Our first guest is an artist RFI talent : Sheikh Ibra Famfor sound output 1er international album Peace In Africa (Daydream Music/Soulbeats).
With Peace In Africahis first international album, the Senegalese singer and multi-instrumentalist Sheikh Ibra Fam enriches African music with new nuances. After four years at the service of the mythical Orchestra Baobab, a fiftieth anniversary monument of Senegalese music, and three albums with a local vocation under the name of Freestyle which allowed him to make himself known to his compatriots, the process of maturation was coming to its logical end. It was when he was preparing to live away from Senegal and his native continent, at the end of 2019, that the pieces of the puzzle suddenly fell into place, in the light of his experience and his personal reflection on the music.
His first solo album, an Afro-pop project called Peace In Africa, is the fruit of this musical catalysis. To give substance to this project, he first wanted “go back to the source“. In Gambia, neighboring country and brother of Senegal, he joined his uncle Coly Cissé, “one of the best guitarists in West Africa” who has accompanied a number of international singers. The collaboration proved to be productive: in one week, the bases of six songs were laid, including dounde which recounts this stay marked by the meeting with the famous griot Jaliba Kuyatehnicknamed “The King of Kora” in the English-speaking world.
As a child, he was rocked by the records that his mother played in the family home in Dakar: those of the Orquesta Aragón of Cuba or the Dominican Johnny Pacheco, star of Latin music very popular in West Africa. When he discovers the American Otis Redding, at ten years old, the shock with soul music is such that the boy listens to nothing else. Later, like those of his generation, he also connects to American, French and Senegalese rap, but deliberately prefers not to dwell on this or that artist, for fear of being too influenced. “I want to be inspired by everyone and not by anyone in particular”he justifies, while acknowledging that “an artist’s career is like a building: many people participate in its construction“.
Among those who came to contribute to Peace In Africathere are in particular Sheikh Lo, one of the figures of Senegalese music with whom Cheikh Ibra Fam shares the fact of belonging to the Baye Fall community. The Franco-Cape Verdean reggaewoman Mo’Kalamity also came to share the microphone, while Mamy Kanouté was in charge of the backing vocals, she who has accompanied Baaba Maal for a long time. The “dads” of the Orchestra Baobab occupy a very special place on this guest list: Thierno Koite, the saxophonist who knew how to think of his young compatriot when a place in the group was vacant, and of course Balla Sidibé, founding member of the Baobab of which he was one of the singers. With them, during international tours passing through the biggest stages, Cheikh Ibra Fam acquired a confidence that he did not have before. A rigor and a discipline too, thanks to the discrete blows of sticks that Balla Sidibe hit him live for a false note or a microphone touched with his hand! The Future is the veteran singer’s last recording, three days before his death. His lyrics evoke life and death. “This song has a soul“, considers Cheikh Ibra Fam, depositary of this musical testament which is worth recognition of its legitimacy. A final lesson, before taking off definitively.
Titles performed at RFI
– Yolele, Live RFI see the clip
– Aritaria Feat. Cheikh Lô, from the album Peace In Africa see the clip
– The FutureLive RFI see the clip
– Cosaan, Live RFI see the clip.
Musicians
– Sheikh Ibra Fam, lead vocals
– Yao Dembele, low
– Igor Nikitinskykeyboards.
His : Mathias Taylor, Benoit Letirant.
Our second guest is called Symo Reyn.
The composer and qanoûn player (born in Jordan) has lived and worked in Paris since 2007. Inspired by Western musicians who fascinate him, he developed techniques very early on to reinvent his instrument. Playing since the age of five, he participated very early in several international meetings in Jordan and the Middle East. Arrived in France and attracted by the cinema, he then worked on composition with Bernard Cavanna, then with Patrice Mestral at the École Normale de Musique in Paris and obtained a diploma in film music. He has played in several ensembles and collaborated with artists from various backgrounds at the Opéra de Lyon, the Institut du monde arabe, the British Library in London, Bozar Brussels, Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, Villa Medici, etc. Driven by a desire for universality, he seeks to bring new dimensions to the qanoûn. By drawing inspiration from the techniques of other instruments, he renews the playing and sound of this centuries-old zither, long associated with a traditional genre. This approach takes shape in his solo album A Time Between Birth and Chaos, where the instrument is used electro-acoustically. Symo Reyn’s music carries several identities, it plays on contrasts by drawing inspiration from fields as different as the world of science fiction, jazz, psychedelia and modern music…
Titles performed at RFI
– A Time Between Birth and ChaosLive RFI see the video
– spring theater, excerpt from the EP A Time Between Birth & Chaos
– Silver River, Live RFI.
Musician
Symo Reyn, qanoun.
Sound: Mathias Taylor, Benoît Letirant.