Sanza Music In The Land Of The Gba

Label / MEG-AIMP
Category / Ethnomusicology, Ethnography, Folk, African
Code / MEG-AIMP 124

Sonic postcards from 1977 in the Central African Republic - bordering Cameroon, DRC and Sudan - documenting rhythmelodic, Gbayan lamellophone and vocal traditions, often replete with rich environmental sounds. A staple of Geneva’s Museum of Ethnography (MEG-AIMP) catalogue, long out of print since its original 1993 CD release, ‘Central Africa. Sanza Music in the land of the Gbaya’ hails Vincent Dehoux’s recordings of the people who have occupied the Central African Republic since the C.16th. Sharing an intricate, polyrhythmelodic thrust common to Central African musics, the album revolves nine mesmerising, interlocking lamellophone and voice patterns as "songs for thought", ideal for introspection and getting carried away on their warm, elemental breeze. One does not need to know the literal translations in order to be transported by the music’s messages, which instrumentally connote meditative moods in succinct passages marrying whistles and chants to lilting thumb piano type phrasing, similar to xylophone or the buzz of a balaphone. In particular the likes of the call-and-response vox and peppery groove to the ‘Bondè ko bé hoyo’ bits really snag attention, as does the faint recall of Konono No.1’s thunder from a distance in ‘Naa-woro’, and blissed effervescence of ‘Naa-koro’.

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Gbáyá Centrafrique / Central Africa: Musique Pour Sanza En Pays Gbaya / Sanza Music In The Land Of The Gba

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