Author Topic: Rare recordings from Guinea  (Read 156 times)

Yovo

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Rare recordings from Guinea
« on: February 14, 2013, 09:35:11 am »
Today I received a very interesting e mail from Greame Counsel of Radioafrica.


Dear friends,

 
I am pleased to announce the completion of my British Library “Endangered Archives Programme” Major Research Project which digitised all of the audio recordings held in the sound archives of Radio Television Guinee. This was a process whereby each analogue audio reel was digitised, with a total of over 7,500 Guinean songs archived. This represents a huge resource, which will soon be available at the British Library’s reading room.

 

The wealth and variety of the material is staggering. Virtually all of the recordings, which date from 1960, were recorded in the Voix de la Revolution studios by technicians of the calibre of Moussa Konaté. Most of the recordings are of Syliphone quality. The collection contains literally hundreds of unreleased songs by artists and groups such as Kouyaté Sory Kandia, Syli Orchestre National, Bembeya Jazz, Keletigui et ses Tambourinis, and all the other national and federal orchestras. There is also a lot of material of the post-Touré era, until the mid-1990s, so groups such as Super Flambeau and Atlantic Mélodie are also present. Most of the material has never been heard outside of Guinea. In addition, there are many recordings by hugely popular artists such as Farba Tela, Binta Laaly Sow, Ilou Diouhèrè, Mama Kanté, To Kouyaté, Koubia Jazz, and Jeanne Macauley, who are largely unknown outside of Guinea. There are also thousands of folklorique recordings from all of Guinea’s language groups. In essence, it is an absolute treasure trove of material, and represents perhaps the largest music archiving project completed in Africa.

 

I am in the process of creating an excel spreadsheet of the archival collection, so that it can be name sorted, date sorted, etc. I am weeding out the duplicate recordings, a long process, but in a few weeks it should be available for download at my Radio Africa website. I will advise.

 

I have also gained access to some wonderful videos of Guinean musicians - unreleased studio and concert footage of Kouyaté Sory Kandia, Keletigui et ses Tambourinis, Kaloum Star, Ensemble Instrumental National, and many others, which I am currently putting on Youtube for all to enjoy. Here is a taste and I suggest you click on the Subscribe button under the video so that when new ones are uploaded you will be notified. Click on my RadioAfrica1 logo to see all the videos, or go to www.radioafrica.com.au and click on the Radio Africa Videos link.

 

Best wishes to all.


Regards,


Greame

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davidn

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Re: Rare recordings from Guinea
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2013, 01:16:33 pm »
Wow