Songs of Paapieye
Awesome Tapes from Africa (33 mins)
SK Kakraba is Ghanaian, living in Los Angeles, and his instrument is the gyil. This pentatonic xylophone of the Lobi people gets its distinctive sound from the spider-web silks stretched over the sound-gourds. This creates a rasping sound and, sonically, it’s not an amazing leap to think of this as an acoustic equivalent of Konono No.1’s electric likembé. The aesthetic of the buzz is found all over the continent, especially in West Africa, but it’s becoming rarer as musicians and producers strive towards the cleanest sound possible. It’s great to hear the buzz celebrated on this album.
This is the very first original album by Awesome Tapes from Africa – unlike the label’s other releases, it is not a reissue of an African cassette, but was recorded especially for this release. Songs of Paapieye consists of six instrumentals, half an hour of solo gyil. It’s the perfect amount of time to be able to meditate on the instrument’s timbre and Kakraba’s mastery of skill.
Together, the layering of harmonics that the buzz allows and the cycles of slightly varying repetition create a hypnotising resonance that gets into your head and lets you to fall into it completely for the duration of the album.