Hector Zazou - Que le Bongo est Beau

from Hector Zazou - Reivax au Bongo (MTM 2), 1986

In this dreamy aural movie set in a ficticious African country, imaginative French composer Zazou has confronted three prominent singers/musicians from Congo (Bony Bikaye, Kanda Bongo Man and Ray Lema) with fifteen classical musicians & vocalists, as well as his own electronic textures. A blueprint for Zazou's later masterpieces such as "Sahara Blue" and "Songs From The Cold Seas"(with Björk & Suzanne Vega). "Reivax" is supposed to be the soundtrack for a photo-novel by Zazou and renowned photographer Xavier Lambours, who plays the title role. The photo-novel really exists: it is included in the CD booklet... Hector Zazou has released around eleven albums on Crammed (including 3 with the Zazou Bikaye project).

Reivax by Paul Stump

The music is opaque, suggestive, colourful; it is diatonic, accessible, sensual. There are shuffling, spooky beats, sunny-side-up stylophone ditties, rapt Holy Minimalistic contemplation. All centre identifiable in music, however, are rendered quite superfluous. For instance, grave lamenting string sonorities which are pure Shostakovich, from the depth of which sprout mbiras and West African chants. But it sounds like the most natural thing in the world. A kind of Candide, this satire on a concept album has Zazou's Panglossian hero Reivax at large in the idealised African republic of Bongo; as such, we are treated to an idealised World Music from an idealised world without borders. The seamless marriage of different musics to a point whereby differentiation disappears is Zazou's genius. This is music that isn't apparently patchworked as with most multiculti product; it seems to have been conceived as one entity. (...) Best thing about Zazou ? You can play him to your granny and still have the hippest record collection on your block. Zazou doesn't only demolish borders in music, but in his audience also.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Hector Zazou
• made to measure
• chamber music