{"id":77622,"date":"2021-04-13T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/wau-wau-collectif-un-ovni-qui-plane-et-joue-collectif\/"},"modified":"2021-04-13T11:09:30","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T10:09:30","slug":"wau-wau-collectif-an-unclassifiable-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wau-wau-collectif-an-unclassifiable-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Wau Wau Collective: An unclassifiable union"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The outcome of an encounter between the Swedish musician-producer Karl Jonas Winqvist and musicians from the Toubab Dialaw village in Senegal, this collective recording, which evolved through jam sessions and WhatsApp<\/em> exchanges, represents a strange vessel that traverses the Mediterranean soundscape. Read PAM\u2019s full interview.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the more surprising releases of early 2021. Yarel Sa Doom<\/em> (the title is an homage to Super Diamono de Dakar) is the result of a spontaneous encounter between Senegalese musicians (poets, percussionists, beatmakers\u2026) and the Swedish musician-producer Karl Jonas Winqvist, an artist in residence for three months. A combination of circumstances resulted in the creation in Toubab Dialaw of the Wau Wau collective, which was supplemented thanks to WhatsApp exchanges and additional contributions by Swedish musicians. The result is a futuristic voyage, a strange, captivating and experimental soundtrack. In a refreshing change from typical world music productions, the compositions are either written collectively or shared: by the singer-bassist Aruna Kane, his Senegalese partners and Winquist.  This demonstrates the singularity of a project that emphasizes the collective over the individual. Even if this means heading in different directions: a quirky ballad, a unique reggae riddim, a dream-like flute evoking Sufism, sprinkling percussion and delicious beats, echoes of fanfare and wise words addressed to the world, weary pseudo-jazz melodies interpreted by an ageless singer and latin afro-funk grooves in the vein of the classics of the genre… It\u2019s a long list, but what is striking is the natural overlapping between what emerges from music captured in the moment and the discreet additional production work used to enhance it. Hear about the production process from the man behind this singular project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What was your musical background before this project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A very eclectic one. I guess it all started 20 years ago when  Jenny Wilson and I released our debut album There is Hope<\/em> with our experimental pop band, First Floor Power. We played a lot in Europe and released some more albums. Fast forward to 2015 when I started to broaden and widen my musical activities. I started to host the 2-hour show \u201dKaejdoskop\u201d on Swedish National Radio where we play music from all corners of the world without any commercials. I still host this show now and then. I also started up my own one-man label Sing a Song Fighter<\/a>. Basically, I did it to turn a dream into reality, to reissue one of my favorite albums: Idrissa Soumaoro & L\u2019eclipse<\/em><\/a>, the first studio recordings with the then-teenage duo Amadou & Mariam, along with their music teacher Idrissa. I\u2019ve been listening to scruffy mp3\u2019s of this rare and elusive album for a long time. Then I started my mission to locate Idrissa, to find a master or an unplayed original album etc. When all this succeeded after some hard work, I contacted my friend Eric who ran the great US label Mississippi Records to see if he wanted to co-release it with me. I really wanted the album to become widely available and needed some experienced collaborators. So, that was the start of my own label. And now I\u2019ve released over 40 albums over the last six years, from Swedish prog music, to African music, solo piano pieces and jazz albums… A mixed bag, just how I like it. I also started my own solo project called Blood Music<\/em> and started to produce other artists (mainly Swedish artists, but I\u2019ve also had the honor to produce the encounter between Senegalese kora master Lamine Cissokho and Indian steel guitar master Manish Single, as well as the Scottish singer\/songwriter James Yorkston and the Congolese Dekula Band to mention just a couple). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How and why did you come to Senegal? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came to Senegal in 2018. The Swedish Cultural Arts body had this new Musical residency exchange grant to Senegal and since I have been heavily in love with African music and culture for many years I happened to apply for it. I was chosen to go so, I did, on my own without having ever been to Africa, speaking French or their language wolof. So, I arrived there as a child not knowing anything about anything and couldn\u2019t express myself that well or understand much, either. But I was prepared. I wanted the challenge and the experience of being lost and in need of people \u2026 The cultural exchange between Sweden and Senegal was based at this great hotel\/cultural hub called Sobo Bade in a town called Toubab Dialaw, a few miles from Dakar and there are enough moments and scenes from this 3-months trip to fill a book. I made close friends there. Every night I ended up jamming with the local musicians and I wrote some new music and time just flew. Once I was standing in the small airport in the middle of the night preparingto go home to Sweden I felt sad and, all of a sudden, a voice called out. The Air France pilots went out on strike! All flights were cancelled and I ended up going back to Sobo Bade. It got me an extra week and the musicians there quickly decided that now was the time to do something more than just jamming\u2026 We went to the local musician Arouna Kane\u2019s place and he had some studio equipment laying around. We gathered musicians and just started to create music together, staying up all night and really discovering some special together. I had only brought this electric harp (like a small toy instrument) with me, my omnichord and so I created some songs on that which, along with the Senegalese musicians, got this surreal and lovely atmosphere going. We were only five-six people and it was like it was our secret. When I finally left for Sweden I left the recordings in Toubab Dialaw because the band wanted to continue and then send them me. Time went by and I received this and that through WhatsApp. New songs, overdubs \u2026 we learned that we wanted to make this music in our own special way, where my vision blended with theirs. So I started to record overdubs in Sweden as well and the project just grew and grew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What was Arouna Kane’s role? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arouna was the technician. It was at his place\/studio where we started it all up. He was also the bass player and sang on some tracks. If it wasn\u2019t for me and him continuing to send stuff to each other this album would not exist. We knew our chemistry was special! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Did you always want to rework these sessions once back in Sweden?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did not rework the music. We recorded things and added them to stuff I did in Senegal. In some songs, we added just a tiny little thing, like a keyboard. But in some songs, we added more, like horns. It was such an exciting thing to build things on top of each other\u2019s stuff. But it could also be chaotic \u2013 I think I had material for 5 or 6 albums in the end. Still, it was all decided from the beginning, so I had total freedom with the material which was a relief, a clear vision of what I wanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Who did you record in Sweden? Did you edit the sessions recorded in Senegal?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some friends in Sweden helped out by playing flute, saxophone, clarinets and stuff. Annarella S\u00f6rlin did some wonderful flute parts and we met for the first time in Senegal, but it was not until back home in Sweden that we recorded together. Lars Fredrik Swahn and Andreas S\u00f6derstr\u00f6m both helped me mix the album and they added some nice things as well. I even met a Senegalese taxi driver in Stockholm who knew the people of Toubab Dialaw. I invited him and his children to the studio, as referenced by the song \u201cMouhamodou Lo and His Children.\u201d There were no samples being used except on this one where we used a mellotron. All songs had elements from the first recording sessions in Senegal, and some were left almost entirely untouched.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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