Jonathan Ward is not your regular vinyl record collector. During the day he works as an archivist, but his real passion is collecting 78s of African traditional and folk music recorded in the first half of the 20th century. The four-CD compilation he’s just released, entitled Opika Pende, or “be strong” in Lingala, brings some incredible artists and fascinating musical forms back to life.
There are times when you need a helping hand to reach a new milestone. To put together his fourth album, Nimissa, Guinean singer and musician Ba Cissoko was assisted by reputed producer Philippe Eidel, who has managed to draw out each song’s potential and assure some ship-shape production.
To celebrate two decades since he released his first album, La Fossette, Dominique A is pulling out the stoppers. Along with remastered editions of his eight albums and a new album due out in March, he’ll be re-creating his seminal minimalist pop opus on stage, in partnership with Paris’s Théâtre de la Ville. One of France’s most unusual singers shares his thoughts on past and present.
Juliette Gréco’s new album, Ça se traverse et c’est beau, celebrates the bridges of Paris in the company of a stunning guest list including Marc Lavoine, Melody Gardot, Philippe Sollers and Amélie Nothomb. The result is a profound and striking concept-album.
Thirty years of hassle have done nothing to wear down the convictions of Congolese musician Jupiter as he prepares to bring out Hotel Univers – an album that rings like a coming of age. Portrait of an artist.
As well as playing with an array of Mali’s contemporary music-makers, Makan Badjé Tounkara has carved out a space to share his own stories, which he narrates under his name in a second album, Sodjan. His academic yet modern playing of the ngoni, the string instrument played at the royal court for centuries, leads him irresistibly into the land of the blues.
Histoires d'un continent, the first solo album by YaoBobby tells stories of the continent close to his heart, Africa. The Togolese rapper has produced an album in his image, comprising 12 tracks that blend the limpid sound of kora with a determined flow. Despite the revolutionary tone of his lyrics, our meeting in Lomé revealed a calm rapper committed to the cause.
Stage whisper is a hybrid album gathering eight new songs and ten live recordings by Charlotte Gainsbourg. The Anglo-French singer has invited several of the best contemporary English-speaking composers to put together a little gem of pop that also displays the singer’s talent for some sparkling live performance.
What with representing France at the Eurovision Song Contest next May and the release of her fifth album, Échos, Anggun’s French comeback is turning out to be something of an event. With her trademark charm, the singer of Indonesian origin discussed her selection for Eurovision 2012 with us, as well as her “disloyal” relationship with the French and their language, and the Asian reserve that underlies her latest, more personal, opus.
After the release of Infréquentable in 2008, Bénabar put a hold on his usual writing-singing-composing career to focus on film then theatre. Now he has returned to music with Les Bénéfices du doute, a disconcerting sixth album that has dropped the familiar brass to leave way for the banjo and the harmonica.
Encouraged by the warm reception to his album Ndam, Omar Pene has indulged in more acoustic creation with Ndayaan. The fifty-something Dakarois singer dug through his “attic” full of old tracks and unearthed the original spirit of Super Diamono, the band that is now an institution on the Senegalese music scene.
