The centre of Geneva is the seat of some of the world’s most influential political and economic mechanisms. Amid the hundreds of international organisations, UN departments and NGOs, overlooked by the high-powered banks and next to the five-star hotels and purveyors of luxury goods, there is a small island surrounded by the crystal-blue waters of the Rhône. Here, in a converted 19th century abattoir, is the somewhat unexpected location of the unofficial headquarters of the city’s exciting underground global music scene: Bongo Joe Records.
Bongo Joe is a lot of things: a music shop of breathtaking scope, a hip record label, a café-bar, a performance space, and – perhaps most importantly – a meeting place for any and all with a passion for music. It acts as a beacon for the scene, a starting point and a shibboleth for creatives with enquiring minds and eclectic tastes. With a clientele of musicians and producers discovering and sharing ideas and influences over record racks and drinks, this relaxed atmosphere of artistic exploration gives the place a frisson of inspiration. It’s hardly a surprise that Bongo Joe is an epicentre for many exciting projects in Geneva. Cyril Yeterian – musician, music lover and founder of Bongo Joe – explains the philosophy of it all: “Bongo Joe is open to everyone, the goal is to mix different social scales. On the terrace you can have some open-minded bankers and a punk with a dog and some young broke students, everyone mixes. We are fighting to keep our lives and others people’s lives interesting, sharing ideas and sharing our feelings and emotions and being surrounded by culture and art. It’s crazy because we’re surrounded by what rules the world: private banking, the biggest luxury brands… and we are here with our cultural project.” In a time where the arts – especially independent and radical arts – are being pushed further and further outside of city centres, it’s refreshing that an association such as Bongo Joe can not only exist right in the heart of Geneva, but thrive there. It helps that their landlords are the city itself, which keeps rents at a manageable rate – how heartening to see city governance giving support to musical endeavours aside from the most prestigious concert halls and money-focused ventures.
Today’s Genevese underground arose from the city’s squatting movement of the 1980s and 90s, when political and economic factors combined to create radical occupied community and arts spaces. At that time, there were more squats in Geneva than anywhere else in Europe. “For almost 20 years, it was a golden age, a laboratory of cultural directions,” explains Yeterian, who grew up immersed in the squat movement. “You could eat for cheap, sleep for cheap and obviously refugees would come and be welcomed. It brought a lot of people to Geneva. In the early 2000s it all changed. Police and politics tore down everything in about two years. But there are still some very important things left, and this is in the DNA of the scene – there is still a very active underground scene to which we belong, we still have places to express ourselves.” The musical legacy of the squats remains in the stages housed in reclaimed factories and the all-embracing, always-moving attitude of its players.
Geneva is small – it has less than 200,000 people, but they represent 180 nationalities; 40% of the population are not Swiss nationals and there are significant communities from the Latin American, North African and Eastern European diasporas. And those people are making music, finding an exciting and welcoming home within the underground scene. There are few bands that embody global Geneva as clearly as Yalla Miku. They are a septet that features four of the city’s veteran musical alchemists (including Yeterian himself) as well as three musicians who joined the scene more recently as political refugees: Eritrean krar player Samuel Ades, Moroccan gimbri player Anouar Baouna and Algerian percussionist Ali Bouchaki. Together they mix the iconic sounds of Gnawa, Arabic and Tigrinya music with Krautrock, electronica, synth-pop, punk and jazz fusion. For Yeterian, the band is a distillation of all that Bongo Joe stands for, a city in microcosm: “Yalla Miku is a blend of the experimenters of Geneva, and for me, this is the real Geneva. The international Geneva that I cherish the most is the one from the underground and the communities of people that came here for other reasons.”
Yalla Miku, Bongo Joe and underground Geneva as a whole – they’re about joining people who have gravitated to the city through whatever chance or circumstance, all exploring their own heritage while experimenting wildly together through music – and that is as true for the audiences as it is for the artists. And they’re proof that real, down-to-earth art can flourish even at the heart of most expensive, gentrified cities.
Photo: Bongo Joe Records in Geneva.