Koobi Fora - Big Bang

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This song was written during our first field season at Koobi Fora, East Turkana, Kenya at the start of Nick Toth and Kathy Schick’s dissertation research. It was a favorite of Kamoya Kameu, leader of the hominid-hunting team, who always requested it at our end-of- season ngoma (dance party). Koobi Fora has been one of the most productive paleoanthropological localities in the world, with abundant fossil hominins, mammalian fauna, and Palaeolithic sites.

Koobi Fora
Music and lyrics by Nicholas Toth, © 2008.

Sunlight on the far horizon
Shades of gold and gray
Songs of birds, a shrill “Awaken”
Young giraffes at play

Lion standing on the headland
Oryx far below
Lake shimmering in the sunrise
Mountains all aglow

Sandy streambeds dry and dusty
Waiting for the rains
Green acacias spread their branches
Form a winding lane

Twilight on this barren landscape
Shadows through the years
Winds rustling through the outcrops
Whisper in my ears

Endless fields of ripened starlight
Shining cold and bright
Crescent moon, a silver sickle
Sweeps across the night

Koobi Fora landscape.
Image by KathySchick,
courtesy of THE STONE AGE INSTITUTE®.

Music and lyrics by Nicholas Toth.

Vocals, Guitar: Nicholas Toth

Engineer: David Weber

Recorded at: Airtime Recording Studio,
Bloomington, Indiana