Artist: Togo All Stars
Album: FA
Label: Excelsior Recordings
Year Of Release: 2022
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Tracklist:
01 – Ancestors Calling (6:13)
02 – Avaeme (5:09)
03 – Sedote Gandji (5:24)
04 – Adze Gbalo (5:56)
05 – Everybody Get It (5:49)
06 – Fa Kan Masa (5:45)
07 – Let Them Say (5:06)
08 – Faaaa (4:30)
09 – Up to the Sky (6:25)
10 – For Nothing (5:36)
11 – Adjoguin (2:21)
12 – Reclaim Yourself (5:14)
For a lot of people in the West-African country of Togo their identity is connected to the number 256. It is a number you may be familiar with. If you are older than 35, you may recognize it from your first VGA-colour monitor. And if you studied math, you will know it as a power of two (28). But if you are a believer of voodoo, you will identify the number from the Oracle of Fâ. Every voodooisant is linked to one of the 256 Fâ-diagrams. It is a spiritual system that carries the stories, rhythms, songs and time-tested wisdom of the ancestors.
For their second album, Togo All Stars Collective consulted the Fâ more than once. The musicians travelled to different Vaudou Temples, talked with priests and participated in ceremonies, making music with initiates. Through all these learnings and conversations in ritual settings, the question came up how people could reclaim themselves. And for a voodooisant, this can only be done through the Oracle of Fâ. It is no wonder that the album opens with the cowbell-heavy track Ancestors Calling. The rhythm you hear is that of Legba. Every Fâ reading begins with Legba, he is the gatekeeper to the Gods. He will have to grant you access.
Even more than on the first album the band has sought to reconnect with their African brothers and sisters in the diaspora. This energy is captured in songs with a Vaudou background leaning on highlife from Ghana (like Fa Kan Masa) , Afrobeat from Nigeria (check Let Them Say) and Afro-funk from Benin (listen to Adza Gbalo). But you will also find sounds from Brazil, Cuba, New Orleans and even Paris, London and Amsterdam. It is the vibe, the beat, the rhythms, the melodies and the songs of the ancestors that call you back to the mother continent.
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Nina Reiter – Night, Sleep, Death and the Stars (2016)