Mbenzele Pygmies

• 2-CD SET

The “Polyphonic singing of the Aka Pygmies of Central Africa” was officially added to the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008, but four decades earlier the musicologist Simha Arom had already discovered the music of the Mbenga (Aka/Benzele), Baka and Mbuti (Efé) populations. He described their collective contrapuntal improvisations as being characterised by a level of polyphonic complexity that European music would only reach in the 14th century.

Starting from the 60s, when the records of the UNESCO Collection curated by Arom were released, Central African music has been internationally discovered, studied and used as a source of inspiration by composers such as Christian Wolff, György Ligeti, Steve Reich, Jon Hassell, and Herbie Hancock (with the famous opening track of the album Head Hunters), amongst others.

• CD ONE: MBENZELE
• 01. Children's games in the water
• 02. Likembe I
• 03. Children"s chant I
• 04. Children's chant II
• 05. Woodcutting, whistles and voices
• 06. Men's chant I
• 07. Men's chant II
• 08. Rhythms and polyphonies I
• 09. Chant, rhythms and likembe
• 10. Likembe and chants
• 11. Voices, chant and percussions
• 12. Women's chant I
• 13. Children's rhythms, chants and polyphonies
• 14. Likembe II
• 15. Likembe and men's chant I
• 16. Likembe and voices
• 17. Women's chant II
• 18. Women and children's chant and rhythm
• 19. Voices
• 20. Likembe and men's chant II
• 21. Bobé ceremony (forest spirit)
• 22. Bobé ceremony (forest spirit) II
• 23. Barrier fishing chant and rhythms
• 24.cMen's rhythms and chant
• 25. Men and women's rhythms and chant
• 26. Voices and forest
• 27. Forest

• CD TWO: AKA
• 01. Storyteller I
• 02. Rhythms and chants
• 03. Rhythms and polyphonies I
• 04. Rhythms and polyphonies II
• 05. Men's rhythms and chant
• 06. Voices, chants and rhythms
• 07. Rhythms and polyphonies III
• 08. Camp sounds
• 09. Rhythms and polyphonies IV
• 10. Rhythms and polyphonies V
• 11. Storyteller II
• 12. Rhythms and polyphonies VI
• 13. A walk in the forest
• 14. Greetings for AngelicA
• 15. Two-voices chant
• 16. Voices and tree cutting
• 17. A night in the forest I
• 18. A night in the forest II
• 19. A night in the forest III
• 20. A night in the forest IV