Fasokan [LP]

2018 repress. New age music from West Africa. Lush and hypnotic dreamscapes combine traditional instrumentation with sweeping electronics, field recordings, and soothing affirmations. Bamako-based composer Luka Productions delves into avant-griot, transforming ancient music into the 21st century. The songs are meditative and sage, as voices guide the listener through ways of living, from the village life to the modern world. Inspired from early electronic music, library records, and new age, this is easily one of the most left-field recordings to ever come out of Mali. In Bambara. Luka Productions is based in a small studio off a busy street in the capital of Bamako. A repurposed boutique, there are two small couches framing the computer and console of studio engineer, rapper, and producer Luka Guindo. One of the most sought after producers in Bamako, he has worked with Supreme Talent Show, Ami Yerewolo, Iba One, Van Baxy, and many more. Luka is self-taught and PC-based (Cubase, Reason, and Fruityloops), one of many producers/studio owners that create all the hip-hop produced in Bamako. Luka relies on melodies - he plays piano in the local church - that mimic the vocals, complementing one another. The drums are heavy and punchy, and pitch-bended keys solo over the distinctive and improvisational rhythms. He often adds cut up djembe and balafon to the mix to give a local touch, which are sampled though not in the studio, but packaged in a Native Instruments plugin. The project here comes from working off a project of collaborative "fake" ethnographies, inspired loosely by Craig Leon's Nommos (1981). "Terriya", as an example, was mixed into a field recording and conjured scene: a stressed out Bamako taxi driver, gridlocked in stifling humidity of the fast growing riverside metropolis, concentrating on the soothing voice on the cassette. Luka made a full album of recordings based around this idea. The resulting tracks are inspired, but wholly original. Lush and hypnotic dreamscapes combine traditional instrumentation with sweeping electronics, field recordings, and soothing affirmations in these original compositions. Cut up Kora and Balafon are layered over software percussion, flute, horns, and synthesizer. They are at once familiar to Mali, lying between the measured griot speaking over a looping melody to the verbal wordplay of contemporary Bamako hip-hop. Meditative and cosmic, Fasokan guides the listener through ways of living, from the village life into the modern world.