{"id":97589,"date":"2022-01-24T15:13:07","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T14:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=97589"},"modified":"2022-01-24T15:49:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T14:49:19","slug":"pape-nziengui-kadi-yombo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/pape-nziengui-kadi-yombo\/","title":{"rendered":"Awesome Tapes From Africa puts Gabonese harp in the spotlight with Pap\u00e9 Nziengui"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The American label is set to reissue Kadi Yombo<\/em>, a monument to Gabonese “postmodernism” from the late 1980s. <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The album Kadi Yombo<\/em>, originally released in 1989, is a particularly successful project in the quest for a fusion between tradition and modernity. Musician Pap\u00e9 Nziengui presents a dialogue characteristic of ngombi harp playing with male call and response choirs, adding female cult rhythms and Tsogho ritual music, while combining the beating of rattles with synthesizer layers. The resulting ten tracks constitute a veritable initiatory itinerary, from a musician who has always defined himself as “non-initiated”, i.e. not subscribed to the rite of passage required to access the various initiatory brotherhoods (Bwiti, Mouiri, Mabandgi, etc.), whose harp aestheticizes the mysteries and musicalizes the rituals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is into this rich history of Gabonese musical tradition that the American label Awesome Tapes From Africa<\/a> has dived into with the reissue of this album, a perfect example of “Gabonese post-modernism” (according to the label) from the late 1980s. The track “Gho Mitsaba Na Voko”, available as a single from the project, gives a clear taste of the album’s atmosphere, notably through the use of modern electric guitars and aforementioned female backing vocals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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