to his repertoire.

It was during this time that he became involved in the Cape Town hip-hop which has a huge following in Mitchells Plain. His initial involvement in the scene started with graffiti, and breakdancing, until he finally tried his hand at MC-ing, joining hip-hop crew, DBA.

Acquiring his first electronic instrument – a W30 keyboard – marked a turning point in Jy7even’s career as a musician. One of his first electronic projects came in the form of a remix of SA band, Moodphase5ive’s Violation for African Dope Records.

He then went on to form Neophytes with EJ von Lyrik, now a member of Cape Town’s first all-girl hip-hop crew, Godessa, and DJ Azul.

After working in a studio for a year, Jy7even’s focus shifted to his own work and developing a style of his own. Out of this was born his first full-length album – Sign of Strength.

His stage name, he explains, comes from the J7 form that has to be signed when a suspect is released on bail. And like that form symbolises freedom, so too does his music.

“It’s my way of releasing, of taking a break from the insanity,” he says.

Talking about his influences for the album, Jy7even names too main themes – slavery, and the harsh realities of living in a ghetto. His musical influences include Mowtown and Miles Davis. His inspiration, he adds, ranges from waking up in the morning, to observing something in the ghetto, to things he sees while riding the train. And the energy he feels in the world.

“The better the energy around you, the better the production,” he says.

And where does Jy7even see electronic music fitting into the SA music scene?

“Our ancestors used anything to make music. And although I’m using electronic instruments, it’s still got African soul. Like they say, it’s not the sword, but the person who wields the sword.”