Jika was Colin Dembovsky's first solo album. It combines modern rock with African rhythms and sounds to create a truly unique and South African worship album.
The Story
In February 2009, Dano McCollam and Rob Harris of Sounds of the Nations came to East London, South Africa to speak at the annual His People Spiritual Lifestyle Week (SLW). As soon as Rob and Colin met, there was an instant kinship and a relationship began to develop.
Colin and his wife Tanya were interested in attending Bethel's School of Supernatural Worship later in June 2009, and were asking Dano about the school (since he is one of the teachers at the school). Dano then off-handedly mentioned that if Colin and Tanya could get to California, that Sounds of the Nations would help to produce a record of Colin's worship songs.
Colin quickly recorded scratch tracks of his songs and emailed them to Rob and Dano. They were able to do some pre-production on the album.
The Recording
Colin and Tanya managed to arrange everything they needed to in order to attend the School of Supernatural Worship at Bethel in June 2009. The School ran for just over 3 weeks. Classes were held during the week in Redding, California. Colin and Tanya took their 1 year old Nia along, as well as Tanya's mom Pat, who babysat.
Colin had a total of 2 weekends in Vacaville, California (the home of Sounds of the Nations). The Sounds of the Nations studios in The Mission were not available during this time (they were being moved) so Dano arranged to use Humble Effort Studios (housed in The Father's House Church). Along with Zack Smith (guitars and engineering), Melody Riedell and Joanna Finchum (background vocals), Ron Bershears (bass) they were able to record 13 tracks, including 3 traditional African worship songs. Dano played some keys for the album, while Rob did harmonies and bass. Colin played guitars and mandolin and sang lead vocals. Dano, Rob and Colin did the programming.
You can read about the School of Worship and the recording at this blog: http://dembovskybssw.blogspot.com/
Mixing and Mastering
Mixing was done in the Sounds of the Nations Africa studio (in Rob's home in Vacaville) as well as at the Sounds of the Nations South Africa Studio in Colin's home studio in East London. Colin and Rob painstakingly ensured that every track on every song was correctly EQ'd, panned and levelled to bring out the most of the recording. Colin sent the tracks to Rogan Kelsey of www.lapdust.com for final mastering.
Where can I get it?
Jika will soon be available on iTunes (on the American store). If you have access to the US store, then you can purchase the album through iTunes. You can get the CD in South Africa from His People Church in East London. We'll keep you informed as to other locations where you can get the CD. You can always contact us if you want us to ship some CD's to you.