Soul diva, crazy rocker, singer with texts, whether she slams, shouts or whispers, the Franco-Cameroonian artist Sandra Nkaké never stops reinventing herself. As his 4th solo album comes out, SCARSportrait of a woman attentive to the world and a fighter, of an artist with a magnetic presence and a fiery temperament, who is not afraid to use the words “gentleness” and “benevolence”.
Tossed around until she was 12 between France and Cameroon (where she was born, in Yaoundé); lulled by the laughter of her “uncle” Manu Dibango and the voice of Nina Simone (among others), Sandra Nkaké was raised – she cares about it – by women: her mother and her maternal grandmother (a Breton, blonde with blue eyes). His maternal grandfather was not far either. And from this former dancer of the National Ballet of Cameroon, she says she inherited at least one quality: a permanent quest for sincerity.
After several creations where black music (from jazz to rock) is never far away – the acoustic trio ELLES, the a cappella quartet Protest Songs (with Jeanne Added, Camélia Jordana and Raphaële Lannadère) or the poetic and humanist collective Tribe From The Ashes (to name only the most recent) –, Sandra Nkaké returns with a 4th solo album, SCARS, “scars” in French. Shaped with his (almost) always accomplice, the musician Jî Drû, she “face his pains and transform them into seeds of sharing and tenderness”.
This is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for to meet this woman who is attentive to the world and a fighter, this artist with a magnetic presence and a fiery temperament, who isn’t afraid to use the words “gentleness” or “benevolence”.
To draw his portrait, I chose several songs. These are not necessarily her own compositions, but she has taken over most of them. Like her “rattled” voice, both powerful and fragile, these pieces say a lot about the one who likes to define herself as a “troubadour” and sees music as a way to create vibratory spaces in which everyone could have their place, with its peculiarities.
The word that Sandra Nkaké probably used the most during our meeting was “sharing”. No wonder she gave us an appointment in the Paris region, in Argenteuil, at the Wild Museum, a place called “shared”…
SessionLab by Hortense Volle : a conversation in complete privacy and in 3D audio (spatialized sound).
A podcast to listen to, preferably, with headphones.
Directed by: Benjamin Sarralié
3D mixing: Fabien Mugneret
Production: RFI Labo►
To follow Sandra Nkaké:
Site / Youtube / instagram / Facebook / Twitter
► Titles broadcast:
Taken from the album SCARS(Riot / Pias – 2023): The hoarse voice; Sisters
Excerpts from the album Tribe From the Ashes (Blue Label / House of Culture of Amiens – 2021): Nineteen; The Moon Belongs To the People; rewind
Excerpts from the album Tangerine Moon Whishes (Jazz Village / Pias / Riot – 2017): Exchange
Taken from the album Nothing For Granted (Jazz Village – 2012): Knock Knock knock
Taken from the album The Grand Day of Quincy Brown by PUSH UP! (Discograph – 2010): The Grand Day of Quincy Brown
Excerpts from the album Mansaadi (Corner Shop / Naïve – 2008): Bad reputation ; Happy; fairy tales
And also :
TONY ALLEN & SANDRA NKAKE – Na Bangui
SANDRA NKAKE & ARIELLE BESSON – Gray December (Cole Porter)
NINA SIMONE – Four Women
Excerpt from the show About Nina at the Philharmonie de Paris – Four Women by Sandra Nkake
MANU DIBANGO – Soul Makossa
PRINCE- Darling Nikki
BOOSTER feat. Sandra Nkake – Sex Friend
GEORGES BRASSENS – Bad reputation
PUSH-UP! – Push Up The Volume
Excerpt from the show THEM – Make your drum beat by Sandra Nkaké, Jî Dru (transverse flute) and Paul Colomb (cello) – Live at Cuizines (Chelles)
EMILY LOISEAU – Beat your drum
39 women – Standing up women
To support the actions of the Women’s House