Afrobeat 294 Items

2LP on 180g vinyl. Housed in a deluxe gatefold 'tip on' sleeve with full liner notes (Jeff Mao) and studio photography.

On a quest for cosmic grooves of unity, Àbáse is the imagination of Hungarian producer and keyboardist Szabolcs Bognár. Now based in Berlin, he’s become a protagonist of a fast-rising jazz movement in the German capital. Bringing together musicians from Hungary, Germany, Ghana and Australia for moving project with a global outlook - here is his highly anticipated new album ‘Awakening’ released by Analogue Foundation and Oshu Records

Created following a move to Berlin, marriage, new parenthood, and the inevitable interrogation of mortality that takes place when a loved one has transitioned, ‘Awakening’ demonstrates a deep understanding of music’s ability to cross time and geographic boundaries, conveying a message of unity, dialogue and self-reflection. Recorded in four days at Berlin's Brewery Studios, the album coalesces Àbáse’s varied musical influences and reference points (classic Lagos Afrobeat, traditional Hungarian folk, Yoruba rhythms, house and techno, hip-hop et al) with exquisite modalimprovisation à la Coltrane, spurred by Szabolcs’ introspection.

“Awakening was the first working title I gave to the project, and I decided to stick with it as it felt authentic and descriptive of what I wanted to express. The name comes from the concept that babies can hear and remember their parents voices from the belly, they recognise the voices upon birth and can be soothed with them. Being born is to enter an elevated state of existence, transitioning from just sounds and feelings to sight upon birth. I believe the way we experience life on earth and trying to make sense of the universe will shift upon our transition or ‘death’, and its only a pathway to something higher. The imagined moment of rebirth and entering to this new realm of existence is what I call “Awakening”.

Mostly composed of first and second takes with minimal overdubs, a striking level of intimacy is achieved between Szabolcs, Ziggy Zeitgeist (drums), Ori Jacobson (saxophone), Fanni Zahár (flute), Andras Koroknay (bass, synths), Ernö Hock (double bass) and Eric Owusu (vocals, percussion). This intimacy extends to the listening experience, with moments like atmospheric opener ‘Greeting Mother Sea’ and ‘Bloom (Flora)’ welcoming listener’s into Ábàse’s world through trance-inducing, glistening piano motifs, swirling synths and fluttering woodwinds.

Singles ‘Destruction Everywhere’ and ‘Menidaso’, paired with ‘Shango’, perhaps best highlight Szabolcs’ worldview and efforts to bridge creative ideas and cultural viewpoints. All three tracks are a bold fusion of spiritual jazz and afrobeat, with the latter two featuring the Twi vocal and driving percussion of Eric Owusu. Elsewhere, Szabolcs explores his own heritage with a stirring iteration of Hungarian folk song ‘Gyászba Borult Isten Csillagvára (God’s Star Castle Has Fallen To Grief)’, whilst also nodding to musical lineage through J Dilla homage ‘Shining’, and ‘Sunisaway’, a tribute to Sun Ra upon which Sun Ra Arkestra members Cecil Brooks and Knoel Scott are warmly welcomed to contribute.

‘Awakening’ is a new chapter for Àbáse, whose work has already drawn widespread critical acclaim. Debut album ‘Laroyê’, recorded entirely during a five- month trip to Brazil, found global praise from the likes of The Guardian, BBC Radio 6, Soulection, KEXP and Complex. Szabolcs has toured and collaborated as a keyboardist with the likes of Wayne Snow, Dele Sosimi, Pat Thomas and Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange. The new album begins an era of partnership with Analogue Foundation, who are dedicated to preserving and furthering analogue creation via record releases, international events, and activities at its recording studio and hi-fi listening bar. The Foundation is headed up by Grammy-winning New York City recording and mixing engineer Russ Elevado (D’Angelo, Erykah Badu), Audio-Technica, Soundwalk Collective, and Berlin recording and mix engineer Erik Breuer.

Personnel:

Fanni Zahár, Ori Jacobson Szabolcs Bognár, Eric Owusu,
Ernő Hock & Ziggy Zeitgeist, drums

With Special Guests: Flóra Bognár, Youka Snell, Cecil Brooks Knoel Scott, Dumama, Rhea Sodemann, Wayne Snow.

Liner notes by Jeff 'Chairman' Mao and session photos by Dario Raspudic.

