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Vincent Kenis, the Belgian song hunter
Electrified traditional sounds from the Congo
Paris
28/07/2008 -
Vincent Kenis: Basically, the idea behind the project was to bring together musicians from the east and west of Kasaï. Being the good philistine that I am, I believed that despite the fact that the musicians come from different ethnic backgrounds, there would be points of similarity in their music. So what I did was ask a number of established orchestras to take on three or four new members on a temporary basis. The idea was for all the groups involved to keep their own musical specificity, their own identity, but to experiment with a new, unexpected edge to their sound that would take it outside tradition. And we came up with the most amazing results. The groups' different musical repertories have complemented one another in the most inventive ways without having been directly fused or anyone's culture having been compromised in any way.
So would you say this is the defining spirit of "trad-modern" (electrified traditional music from the Congo)?
You know, at the end of the day, "trad-modern" is basically just traditional music played through an amp. But you get all these mistaken perceptions of what "trad-modern" is in Europe and the U.S. "Trad-modern" may sound like rock music, with all the distortion and stuff, but that doesn't mean the musicians who play it are a bunch of rebels who set out to break all the rules. Take someone like Mingiedi from the group Konono No.1. When he plays the likembe (thumb piano) what he's actually doing is reproducing the songs taught to him by his father, who conducted the traditional ivory horn orchestra at the royal court. It's as if every metal rod in Mingiedi's thumb piano is a musician blowing his horn. That's the way he plays it. And if you ask him where he positions himself he'll tell you that ever since he started out, in 1966, he's been completely in line with the tradition handed down through his family. It's just that his music is played through amps - amps of the most basic makeshift kind, which require an enormous amount of adaptation on the part of the musician. If, in the process, musicians like Mingiedi come up with extraordinary new ways of doing things, it's not because they deliberately set out to do so. It's like the bluesman Elmore James. When he plays his slide guitar through an amp, he invents a new style, a style that is a result of circumstances and the technical equipment he's using.
On a scale of one to ten? I'd say locally the impact has been around zero. The "trad-modern" movement has existed in Kinshasa for over thirty years now - which is why everyone always associates it with artists like Lee Perry, Can and Jimi Hendrix! It all began with the famous boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, organised in Kinshasa in 1974, which coincided with Mobutu launching this big drive for authentic music - more or less along the same lines as President Sékou Touré (in Guinea). You suddenly had this explosion of Congolese orchestras all arriving on the scene at the same time and recording singles. It was no coincidence that when Konono No.1 won a BBC World Music Award, Hugh Masekela - who was acting as MC at the award ceremony - reminded everyone that back in 1974 there were orchestras like Konono No.1 playing on more or less every street corner in Kinshasa.
How do you explain the fact that this contemporary take on Congolese music heritage has attracted such a cult following amongst avant-rock experimentalists and world music enthusiasts?
I think the unifying appeal of the sound is down to the electric amps and the distortion. There aren't a million different ways to make this music expressive so you get similar techniques going on, but at the same time there are some very radical differences - because let's not forget the likembe is not a guitar! This music sounds really close to what we know and yet very far from it and that's what gives it this radically strange edge. I think that's what basically appeals to audiences in Europe.
How do you think the Congolese music scene has changed over the past twenty years?
Things have definitely degenerated as a result of socio-economic conditions. The Congolese music scene used to have a Top 20, but that's shrunk to a Top 5 now. People can't get their hands on records any more. There's a huge problem with piracy and artistic copyright is non-existent. What's more, these days all the concerts are sponsored by phone companies or beer manufacturers while the musicians, and even the orchestra conductors, are paid absurdly low fees.
The problem facing young up-and-coming musicians is that they don't have instruments. And even when young bands do manage to start making a name for themselves they don't have access to the media. This means that there's no new generation coming forward to replace the old one. Apart from kotazo - a sound associated with boxers and "boys in the hood" - the only other real phenomenon right now, albeit a very underground one, is a local form of hip-hop coming out of poor housing estates and not the more affluent quarters where youngsters tend to specialise in sterile copies of foreign music. The only 'instruments' these young hip-hop enthusiasts have at their disposal are empty beer crates and their voices. And that means no doubt they're going to be the first ones to pick up on "trad-modern" and use it to their advantage. They just need a bit of cash to help them get off the ground - speaking of which, I'm planning on working with a number of these young, up-and-coming musicians soon although nothing has been signed for the moment.
What I really want to do is create a link between those who have got tradition at hand and who are reaching out and discovering the wider world and those who are in a position to explain that world to them, i.e. the diaspora. There will definitely be guest stars on the new album who come from a traditional Congolese background like Sam Mangwana, for instance. But I'd also like to send tapes to Lucas Silva, a musician and record producer from Colombia, so that musicians over in Cartagena can add their own touches and then the Congolese musicians decide how to incorporate these into their work. I want the next album to be a real transcontinental collaboration. There are other forgotten connections too, to places like Belize and Brazil, and other musical links that can be explored like the link to Cuban charanga. And we can establish those links exchanging files over the Internet. This is a good idea given the current problems with Schengen* where we're not even sure whether the musicians are actually going to be able to visit Europe. At least no-one can stop them communicating over the Internet!
One of the next signings to your label is going to be the Staff Benda Bilili Band who are already creating something of a buzz over here…
The Staff Benda Bilili Band are an orchestra of paraplegics and shengues (street kids). Their sound draws on Congolese rumba influences but also integrates elements of raggamuffin, reggae and a touch of rhythm’n’blues. It's basically street music which started out as purely acoustic but is gradually going electric. There's this young guy, Roger, who's invented a single-stringed instrument he calls the satongue. I gave him a microphone with a wah wah pedal. Roger's a bit like the Jimi Hendrix of the recycling system - he can make something out of anything! As for the group's drummer, he plays in a plastic chair with these raffia branches strapped to it held in place by breeze blocks. He sounds like Ginger Baker! Just brilliant! This group have invented their own sound using whatever they have to hand and that brings them close in spirit to punk ideology. They're determined to do whatever they want no matter what physical or technical obstacles stand in their way.
Is there any chance of Konono No.1 playing in Europe any time soon, given that the musicians are having problems getting visas right now?
Well, we hope Monsieur Sarkozy will agree to send a Transall (a military transport aircraft), because the musicians' wheelchairs weigh around 100 kilos each! No, seriously, I really hope there'll be some kind of live performance over here. But it's going to be pretty complicated in terms of logistics !
(*Schengen visas allow the holder to visit any of the 29 countries that signed up to the Schengen agreement).
Jacques Denis
09/06/2010 -
14/04/2009 -
