| Format: | LP |
| Availability: | Out of stock |
SS011LP
08/11/2019
Legendary Nigerien avant-garde organist Mamman Sani's debut album La Musique Electronique du Niger is reissued on Sahel Sounds. Mamman presents a singularly unique recording of minimalist organ music from the Sahara. Dreamy and hypnotic, the sound is unlike anything coming out of West Africa before or since, closer in effect to early electronic experiments of Kraftwerk. Mamman composes in a technique that can only be called minimal, relying on simplicity and space. It is a remarkable manipulation of sound that uses the silence to invoke the emptiness - a metaphoric desert soundscape. Unsurprisingly, his source material is folkloric Nigerien music, and many of the compositions on this record are reproductions of ancient songs brought into the modern age. Interpreting this rich and varied history of Niger’s dance and song for the first time in contemporary music, Mammane electrifies the nomadic drum of the Tuaerg, the polyphonic ballads of the Woddaabe, and the pastoral hymns of the Sahelian herders. Accompanying this repertoire are a few compositions, such as Salamatu, the deeply personal love letter to an unrequited romance. Recorded in 1981 at the National Radio in Niger, shortly after Mamman discovered an old Italian organ, La Musique Electronique du Niger was a spontaneous production, recorded in two takes. It was released on cassette but was a commercial failure, and only a handful of copies were sold. The recordings, however, were a success, and became the themes to the National radio for the subsequent 30 years, securing Mamman’s place in the foundation of Nigerien music.