Synthesized Sudan: Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground
Ostinato Records (36 mins)
Jaglara is the sound of one man and one keyboard, emanating from the rural al-Fashaga region near the tripoint of Sudan-Ethiopia-Eritrea. The man is Jantra, and with his trusty Yamaha keyboard (hacked to produce distinctive Sudanese tunings and rhythms), he is known for hosting raucous street parties where he improvises, invents and innovates his music on the spot for hours on end.
This is Jantra’s first-ever release, and it’s a unique creation: a combination of his old cassette recordings and new performances from those legendary parties recorded live and directly from the keyboard, literally re-mixed together by producer Janto Koité. It’s a masterpiece of sympathetic production wizardry – and necessary to boil down Jantra’s non-stop improvisations into a ten-track album.
Each track starts as if it’s going to be fairly simple synth-powered reggae-influenced pop, but then slowly evolves into complex layers of melody, chords, rhythms and effects that expand until they fill the aural space. The slightly-loping beats push constantly forwards, compelling you to dance with your chest and shoulders, while the melodies reflect the musical cultures of Afro-Arabic Sudan in the West and the Horn of Africa in the East, and the universe beyond. Jantra and his jaglara sound are revelations of intergalactic retrofuturism from the Sudanese countryside.