I spend 3 month in Senegal, in four different regions along the cost from February to May 2022. My first stop was "l'école des sables" founded by Germaine Acogny in Toubab Dialaw, where I met and worked with a lot of great dancers, choreographers and musicians like Ndeye Seck, Richard Adossou and Saky Bertrand, just to name a few. After that I continued my music research in the region Casamance, the capital Dakar and St. Louis. I played different traditional senegalese music and learned a lot about rhythms and west africain dances. In Senegal the typical instrumentation is called Sabar. Except for the Casamance, the region between Gambia and Guinea-Bissau in the south of Senegal, the traditional music is generally instrumented with Seourouba drums. It was such a journey to learn so much about music and to play so very different traditional west africain styles. I tried to document some of it to make it available. The senegalese music culture is very rich and virtuoso – and at some point so challenging as well.

St. Louis - some traditional Sabar Grooves

Duo - EP w/ Kora and Ukulele Bass

Dakar - Centre d’Oxygène de Pikine

Casamance - Troupe Wakily d'Abene

Impress | © 2018 Paul Lapp