The #SessionLive will oscillate between soul, an ode to sorority for Sandra Nkaké and the sparkling new Colombian scene, embodied by the seven musicians of Sonora Mazurén, named after a district of Bogota.
Our first guest is Sandra Nkake for sound output 4th album Scars.
5 years after his last solo album, Sandra Nkake returns with a fourth album: SCARS. SCARS, is a jewel of powerful and organic soul songs that make us travel in weightlessness, suspended in the majestic breath and words of Sandra. His long-awaited return captivates us and takes us into a universe that gives pride of place to the energy of rock, to folk ballads that move from the first notes.
Entire, authentic and generous, Sandra Nkaké is a French artist, singer, author and composer born in Cameroon who has created a universe that she never stops reinventing, to explore. Her powerful and singular voice unfolds on stage with a breadth and magnetism that the public receives as a gift. Sandra Nkaké is one of the most moving voices on the current scene.
After three solo albums and a Victoire de la Musique in 2012, she won over the public and critics, on stage at the biggest pop and jazz festivals in France and abroad. She writes and composes her songs by imagining and embodying the singular universe that accompanies them both in the videos she co-writes and in the staging of her shows, her choice of costumes and photos.
SCARS ” Scars, breaches, gashes from the past. The songs on this record present my personal story, but basically it doesn’t matter. What is important is that others can identify with it. This disc recounts the highlights of my journey and their resonance in my body, my being, on my voice. I am made of all the paths I have walked, the pebbles I have trodden, the skies I have aimed for, the pains I have overcome, the waters that have soothed me, the joys that have have gone through: he talks about exile, violence, sharing, uprooting, failure, success, changes of course, moments in Africa, sorority, love, arrival in Europe, the violence of being a woman, black, a musician, of shattered dreams, of reality that goes beyond dreams, of the happiness of being able to heal all these wounds and to express all these joys by singing, by working as an artist, author, composer, director of project and to share it with others, in private and on stage. It’s a love record. These scars from the past are filled with dreams, gifts of life and love and translate into the sound that comes out of my body and says who I am. Singing saved me, these scars are now my strength “.
Sandra Nkaké has at heart sharing, exchange, the defense of singularities and conceives music not as an end, but a means: that of creating agoras, vibratory spaces in which everyone could have their place, with their particularities. . These values are found in music in the longevity of her collaboration with Jî Drû as much as in the creations and encounters she has had. If the song is present in his journey with the creation of the acoustic trio [ELLES], his duet with La Chica, Protest Songs (a cappella quartet with Jeanne Added, Camélia Jordana and Raphaële Lannadère), jazz is just as important, as evidenced by his collaborations with Jî Drû quartet, Tribe From The Ashes, Autour de Chet or TRIO SR9. They can also be found in her choices for the theater and the cinema, but also in the workshops she leads on the sidelines of her tours, her residencies and in collaboration with various associations (singing workshops, master classes, with women’s groups).
► See official clip of the title The hoarse voice
Titles performed at the big studio
Sisters Live RFI
three leavesfrom the album Scars
My Heart Live RFI
Line Up: Sandra Nkake – vocals + acoustic guitar, Ji Dru – transverse flute, Elise Blanchard – bass + backing vocals, Jerome Perez – electric guitar + backing vocals
Sound: Mathias Taylor & Jeremy Besset
Directed by: Steven Helsley
► Scrapbook Scars (Pias 2023)
Then we receive the Colombian group The Mazuren Sonora for the album release Bailando Con Extranos, who has just performed in France at the festival Blue Suburbs.
La Sonora Mazurén is the latest representative of the new alternative tropical scene in Bogota. The septet mixes the rhythms and sounds of the Caribbean coast and the Andean plateaus – cumbia, chicha, champeta, curullao, Sanjunanitos and other popular genres especially in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia – but far from being folklorists in love with authenticity, the musicians of Sonora Mazuren are inspired by Brazilian Tropicalia and tropical retro-futurism and use synths and electric guitars alongside the vallenato accordion and more traditional percussion.
The group also pays tribute to the pioneers of the tropsychedelia movement such as the Ecuadorian Polibio Mayorga or the omnipresent Eblis Alavarez, of the Meridian Brothers, who precisely produced this long-awaited first album – Bailando con Extraños. The musicians of the sonora Mazuren all belong to this new Bogotá scene driven by the first generation of experimenters of all kinds, with groups such as Frente Cumbiero, Ondatropica, Curupira, Los Pirañas, Los Toscos and the Meridian Brothers. Often coming from jazz and experimental music, this first generation finally became passionate about Colombian tropical music by reinventing new ways of reinterpreting traditional music in sometimes esoteric, but always playful contexts – with more rock and roll instrumentation. acoustic and electronic mixes rarely predictable, and never gratuitous. The interests and activities of the 7 Sonora musicians are as varied as rich as Colombian music itself.
Iván Medellin is just as interested in analog synths as he is in the vallenato accordion – rightly in the spotlight with his other group, Conjunto Media Luna, noted for its collaboration with the Meridian Brothers two years ago. Singers and percussionists Diana Sanmiguel and Giovanna Mogollón are regulars on international stages with their group La Perla, which specializes in cumbia andbullengue. Bassist and producer Nicolás Eckard has often stood out on the stage of the mythical club Matik Matik in contexts as eclectic as his musical tastes. Collectively, the Sonora Mazuren is rewriting the future history of Colombian music day by day. The group has collaborated and shared the stage with many of the representatives of the new international tropical movement – Los Pirañas, Mariachi Flor de Toloache, Chicha Libre, Sidestepper, Ghetto Kumbé, etc. Their first album, Bailando con Extraños, was released on the Barbès Records label, already responsible for the compilation The Roots of Chicha, as well as productions by chicha and cumbia groups such as Chico Trujijllo, Chicha Libre, and Los Wemblers de Iquitios.
Titles performed at the big studio
No Hay Necessity Live RFI
T’Hase Pniefrom the album
The park Live RFI see the clip
Line Up: Nicolas Eckardt G. – Bajo, Juan David Lacorazza – Guitarra Electrica, Luis Lizarralde – Drums and Timpani, Iván Medellin P. – Organ, Acordeon, Voz, Giovanna Mogollon (Roberta Leono) – Percussion and voice, Miguel Angel Rodriguez Rebolledo – Percussion and vocals and Diana Sanmiguel – Percussion and voice.
Sound: Benoît Letirant, Mathias Taylor
Directed by: Steven Helsley
► Scrapbook Bailando Con Extranos (Barbès Rd 2023)