| Burkina Electric Charges the East Village |
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Burkina ElectricSaturday, October 20 at 9:30 pmAdmission: $15 Joe's Pub 425 Lafayette Street 212-967-7555 or buy tickets here joespub.com burkina-electric.com  Burkina Electric will perform at Joe's Pub on Saturday. Burkina Electric is the first electronica band from Burkina Faso. With its main base in the music scene of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital, it is, at the same time, an international band, with members living in New York, U.S.A. and Düsseldorf, Germany, as well as in Ouaga. In Burkina Electric's music, the traditions and rhythms of Burkina Faso meet and mingle with contemporary electronic dance culture, making it a trailblazer in electronic world music. Before starting Burkina Electric in 2004, band members Maï Lingani, Wende K. Blass, Pyrolator, and Lukas Ligeti had become close friends as members of Beta Foly, a group that emerged from a workshop led by Lukas and Pyrolator in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, which, among other experiments, created some of the earliest fusions of techno/trip-hop with African traditional music.  Mai Lingani and Lukas Ligeti from the West Africa- based group, Burkina Electric Much electronic dance music, even in Africa, still seems to employ the same rock and funk rhythms that have been used in Western pop for the past 50 years. Burkina Electric challenges this convention and seeks to enrich the fabric of this music by using different rhythms, equally danceable but rarely heard. Many of the songs are built upon ancient rhythms of the Sahel such as the Mossi peoples' Waraba and Ouennenga, little-known even in Africa outside of Burkina. The group also creates new rhythms influenced by traditional grooves, and uses sounds of traditional instruments and found sounds and soundscapes recorded in Burkina in unusual ways. It is truly African electronica, both experimental and entertaining. The performance is further enhanced by the use of live-manipulated video.  Burkina Electric fuses together African traditional music and dance electronica. received commissions from groups such as the Kronos Quartet and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Burkina Electric was formed for a tour in Austria in 2004. In May 2006, the group performed at the Festival Jazz à Ouaga in Burkina Faso and released its debut album, "Paspanga," in Burkina Faso. Two video clips, produced for Burkinabè TV, are now receiving heavy play in Burkina Faso and surrounding countries. |
