AFRO PSYCHEDELICA BAND SISELANBONGA
Siselabonga
Tarang Cissokho · Fabio Meier · Glauco, Blind Boy De VitaKora rock and roll, born on the road between Dakar and Switzerland. Music made from the heart, where a West African griot lineage meets amplified, psychedelic sound.
When the three of them met for the very first time at a project called Forest Jam in Madagascar, a fellow musician who happened to be listening in finally interrupted and asked, “What is this Siselabonga that you guys are constantly talking about?”
What they were actually saying was “si, c’est bon,” which simply means “yes, it’s good” in French. They fell in love with the strange new word, and started using it whenever something called for a joyous exclamation.
From a Dakar djembe lesson to a hotel room in Madagascar.
Fabio: “In 2016 we recorded our first EP, Binta, in Dakar, Senegal, and released it DIY a year later. Then three tours followed, two in Switzerland and one in Senegal. We shuttled back and forth, chilled with each other’s families, discovered each other’s cultures, jammed a lot, wrote songs, fought, reconciled, and even shared mattresses. Now we are ready to drop our new EP, Warnama, an upgrade from an acoustic trio to an electric, amplified quartet. We call this sound Afro-psychedelic.”
Tarang: “Or Kora Rock and Roll! I first met Fabio in Senegal, back in 2014, when he came to Dakar to study the djembe. I met Glauco in 2015, in Madagascar, at Forest Jam. He had a fifteen hour flight behind him and popped into our hotel room in the middle of the night. I took the kora and started to play. Glauco took his guitar and joined me. From that point on I knew this guy likes to play for real.”
“Kora Rock and Roll.”
Where the music comes from.
Tarang: “I love calm places close to nature. There, I can connect properly to my heart. Our music comes from the heart. I love the music of Habib Koité, the way he puts the musical tradition of West Africa into a modern context. The Zimbabwean band Mokoomba is a big inspiration too. We shared the stage with them on our first tour. The way they perform is so disarming.”
Fabio: “Dakar and Senegal are a big inspiration. The Mbalax, the chants of the Bay Fall you hear all night long from far away, how proud the people are, and with how much dignity they do their thing. The hospitality humbled me. As a European I never got so deeply confronted with the importance of sharing and building community. I also love BKO Quintet from Mali, how they take the Donso tradition into a contemporary rocky aesthetic. It is mind blowing.”
“Our music comes from the heart.”
Strong emotions, ancestors, and a jam until it vibes.
Tarang: “My inspiration comes from strong emotions. If something feels heavy I can transform it into an idea and then into a song. It is a way to cope. My ancestors inspire me too. A lot of ideas that come out of me were already planted as a seed into my spirit, by ancestors who also played the kora and sang. But I cannot force it. It comes when it comes.”
Fabio: “Mostly it is Tarang who comes up with an idea, and then we jam it till it is vibing with us all. When it vibes, we put some structure in it and arrange it. Sometimes we just record something spontaneous and go from there, adding layers, removing some again, until we have something vibrant. Our process is rarely the same, because the circumstances are rarely the same.”
“Ideas were already planted as a seed into my spirit, by my ancestors.”
Lost shows, a visa-stop, and a slower pace worth keeping.
Tarang: “Covid made us lose lots of nice shows. Switzerland placed a visa-stop against Senegal, so I cannot travel there for the release tour. This hit us hard. Luckily my older brother Sankoum Cissokho is based in Switzerland and can sub for me. Aside from that, Covid gave me time to work on my weaknesses, to dig deeper into ideas and write new stuff.”
Fabio: “The lockdown gave me more focus. I missed the calmness and the slow pace. I wish the world would learn more about swinging, not always staying at these high frequencies. And I wish people in power reacted as fast to climate change, the refugee crisis, neocolonialism, racism, hunger and patriarchy as they did when Covid hit.”
A tradition rooted in the Mali Empire.
Fabio: “Tarang comes from a griot family. Griot is a French word for storyteller. The original name is Djeli. This tradition is rooted in the Mali Empire that stretched over West Africa in the middle ages. The Djelis worked at the royal court to amuse and advise the king, to accompany feasts, and to transmit history and social rules to the people. Tarang has more than twenty siblings, all of them make music, scattered all over the world. Their family house in Dakar is like an institution. His grandfather, Soundjoulou Cissokho, was crowned the king of the kora.”
Tarang: “I was born Senegalese into a royal griot family. You could say I am a kind of prince. But that is all secondary to me. What pays off is what I work for. My mother is a griot and my father is a griot, so I am a sora, which means both parents come from a griot lineage.”
“What pays off is what I work for.”
Antakly Projects, originally Ninu Nina, has been in conversation with the most inspiring voices in art, photography, design and culture since 2003. Interview by Leila Antakly. These conversations are what keep me dedicated to sharing the stories, inspirations and music of wonderful people like Siselabonga.
© Siselabonga. Thank you to Tarang, Fabio and Glauco. Si, c’est bon.
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Siselabonga. ☼
