La Musique Electronique Du Niger

Mamman Sani Abdoulaye, a legendary name amongst Niger’s avant garde, presents
a singularly unique recording of minimalist organ music from the Sahara.
Dreamy and hypnotic, the sound is unlike anything coming out of West Africa
before or since, closer in effect to early electronic experiments of
Kraftwerk. Mamman composes in technique that can only be called minimal,
relying on the simplicity and space. It is a remarkable manipulation of sound
that uses the silence to invoke the emptiness, a metaphoric desert soundscape.
Unsurprisingly, his source material is folkloric Nigerien music, and many of
the compositions on this record are reproductions of ancient songs brought
into the modern age. Interpreting this rich and varied history of Niger’s
dance and song for the rst time in contemporary music, Mamman electri es the
nomadic drum of the Tuaerg, the polyphonic ballads of the Woddaabe, and the
pastoral hymns of the Sahelian herders. Accompanying this repertoire are a few
compositions, such as Salamatu, the deeply personal love letter to an
unrequited romance. Recorded in 1981 at the National Radio in Niger, shortly
after Mamman discovered an old Italian organ, the album was a spontaneous
production, recorded in two takes. It was released on cassette but was a
commercial failure, and only a handful were sold. The recordings, however,
were a success, and became the themes to the National radio for the subsequent
30 years, securing Mamman’s place in the foundation of Nigerien music.
Rediscovered in a cassette archive in Niger and digitized on a portable
recorder, La Musique Électronique du Niger was reissued in 2013 on limited
vinyl. Now restored and remastered from the original tape material by Jessica
Thompson, this new edition is available on vinyl and CD.

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