fra fra - Funeral Songs (2020)
BAND/ARTIST: fra fra
- Title: Funeral Songs
- Year Of Release: 2020
- Label: Glitterbeat Records
- Genre: World, African
- Quality: MP3 320 kbps; FLAC lossless
- Total Time: 31:36
- Total Size: 74; 166 MB
- WebSite: Album Preview
Raw and celebratory funeral music from northern Ghana. Hypnotic kologo excursions. Pulsing percussion. Enraptured voices. Recorded 100% live and outdoors by Grammy winner Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ustad Saami). Sixth release from Glitterbeat’s acclaimed Hidden Musics series.
On the dusty-road outskirts of Tamale (Ghana) near the School of Hygiene, the group says they prefer to use the name given to their tribe by colonialists (Fra Fra) rather than being commanded what to correct after the fact.
The Fra Fra trio is led by Small, a man who celebrates his diminutive size rather than seeing it as a lack. He picked the two-string Kologo ‘guitar’ with dog-tags fastened at the head as rattles. Another hallmark of Fra Fra culture are the tiny bone mouth flutes that they actually call horns, since that is what they are made from.
As funeral songs are often done in procession, I took the mics to the group when they seemed reluctant to enter the compound, instead gyrating in circles on the gravel outside. In recording, coverage is more important than precision. Every microphone tells a slightly different version of the truth, so I quickly threw up as many as possible. Far from deathly dirges, these were largely celebrations. Their process of mourning bares more than a passing resemblance to a New Orleans second line marching band. It is challenging to disregard this as mere coincidence given the sad history of the transatlantic slave trade exploiting their very region in the north. -- Ian Brennan
Tracklist:
01. fra fra - Destiny (Orphans) (3:17)
02. fra fra - You Can't Escape Death (8:34)
03. fra fra - Naked (You Enter & Leave This World with Nothing) (4:13)
04. fra fra - Helpless (Death Has Taken Everyone) (12:07)
05. fra fra - Goodbye (0:21)
06. fra fra - I Will Follow You for Life, Everywhere (1:06)
07. fra fra - We Must Grieve Together (1:57)
On the dusty-road outskirts of Tamale (Ghana) near the School of Hygiene, the group says they prefer to use the name given to their tribe by colonialists (Fra Fra) rather than being commanded what to correct after the fact.
The Fra Fra trio is led by Small, a man who celebrates his diminutive size rather than seeing it as a lack. He picked the two-string Kologo ‘guitar’ with dog-tags fastened at the head as rattles. Another hallmark of Fra Fra culture are the tiny bone mouth flutes that they actually call horns, since that is what they are made from.
As funeral songs are often done in procession, I took the mics to the group when they seemed reluctant to enter the compound, instead gyrating in circles on the gravel outside. In recording, coverage is more important than precision. Every microphone tells a slightly different version of the truth, so I quickly threw up as many as possible. Far from deathly dirges, these were largely celebrations. Their process of mourning bares more than a passing resemblance to a New Orleans second line marching band. It is challenging to disregard this as mere coincidence given the sad history of the transatlantic slave trade exploiting their very region in the north. -- Ian Brennan
Tracklist:
01. fra fra - Destiny (Orphans) (3:17)
02. fra fra - You Can't Escape Death (8:34)
03. fra fra - Naked (You Enter & Leave This World with Nothing) (4:13)
04. fra fra - Helpless (Death Has Taken Everyone) (12:07)
05. fra fra - Goodbye (0:21)
06. fra fra - I Will Follow You for Life, Everywhere (1:06)
07. fra fra - We Must Grieve Together (1:57)
Year 2020 | World | FLAC / APE | Mp3
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