"Certainly a producer to watch" -Gilles Peterson
“ Hungarian producer Àbáse blends west African and Brazilian rhythms with a satisfying and uncluttered efficacy on Laroyê” -The Guardian
“We were instantly gripped upon hearing the work of Hungarian jazz collaborative project Àbáse” Stamp The Wax

After their debut album the most multifaceted and unpredictable musical collective in Italy – Addict Ameba – come back with their sophomore album, “Caosmosi”. Faithful to the aim of bringing together different paths, traditions and horizons in their music, the band moves between desert-blues and afrobeat landscapes, with latin rock rides and ethio-jazz parentheses. The vision of the album is further enriched by two absolutely valuable features: Joshua Idehen, Anglo-Nigerian poet and singer and pen of Sons Of Kemet and The Comet is Coming, is the author and lead voice in “Look At Us”, a poem – or perhaps it would be more correct to say a prayer – an invitation to be protagonists and change this time, before it changes us; Rabii Brahim, Tunisian actor and musician, who in "Ya Bled" gives birth to a love song for his land, telling the nostalgia and disorientation of migrant, even when he returns to his homeland. To approach listening to this album you should project that state of melancholy euphoria that you would experience when taking part in the last great party before the disappearance of the human race... Caosmosi!

Continuing our exploration of Sao Tomé and Príncipe with DJ Tom B., Les Disques Bongo Joe proudly announces the release of Africa Negra Anthology Vol. 2.We"ve carefully selected and remastered 13 standout tracks for this volume, digitized from studio tapes by their tour manager. The album includes a booklet with updated liner notes and vintage photos of the group.

Little known outside their native Sierra Leone where they were huge stars in the 1970s, Afro National played a brand of afro-pop that was a fusion of myriad styles, including Congolese music, highlife & Afrobeat and whose sound was characterized by up-tempo melodic guitar playing.

This double A side features two choice cuts from their 1972 debut album, the gloriously infectious and up-beat ‘Temedi Oh’ & ‘Den Kick’ which starts as a gentle rumba before launching into a joyous guitar workout.

Habibi Funk is thrilled to share a second collection of deep grooves and unreleased songs from Algeria's Ahmed Malek, often compared to Italian heavyweight Ennio Morricone. Malek’s music effortlessly switches between thematic jazz, funk, reggae and Algerian folk – creating indelible soundscapes that intersect the musical innovations made in African jazz by Mulatu Astatke, Bembeya Jazz National along with some of Europe’s finest experimental composers like Piero Piccioni and Janko Nilovic.

● Tokyo based band and Afrobayashi pioneers Ajate are back with their third album: experience the explosive encounter of Afro groove and Japanese traditional Ohayashi music!

During a stay in West Africa in the late 2000’s, Japanese musician Junichiro "John" Imaeda was taken aback by the similarities he felt between the Afrobeat that resonated in the streets of Accra, and the sounds of the "Ohayashi”, the music played during ancestral Japanese festivals, in which John had participated since his childhood.

On his return to the archipelago in 2009, Imaeda created Ajate, a collective of ten passionate musicians. Together they started crafting music that moves from one world to another, with intertwined roots. The drums, flutes and bells are joined by curious instruments handmade by John himself with the essential material of the Japanese countryside: bamboo. The “Jaate”, an amplified xylophone-balafon equipped with piezoelectric sensors on each of its keys, or the “Piechiku”, a bamboo version of the Malian “Ngoni” or the Gnawa “Guembri”, equipped with shamisen strings and connected to an arsenal of guitar pedals, give Ajate an absolutely unique sound. Powerful and catchy Japanese female and male vocals bring the final touch to an incredible groove where Afrobeat and Ohayashi music are woven together so seamlessly that Ajate has managed to capture a truly distinct fusion. The band sings about the power of human connections, the force of being and living all together, the joy of sharing, and the beauty of life. Ajate’s music is a magnificent example of the way sounds are able to migrate in contemporary music.

The band’s explosive live performances have taken Ajate to the most prestigious stages in Japan, such as the Sukiyaki Meets The World and Fuji & Sun festivals. The release on French label 180g of their “Abrada” and “Alo” albums, in 2017 and 2020 respectively, opened the doors to Europe, with memorable shows at the Transmusicales de Rennes festival - followed by a session on KEXP (Seattle, USA) - at Jazz a Vienne, and at WOMAD UK, among many others. With their brand new album “Dala Toni”, Ajate prove once again that they are at the forefront of global music "made in Japan".

The Akagera trio released their debut album Serpente in 2019. The subtle blend of African music and jazz laid the foundations for a new sound driven by an unconventional ensemble of instruments.

