Pangeia Instruments

African music exists in a number of forms, yet, musicians reaching the Western world appear often corrupted by European and American cultures. It is rare these days to find African musicians who insist on using almost exclusively traditional instruments, preferring instead to include electric guitars, bass and even electronics. This has led to new genres being developed, yet one could argue that African music has lost part of its identity in the process. Victor Gama takes a complete different angle to bring modernity to established sounds.
Victor Gama was born in Angola of Portuguese origin. He soon developed a healthy interest for traditional Angolan musical instruments leading him to learn the Kissange, a thumb piano, the Hungo, a musical bow, and a primitive twelve string guitar. In the early nineties, he started developing his Pangeia Instrumentos, a range of contemporary instruments designed and built from traditional materials including wood, metal and found objects, inspired by the notion that, through migration and nomadic traditions, African instruments have had to adapt to new contexts. With Pangeia Instrumentos, a project that constitutes of exhibitions, concerts and workshops, Victor Gama has performed in a variety of African and European countries.
The beautiful collection of compositions presented on this album reflects the atmospheric nature of African music and part of its journey through time. Entirely instrumental and devoid of any electronic input, a first for Rephlex, Pangeia Insturmentos is above all a magnificent and fascinating piece of recording. The sonic landscape can appear quite uniform at first, yet sounds used soon reveal an incredible variety of textures and tone colours. If a violin is sometimes added to emphasise on the dramatic nature of the music (Huyra, Viagem Sem Retorno), this album remains entirely focused around the unusual sounds produced by Gama’s instruments. Creating delicate structure, often based on one or two instruments, Gama presents here some incredibly dense and atmospheric structures, evocative not only of the cultures and traditions they are based on, but also of a more modern Africa, willing to adapt to new challenges. Tracks such as A Guerra Dos Homens Répteis, which opens the album, O Olh No Anzol, O Pescador De Sonhos, or Viagem Sem Retorno depict perfectly the connections between tradition and modernity.
The second in a series which explores the craft of instrument building, the first being Pierre Bastien’s Mechanoid, Pangeia Instrumentos is a fascinating piece of recording, in which Victor Gama confronts the essence of African music and provides the foundations for contemporary African artists to develop their own musical environment while remaining firmly in touch with the legacy of centuries of tradition.

Not sure what's going on here apart from a kind of repetitive bonging of curious percussive instruments - that said, it's curiously listenable, hypnotic even... and I find it's been on my stereo for a few evenings now. Well worth a bash for any fans of the more organic end of the whole post-rock/electronica thing (Godspeed, Boards of Canada, Pan-American... you know who you are...!)