Dobet Gnahoré (Ivory Coast) records ‘Ko Kpa’, our 7th track for Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador
It’s been a while since I updated the blog but a lot’s been going on.
A few days ago, Dobet Gnahoré, accompanied on guitar by her husband Colin, recorded a new song written specially for the project. The song, called Ko Kpa (Forest), is written in Dida, one of the languages of the Côte d’Ivoire. This completes track 7 of the Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador album.
Dobet is a 23-year-old singer and songwriter from Côte d’Ivoire who learnt her multi-disciplinary approach to music in an artist community near Abidjan, and was voted BBC World Music Awards: Best Newcomer in 2006. She settled in France in 1999, and her socially conscious lyrics are performed in 7 different languages. Onstage, she is a singing, dancing, multi-instrumentalist and powerful presence.
Discography:
- Ano Neko (ContreJour, 2004)
- Acoustic Africa (Various artists, Putumayo, 2006)
- Music from the Chocolate Lands (Various, Putumayo, 2004)
- Na Afriki (Cumbancha, 2007)
Here are the other tracks recorded so far for Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador:
Kate Walsh (UK) You Are Home
iTunes No.1 album singer-songwriter Kate’s song makes people stop in their tracks and listen – world class (our producer’s words!)
Devon Sproule (US) Plea for a Good Night’s Rest
We first heard Devon sing this song in a stripped down version accompanied only by her guitar and legendary slide player B.J.Cole’s haunting tones at the Spitz. We had to have it! Devon kindly popped into our studio to record before supporting Lucinda Williams at the O2 that evening.
Valentin Gerlier (Italy/UK) This is the Waltz
Novelist Valentin’s extraordinarily constructed song, sung in his angelic voice, sounds at first like something from a French movie in the swinging 60s, or maybe opentop Bond negotiating hairpin bends in the Southern Alps… until you tune into the words and then you’re back in the trenches of the First World War. A masterpiece.
Nathan Ball (UK) Hideaway Snowflakes
Heart-throb Nathan Ball arrived at the recording session barefoot, and his beautiful song takes us on several journeys, taking in the skies over Wales and going on from there.
Alan Lacroix (UK) August
Alan’s song made me cry the first time I heard it.
Martha Tilston (UK) Untitled
We thought Martha’s exquisite, episodic and complex new song, written at breakneck speed and finished in our producer’s living room, was perfect when we first heard it, but she is a perfectionist and is returning to re-record shortly.