Azna de L'Ader - Adawi Azna de L'Ader - Jan Marké There is something mysterious about the musical archive. It holds a lot of promise. Where live performance - the way music was existed for millennia prior to physical medium - is immediate and experiential, media rendered to medium (physical,…
John Sofakole - Anashua (1989) I found John Sofakole's cassette in a dusty dark corner of the Centre de Formation et de promotion Musicale (CFPM), Niger's formerly prolific center for modern music in Niamey. The CFPM once housed an active studio, and the archives read a bit like detritus of…
Forty years coming, Azna de L'Ader finally has an official release! One of the seminal rock bands from Niger, Azna was hardly known outside of the country - and mostly confined to the Tahoua region of Niger. The LP version features highlights of their recording history, restored and remastered from…
Mona - Hey Joe Mona is an imposing figure. He once stood much taller than he does today - age has taken it's toll, and he walks slowly, slightly hunched over. But when he steps out of the shadows in a purple frilled jacket and pants to match and sporting…
? Adouma Ousmane, musician from the court of the Sultan of Agadez, playing the Algaita.
March 2012. We find serene lodging in the Mabera section of Sokoto, not far from the place where the two foreigners were executed in a botched rescue just a week prior - a slight stain on an otherwise spotless city. Unsurprisingly, few people mention it, either suspecting we know, and…