Their new album, Traverse, is the soundtrack to the imaginary travel diary of three intrepid musicians forced to put a hold on their adventures. Over a period of three years, they took time out from improvisation sessions to collectively compose a repertoire reflecting the diversity of their backgrounds and influences: classical and contemporary music for Benoit, mixed music from South America and the Caribbean for Stéphane, and African rhythms and Brazilian grooves for David, all to the backdrop of their shared passion for jazz.

David Georgelet: drums Benoit Lavollée: vibraphone, marimba Stéphane Montigny: bass trombone

Excursions in Gwoka vol. 2 is another adventurous outing for the Beauty & the Beat label that takes them ever deeper into the gwoka scene of Guadeloupe. it is the celebrated carnival outfit Akiyo who are in focus here with two tracks taken from second and supremely hard-to-find long player, Mouvman, in 1993. 'Deboule' is a real heater with bustling drum funk and chatting tribal vocals all run through with synth wizardry from Marie-Galante Jacques-Marie Basses. 'Blo' is just as steamy and intern with percussion, whistles and big beats all making quite the impact. Breakplus adds a London twist to 'Deboule' while CW adds a cosmic air to 'Blo.'

The 2015 full-length from the highly regarded Malian griot was recorded with a little bit of help from the soulful voices of Djeli Mah Damba Koroba and Djana Sissoko, respectively his mother and his young daughter. They are the voices of the past, the present and the future, living in the twilight zone where the Malian roots blooms into a new sound of hope and happiness. Also involved are Fernando "Bugaloo" Velez (The Dap-kings, Antibalas) on percussion, and the legendary Corey Harris on slide guitar.

KahruMusiqa is a musical retrospective by Tunisian singer and composer Badiâa Bouhrizi AKA Neysatu. She is known as the author behind the protest songs that became the anthems of the Tunisian revolution.

KahruMusiqa means electronic music, but is never used as such in Arabic to name the genre. The record is a collection of sonic experimentations that started when she first got her hands on music production softwares in the 2000s. The tracks are based around poems in classical Arabic language or Tunisian dialect written by Badiâa herself or female poets she admires, such as Palestinian authors Fadwa Tuqan or Salma Al Jayusi, or the Tunisian poet Noureddine Werghi. Most of the vocal work are improvisations recorded with a computer microphone. A take on the classic Turkish folk song Muhabbat is almost a modern harmonic rewriting, using only classical guitar, vocals and delays.

KahruMusiqa’s themes are in line with Badiâa Bouhrizi ideological trajectory. She is a queer woman in the moving sands of Tunesia in the song Transrimel. She also questions the political contract that led to Balfour and the displacement of millions of Palestinians in 1948, describing a journey between London and Nablus, in Fil Madinatil harima (“In The Old City").

This lo-fi bedroom album also displays several songs that have become classics of the Arab underground milieu like Ila Selma, and is the first ever record Badiâa Bouhrizi was willing to release.

‘Tèssassatègn Eko’ is a catchy, soulful Ethiopian jam. Originally released on
Amha AE 690 A in 1973. Arranged by the prolific Girma Beyene.

‘Ayalqem Tèdènqo’ see’s Eshèté’s third appearance in the Africa 45’s series. Released originally on Amha AE 290 A in 1971. A shuffling drum/percussion groove with soulful piano and bass, catchy vocal hook and guitar solo.

The meeting of an ancient and ancestral instrument like the kora, in the hands of a virtuoso like Ballaké Sissoko, and electronics that expand the possibilities of the instrument itself, as proposed by Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, is at the heart of Radicants.It's a search for new paths that have to do with immersion, abandonment and new roots. Roots that are dynamic, that evolve and that are able to support the other. Respecting the idea...

The Malian kora player and French cellist raised dust with 2011’s Chamber Music, which pulled two seemingly incompatible instruments into a startling, neoclassical fusion. Musique de Nuit maintains the momentum. While there is a formal air to pieces such as Prélude and the title track, improvisation is at the heart of the duo’s interplay – Sissoko’s rooftop in Bamako, not the studio, was the venue for half the recording. The lines between cascading kora and stately cello are wonderfully blurred at times, as the pair take turns to supply rhythm and melody, ranging across Malian mbalax on Super Étoile, Brazilian flavours on Samba Tomora and deep tradition on Diabaro, to which Babani Kone contributes wailing griot vocals. Entrancing stuff. - The Guardian.

Analog Africa No. 21 „bitori“ - Legend Of Funaná (The Forbidden Music of The Cape Verde Islands) - In 1997, a quiet, unassuming man of 59 years old named Victor Tavares - better know as Bitori - walks into a studio for the very first time to record a masterpiece which many Cabo Verdean consider to be the best Funaná album ever made.

