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A new album of Malawian roots music is the inaugural release of a new record label from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art<\/a>. A collaboration with California label Hen House Studios<\/a>, Mass MoCA Records<\/a> released the Kasambwe Brothers\u2019 self-titled album today, and you can hear it below.<\/p>\n The Kasambwe Brothers are a band of four decades, based in the Ndirande township near Malawian capital Blantyre. They found their way to a Mass MoCA residency with help from Hen House and Luc Deschamps, the director of the Jacaranda Foundation<\/a> and France\u2019s honorary consul to Malawi. Watch a documentary on the making of the album, which involves collaborators from the Massachusetts music scene, below. Clement Kammwamba<\/a> is the artist behind the cover painting.<\/p>\n Mass MoCA Records will operate in tandem with the museum\u2019s curatorial ethos, a press release notes, and is running as a three-year pilot. Museum director Kristy Edmunds said, \u201cBy joining forces with Hen House Studios and being able to tap into the remarkable number of music studios and intimate venues in the local area\u2014the ingredients for a hand-made record label were all around us. I see this label as an extension of how we innovate to support the mobility of artists\u2019 ideas and connect audiences the world over.\u201d<\/p>\n Harlan Steinberger, the producer and engineer behind Hen House, added, \u201cThough technology today can work wonders, the digital world has de-humanized us. I believe in an older-world method that emphasizes the magic of a band making music together in one room, playing off the creativity of the moment. The humanistic approach creates a deeper emotional listener experience that can not only be heard, but also felt.\u201d<\/p>\n An album from Compton jazz artists Black Nile will follow in 2026, the press release notes.<\/p>\n