Last year, Montparnasse Musique made a striking entrance with their video for ‘Makonda’, from their self-titled debut EP, in which they shone a light on the extraordinarily vibrant Kinshasa fashion and street art movement.
Underground to overground. Forest to metropolis. North Africa and South Africa, meeting up, digging down, finding gold in the seams. Here, at the intersection of club floor and ritual, of electronics and ceremony, are worlds both ancient and modern. And we have Montparnasse Musique leading the procession…
Montparnasse Musique have just announced their debut album Archeology, due for release on Real World on 11th November 2022. Archeology builds on the foundations of that tyro project, in which the live rhythms of traditional and urban Africa – particularly, that of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo – meets the programmed beats of modern Johannesburg. It expands the pair’s already distinctive sound, making it wilder, more nuanced, and even more pan-African.
“Africa is such a huge continent that people in one country almost never witness music from another,” says Algerian-French DJ/producer Nadjib, who formed Montparnasse Music following a chance encounter at Montparnasse-Bienvenüe, a Paris train station, with internationally celebrated South African house DJ, Aero Manyelo.
“Francophone Africa rarely has anything to do with English-speaking Africa,” continues Nadjib, sitting in his home studio in Tourcoing, northern France, surrounded by vinyl records, analogue synthesizers and the vivid mosaics and large-scale paintings created his late father, visual artist Mahjoub Ben Bella.
“Manyelo and I imagined an ethnological musical adventure running from North Africa to South Africa and meeting in the middle, in Congo, a country whose contemporary art and music are linked, and as strong as each other.”
To his left, on the cusp of returning home to Jo’burg, Manyelo nods. “I have travelled throughout Africa with previous projects, to Kenya, Uganda, Burkina Faso,” says the South African innovator. “But finding these raw sounds and art from Congo over a decade ago opened up my brain, my eyes and my software. I would listen every day in my car.”
Aided by Michel Winter, the veteran global music manager behind such seminal Congolese acts as Konono No.1 and Mbongwana Star, Nadjib and Manyelo were accompanied into recording studios in France and Belgium by a hot list of Congolese musicians. Among them, notably, was Cubain Kabeya, a lynchpin of sprawling collectives including Kasai Allstars (itself a collection of five different bands), and a performer whose ability to captivate (whether singing, freeform dancing, wielding self-made instruments or slinking into the crowd while wearing a tribal mask) is evident during Montparnasse Musique’s live shows.
Following the disbandment of Mbongwana Star and with the blessing of Michel Winter, then, a baton was passed to Montparnasse Musique. “We’re taking care of Congotronics,” say the duo, referencing the electro-acoustic Kinshasa scene with its intertwined ideas and inspirations. “We taking the music to its next phase.”
First single ‘Bonjour’ is the perfect gateway into their world, welding club electronics and traditional African rhythms, with a potent visual to boot.
“Montparnasse Music came together through a shared love of trance,” says Nadjib. “Whether it’s electronic trance played by club DJs or traditional acoustic music played during rituals, for us it is the same energy.”
“We are bringing the two worlds together. We’re making music that speaks to the body.” Manyelo smiles.
“And we’re sending peace, love and good vibrations across Africa,”
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