Well, here is how I would process, step by step:
1 getting in touch with an artist able to record (and maybe produce?) in Sidi Kaouiki, or basically on location
2 getting in touch with a platform able to distribute the result of the collaboration, the way you and the artist agree on
3 getting the result released and promoted via as much canals as possible
Note : sometimes, two of these very simple steps are crossing each other on your timeline. No big deal though.
1 - GETTING IN TOUCH WITH AN ARTIST
it is the biggest part of the work.
You need a very specific profile of artist: you need him able to record on location (so you need someone with nomad equipment, if you can’t provide it to him), and maybe produce on location as well : those two aspects will probably lead you more into electronic music than any music with instruments btw… You also need him/her to be from Morocco for the reasons previously discussed.
You can find this kind of artist on a platform named BANDCAMP. It’s a very known and prosper distribution platform for independent artists, making a real INCREDIBLE work on every aspect of the music industry business. The website is very well conceived, and you can dig out plenty of talents from everywhere around the globe. Try out some hashtags linked to your researched profile (“morocco”, “sidi kaouiki”, “essaouira”), and try to get in touch with the artist you’re interested by. If you want a little help, I might still have a few contacts in the Now, what an artist and music producer needs to know first is what the project will give and take to/from him/her. It can be a lot of things here:
give: the experience of working with a community of do-ers, exp of working with youth, the ecological / transmission / educationnal / creative mindset, money (?), hardware and equipment (?), support of Edgeryders (?), proper release on bandcamp for instance (and streaming/distribution platform), and anything that comes to your mind.
take: time (how much? more or less…), hardware and equipment (depending on how nomadic is his/her production set up), and that might be it, as you don’t want this list to be too deep ahah!
note that I’m not saying that artists are always self centered people only thinking about their own self, but I always experienced that the more you give them the feeling that you understand their needs, the more they will give it back to you x100.
2 - GETTING IN TOUCH WITH A PLATFORM
Once you find an agreement with an artist, step two comes in very fast. So if you feel good and confortable, earlier on the line, to get your hands into Bandcamp by creating a “label” account and check the possibilities you have with this platform, and what it will take you to release something there (music file formats wise, promotionnal wise, but also little things such as artwork, banners, and maybe the name of the project itself).
It’s actually simplier and easier than anything I could write to sum it up. it is specifically made to answer the needs of small projects, amateur artists, confirmed indie labels, famous niche artists, anybody but the major actually.
At this point, your main thing to check is to agree with the artist and the children (and their parents) on how you will release the result: for “free”, for a “specific price”, or as “name your price”. And as much as there could be money involved: where does it go in the end, and how.
3 - GETTING THE RESULT RELEASED AND PROMOTED
Now this could be both exciting and boring at the same time. ah!
it could be great to see the community of Edgeryders gather around such a creative project resulting from an open village presence in a local community. Wich could lead to a good self promotion of it, and possibly some coverage in specific medias linked to music, and/or communities, etc.
So that means: newsletters, videos, photos, fb/ig/tw posts, ER platform posts, interviews, and everything that the documentation (filming, recording, shooting) of the project while it’s happening could give you, of any kind of formats imaginable.
SIDE NOTES:
I believe it could possibly have an impact in the future of Open Village projects: it could lead more creative minds to get involved, it could lead to festivals that would see music, tech and workshops being programmed in the same location at the time, bringing people of many really different profiles to interact with each others.
And as culture is one of the more meaningful and fragile common that exists in communities, and with Edgeryders producing ideas and projects around many other commons, it could lead to build something like “Open-Culture” or “Open-Art” topic(s), here to be discussed just as Open-Care is for instance. ping @alberto @nadia
So that’s the best you could try to do for a first project.
But don’t mind it if you just want to start a little smaller, by simply inviting an artist to join the workshop for a time being, or give him the freedom to handle step 2 and 3 on hiw own… I don’t know, it’s just how you feel it.
I’ll be there with my former experience in that business, and a couple of contacts that I still have, if you need any kind of advices or introduction emails, etc. So hit me whenever you need!