{"id":106434,"date":"2022-05-10T10:38:37","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T08:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=106434"},"modified":"2022-05-31T23:27:40","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T21:27:40","slug":"nyamekye-junction-dasein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/nyamekye-junction-dasein\/","title":{"rendered":"Nyamekye Junction, an EP at the crossroads of three nations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Accra-based trio Nyamekye Junction announces the release of the Dasein EP, a spiritual and political manifesto that delicately combines nostalgia and the future of African music.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>For its very first release at the end of 2020, the London-based label Kitto records hit hard with Sankofa Season, an album born from the collaboration between soulman Andrew Ashong and the virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Kaidi Tatham. Moving to another genre, they&#8217;re now introducing Nyamekye Junction, an international trio that brings together Burundian singer and producer Betina Quest, Ghanaian singer Eli A Free and German percussionist Ma.ttic. With this symbolic name borrowed from an important crossroads in the city of Accra, the avant-garde group announces its raison d&#8217;\u00eatre, to find its musical richness at the junction of their respective heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"GMT - Nyamekye Junction\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ifO2Ww2RodQ?feature=oembed&#038;autoplay=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Nyamekye Junction &#8211; GMT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>On these first four tracks, the three explore political, environmental and identity themes, denouncing consumerism and post-colonial oppression through organic yet hopeful music. Like the indescribable first single &#8220;GMT&#8221; (short for Ghana Man Time), the group wraps the essence of soul in a fine and complex rhythmic ribbon that challenges the stereotypical codes of African music. Lo-fi synthesizers, vocal incantations and traditional West African percussion are concentrated in a music that leader Betina herself admits she has never heard. The two African protagonists then exchange in Twi and English on the airy and contemplative &#8220;Cloud 21&#8221;, the melancholic &#8220;Eyes Don&#8217;t See&#8221; and the anti-colonial lament &#8220;Aduro&#8221;, all elegant songs with a discreet groove, intimately linked to their common influences for Ebo Taylor, Nina Simone or Erykah Badu. Meaning &#8220;Existence&#8221; in German, <em>Dasein<\/em> is a promising EP with new textures that captures &#8220;<em>the need to live in the moment with a heart full of gratitude<\/em>&#8220;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/nyamekyejunction.bandcamp.com\/album\/dasein\">Dasein<\/a><\/em> out June 24th via Kitto Records <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listen to &#8220;GMT&#8221; in our Songs of the Week playlist on <a href=\"https:\/\/spoti.fi\/2Pz0eyg\">Spotify<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/30zVbUA\">Deezer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Copy-of-Kitto_002_Front.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-106418\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Copy-of-Kitto_002_Front.jpeg 700w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Copy-of-Kitto_002_Front-100x100.jpeg 100w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Copy-of-Kitto_002_Front-661x661.jpeg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Copy-of-Kitto_002_Front-465x465.jpeg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Copy-of-Kitto_002_Front-375x375.jpeg 375w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Copy-of-Kitto_002_Front-200x200.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Copy-of-Kitto_002_Front-85x85.jpeg 85w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Copy-of-Kitto_002_Front-73x73.jpeg 73w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accra-based trio Nyamekye Junction announces the release of the Dasein EP, a spiritual and political manifesto that delicately combines nostalgia and the future of African music. For its very first release at the end of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":106420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3944],"tags":[4096,23807],"location":[7994],"yst_prominent_words":[8541,8538,8539,8509,8996,8414,8447,8952,8542,8402,9244,9240,8435,9006,8543,8449],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106434"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=106434"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=106434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}