Browse by Artist: AKENDENGUE, PIERRE

Artist:	AKENDENGUE, PIERRE
Title:	Nandipo/Afrika Obota
Label:	SARAVAH (FRANCE)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	SHL 1051CD

1991 CD issue of 2 early albums by Pierre Akendengue (his first from 1974 and 5th? from about '78 -- both originally issued by Saravah), recently listed by The Wire in their "100 Records That set The World of Fire" article. "Recorded in the early 70s, before 'world music' was the rage. A spellbinding encounter between an African poet, musician, story teller, Pierre Akendengue, and a Brazilian percussion wizard, Nana Vasconcellos. "Composer, guitarist, dramatist, poet and singer, Pierre Akendengue's influence in his home, Gabon, is huge; in the Francophone world, he's made a dent; everywhere else, he's barely a footnote. Nandipo, his first album, becomes a play -- each song a dramatic act made of miniature scenes. Complementary voices (tight harmonic choruses, Akendengue's own trilling tenor and emphatic reading voice), arc above a collection of individual instruments, each running on their rhymic line. The album is accented by soft acoustic guitar, shakers in stereo effect, slicing flexitone, berimbau and cuica, deep cello. With the assitance of Brazil's Nana Vasconcelos, Akendengue seamlessly incorporated the French popular melodic vocal style, brisk Amazonian percussion, and solid, soulful African themes, words and energy: a 'fourth world' styling several years early." -- Robin Edgerton/The Wire. Limited stock.

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