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Musique Traditionelles des Comores
Music from the Comoros! Get crazy to this collection of folk songs with upfront, dynamic singing and a stringed instrument that sounds a bit banjo-esque, something for which I have a soft spot. If you slotted this in at a square dance in 1982 Indiana, people would keep dancing. When you pitch this up during a DJ set it sounds good on the dance floor, so you could also sneak this into a more adventurous NYC disco if you know how to DJ and have a time machine.
The tape was produced by the country’s culture ministry, in conjunction with the EU.
This is the only cassette I have from this remote island nation near Madagascar and Mozambique—a.k.a. the Indian Ocean near south-east continental Africa—and it’s a compilation but if you find more let me know.
NOTE: Artists who are featured on the tape…
*—Baurera
+—Ajam
#—Fatouma Mhoma
Face A
Face B
7 Comments
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Hi Brian,
i love this “Musique Traditionelles des Comores” -tape! Really great! May i order the tape or a copy?
Thanx for a quick reply!
Cheers,
Roch
Amazing site! Great music.
Hope to see you in SF tonight. Maybe the Malawi Mouse Boys will show up at your gig, since they are at Hardly Stictly…
–ggk
Where can i buy this Tape?
I love this compilation! Love music from Comores. The song Wadaha Wa Shi Ngazidja also appears in another beautiful compilation of Zaïnaba Ahmed, if you are into this exquisite type of music, you should also all check this out. Cheers!
beautiful. Cheers for site!!!!
The “instrument that sounds a bit banjo-esque” is actually a Gabusi. This is the Swahili name for an old Yemeni instrument called the Qanbus in Arabic. The instrument is a type of lute with 5 strings; it is almost extinct in Yemen (probably even more so given the country’s ongoing civil war) but has survived in the Comoros.
Musicians from the Comores often say that gabusi derives from kabosy, the name of the 4-strings traditional guitar in Madagascar. Almost the same sound, played the same way. But Madagascar has also been subjected to the arabic influence, especially on the coasts !