Bitoris musical adventure had begun long before this point. It was 1954 when he embarked on a journey across the seas to the island of Sao Tomé & Principe. The young man´s hope was to return to Cabo Verde with an accordion.

Following two years of hard labour Bitori had succeeded in saving enough money to acquire what was to become his most valued possession, his cherished instrument. The two month journey back to Santiago, his island of birth, proved time enough to master it. Self taught, Bitori developed his own style, an infectious blaze, that quickly caught the attention of the older generation. Before long Bitori was being asked to share his musical talents, igniting the local festivities around Praia with his music.

But not everybody welcomed the rural accordion-based sound. Perceived as a symbol of the struggle for Cape Verdean independence and frowned upon as music of uneducated peasants, Funaná was prohibited by the Portuguese colonial rulers. Performing it in public or in urban centres had serious consequences - often jail time and torture awaited musicians that were “caught in the act”. In light of such persecution the genre of Funaná began to slowly disappear.

In 1975 Cabo Verde achieved independence from Portuguese colonial rule. Along with Cabo Verde’s independence came a lifting of the ban placed on Funaná. The musical repercussions in Cabo Verde were plenty - many upcoming artists embraced Funaná, translating and adapting its musical form in new ways. It was not to be until the mid-1990’s, however, that Funaná in its traditional form was actually recorded.

It was a young singer from Tarafal, Chando Graciosa, who was to play a key role in this event. Upon hearing Bitori, Graciosa immediately felt drawn to Bitori's unique playing style - a raw and passionate sound accompanied by honest lyrics that reflected the harsh reality of the Cabo Verdean working class. He eagerly approached Bitori suggesting they join forces and travel overseas with the objective of taking Funaná beyond its rural roots. The two of them, with others in tow, achieved their goal and travelled to Europe, introducing a receptive European audience to the vibrant energy of Funaná. Eventually Bitori returned to his beloved Cabo Verde. Graciosa opted to settle in Rotterdam in order to pursue his career - he vowed, however, to bring Bitori across to Holland at a later date to record an album.

In 1997 the time was ripe to immortalise the sound Bitori had shaped over a time span of four decades. Built around a formidable rhythm section, formed of drummer Grace Evora and bass player Danilo Tavares, "Bitori Nha Bibinha" was recorded. The recording catapulted Chando Graciosa to stardom, making him Cabo Verde´s No.1 interpreter of Funaná.

The success in Cabo Verde was phenomenal and Funaná rapidly gained the recognition it deserved, especially in urban dance clubs. Bitori´s songs quickly became standards - classics known and loved throughout the country. The musical success, however, was solely limited to the Cabo Verdean islands - until now!

Analog Africa is proud to contribute to the worldwide promotion of Funaná - the once forbidden sound of the Cabo Verde archipelago - by releasing a worldwide re-issue of Bitori and Chando Graciosa´s legendary recording. The release will herald Bitori´s first European tour taking place during the summer of 2016. Watch this space! And listen!

The Villain I Never Was is the debut studio album from Ghanaian singer and rapper, Black Sherif. Originally released on October 6, 2022, the 14-track album was supported by five singles, “Second Sermon (Remix),” “Soja,” “45,” “Konongo Zongo,” & the smash hit, “Kwaku The Traveller,” which debuted at number 2 on the UK Afrobeats Singles Chart. Since the release of The Villain I Never Was, Black Sherif’s career has seen considerable growth and accolades, such as Artist of the Year (Ghana Music Awards UK 2022), West African Artist of the Year (The Headies 2023), & Best International Flow (bet Hip-Hop Awards 2023). Now for the first time, fans are able to enjoy this momentous album on vinyl. First pressing limited to 500 copies worldwide.

Soundway presents a long-awaited remaster and re-cut of the 1976 album ‘Ifetayo’ by Black Truth Rhythm Band, an important and overlooked chapter in Trinidad’s rich musical history that blends West African influences with jazz, funk and the social commentary of the calypso tradition. Led by the charismatic Oluko Imo, the group drew on the strong connections to Yoruba culture and Orisa traditions in Trinidad, looking to Africa for inspiration and reflecting the burgeoning Black Power movement of the time. Recorded at KH studios in Port of Spain, Ifetayo (Yoruba for ‘Love excels all’) was the group’s sole album release. Imo contributed lead vocals and played bass, kalimba, conga, flute and percussion, channelling music from both sides of the Atlantic into a distinctive and unique slice of Afro Trinidadian expression. Includes bonus track “Imo” not included on the original LP