Konono N°1
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Konono N°1 is a musical group from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. They combine three electric likembé (a traditional instrument similar to the mbira) with voices, dancers, and percussion instruments that are made out of items salvaged from a junkyard. The group's amplification equipment is equally rudimentary, including a microphone carved out of wood fitted with a magnet from an automobile alternator.
The group was formed by Mawangu Mingiedi, a likembé player and truck driver now in his 70s. Dates for the group's formation vary: Crammed Discs, who released Konono N°1's Congotronics album in 2005, places the group's formation around 1980. However, in November 1978, an ensemble called Orchestre Tout Puissant Likembe Konono N°1 (All-Powerful Likembe Konono N°1 Orchestra) recorded one track, "Mungua-Muanga", for the compilation album Zaire: Musiques Urbaines a Kinshasa.
The group has achieved some renown in North America and Europe, and has toured both places. The Dutch rock band The Ex has covered one of their songs.
Discography
- Zaire: Musiques Urbaines a Kinshasa, Ocora 559007 (compilation; recorded 1978, released 1987)
- Lubuaku, Terp AS09 (2004)
- Congotronics, Crammed Discs 27 (2005)
External links
- [Konono N°1] at Crammed Discs
- [Review of November 17, 2005 show at SOB's, New York] by Andrew Phillips, PopMatters.com, December 9, 2005
- ["'Assume crash position' That's how Congo punk-meets-techno band Konono No 1 translate their name. It couldn't be more appropriate"] by Alexis Petridis. The Guardian, April 4, 2006.
- [Review: Konono No. 1, Congotronics] BBC World site. Retrieved April 4, 2005.
- [Makeshift and Polished: Konono No. 1]. World Cafe from WXPN. National Public Radio.
Listening
- [Story from NPR Weekend Edition radio program], June 18, 2006
Video
- [Konono promotional video] from Crammed Discs site
See also
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