Burkina Electric: World Music On The Cutting Edge

Blending new rhythms, traditional African grooves and electronic dance music, Burkina Electric has created a sound that’s daring, entertaining and provocative. Originating from the West African country of Burkina Faso, Burkina Electric’s newest CD is Reem Tekre. From the time I popped in the CD, Burkina Electric had some part of my body, whether my toe taps to my finger snaps participating in the rhythm -- it was infectious. Led by Brooklyn-based composer/percussionist Lukas Ligeti, Burkina Electric has performed at the Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors Festival, the CitySol Festival and Joe's Pub in New York City, with plans to gig in Italy in 2009. Burkina Electric is made up of singer Maï Lingani, who sings in Moré, Dioula, Bissa, and French; guitarist K. Blass; electronicist/VJ Pyrolator; and drummer/electronicist Lukas Ligeti. My dialogue with Lukas Ligeta for Indie Mosaic Music.

Indie Mosaic Music: The instrumentation on your new CD Reem Tekre is vibrant, lush and colorful. Tell me about the instruments used on the CD.
Burkina Electric: Aside from voice, we use guitar, drum set, and electronics. Everything that doesn't sound like a guitar or a live drum set is the electronics. The electronics consist of laptops, which are triggered by two unusual midi controllers built by the California engineer Don Buchla: the lightning (which looks like two wands that you wave around in the air) and the marimba lumina (an electronic marimba). The sounds are mainly samples of street scenes and other found sounds from Burkina Faso, and of traditional instruments, which we treat in unusual ways using effects processing, looping, detuning, etc. We also use a fairly wide selection of software synths and plug ins.

(IMM): You've described your music as African electronic. What makes it different from most electronic music played in clubs today?
BE: The main difference is that we use different rhythms, beats, and grooves from most dance-oriented electronic music. The usual norm is to use rhythms closely connected to rock: funk, disco, jungle, drum & bass, etc. In our case, we use traditional rhythms from Burkina Faso such as ouaraba, ouenenga, ouire, etc., which are little known but embody the polymetric aspect of African rhythms in a very clear way. We also use other African rhythms, plus rhythms of our own invention - sometimes very strange! – and inspired by African traditions. Most dance rhythms used today the world over actually derive from African rhythms, so we're taking club dance music straight back to the source for some new inspiration.

(IMM): What challenges you most when it comes to composing music for Burkina Electric?
(BE): That's hard to answer. We compose collaboratively and work together really well. Challenges change from piece to piece; sometimes it can be something in the arrangement, or it can be the lyrics, or a melody...it's always different. We keep working at it until satisfied.

(IMM): When listening to the songs of Burkina Electric, what do you want your audience to come away with?
(BE): We hope people will discover that there are so many different rhythms out there that you can dance to...that it's good to be curious and to receive new influences, and that that might lead to inspiration, or to new, ecstatic experiences. And we hope to open up different cultures to each other, to raise awareness of the cultural richness of Burkina Faso in particular and Africa in general, but also to educate people in Africa about how outside influences can be used creatively. We always hope to inspire people to think outside the box.

(IMM): Lyrically, what do your songs say most often about Burkina Faso?
(BE): Our songs are about many topics...there are love songs, there's a song about going to the market, all kinds of things. There are also songs about topics relating to Africa, such as corruption, which is a big problem worldwide but has a particular dimension in Africa. And we have songs about agriculture, farming, which is a big issue in Burkina because the climate is so hot and dry, so farmers really have to work hard. Still other songs are inspired by proverbs or traditional tales from Burkina Faso.

(IMM): What is it about the music of Burkina Faso that makes it unique?
(BE): Burkina has a very lively urban music scene, with possibly the second biggest hip hop scene in West Africa after Senegal, and it has lots of different musical traditions that live on. However, it has been notoriously underexposed internationally, while Mali, Senegal, and other countries receive lots of attention. That has also led many musicians in burkina faso to imitate styles from elsewhere rather than forging an original path of their own, whether or not it is connected to local traditions. But local traditional music has beautiful instruments, melodies, rhythms, and dances, which we'd like to feature in our own mix, in which we deliberately try to be as original as possible. Burkinabe traditions also harbor lots of elements that contributed to forming the blues, so traces of predecessors of the blues can be found in various local traditions.

(IMM): I like to include a non-music related question for good measure. Do you have a favorite photographer, painter or other visual artist? If so, who would it be?
(BE): I can't speak for the others in the group of course, but personally, and to remain in Africa, I would mention the South African draftsman, filmmaker, and theater director William Kentridge. His work is a bridge between Africa and Europe and takes on the political situation in South Africa with much sensitivity, depth, and humor. Another artist who exudes the African spirit in a unique and great way is the photographer Malick Sidibe from Mali.