KONONO n° 1 (Musical group)

The band's
line-up includes three electric likembés (bass, medium and treble), equipped
with hand-made microphones built from magnets salvaged from old car parts, and
plugged into amplifiers. There's also a rhythm section which uses traditional as
well as makeshift percussion (pans, pots and car parts), singers, dancers and a
peculiar sound system including megaphones dating from the colonial period,
which they call "lance-voix" ('voice-throwers').

The members of Konono N°1 come from an area which sits right across the border
between Congo and Angola. Their repertoire draws largely on Bazombo trance
music, to which they've had to incorporate the originally-unwanted distortions
of their sound system.

Just like most of the other bands which will appear in the Congotronics series,
these are musicians who left the bush to settle in the capital and who, in order
to go on keep fulfilling their social role and make themselves heard by the
ancestors (and, more concretely, by their fellow citizens) despite the high
level of urban noise, have had to resort to a makeshift electrification of their
instruments. This has provoked a radical mutation of their sound, and has
accidentally connected them with the aesthetics of experimental rock and
electronic music, as much through the sounds they use than through the sheer
volume of their performances (they play in front of a wall of speakers) and
their merciless grooves.

These bands are likely to be warmly adopted by the electronica and avant-rock
communities (as well as, naturally, by the world music aficionados), as attested
by the immediate reactions of artists such as Matthew Herbert and Tortoise's
John McEntire, who have enthusiastically volunteered to remix tracks for a
future volume of Congotronics.

The Konono N°1 album,

Congotronics, is the first volume of Crammed Record's new series
Congotronics, which is devoted to electrified traditional music from Kinshasa.
It was recorded and produced by Vincent Kenis, who produced albums by
Zap
Mama,
Taraf
de Haidouks & Koçani Orkestar. At the same time, he has played a key part in
the sonic design of many Crammed releases, right from Aksak Maboul's seminal


Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine to many albums of electronic
music released on the SSR imprint.

Konono N°1 won the BBC Award for world Music 2006 ('Newcomers' category).