Damon Albarn has teamed up with a group of
producers to record an album for
Oxfam in Democratic Republic
of the Congo. The project has been christened as DRC Music and
features various producers and musicians including
Dan The Automator, Marc Antoine, Kwes and Totally Enormous
Extinct Dinosaurs. Also involved are
many local musicians from the Congo.
The collective spent the last week recording in
Kinshasa and apparently have already finished the album (apart from
the final tweaks, of course). The preview
clip of the song "Hallo" is listenable below.
The track features the Congolese band Tout Puissant Mukalo.
While waiting for the release date of the album, visit DRC Music's
Facebook,
Tumblr and Twitter
profiles
for more info and media.
Update
added August 31, 2011:
DRC Music album details
DRC Music's Kinshasa
One Two will be out on Warp Records on 3rd October (digital
download) and 7th November (CD and vinyl). The tracklisting is
as follows:
The album artwork
1. Hallo
(feat.
Tout Puissant Mukalo and Nelly Liyemge) 2. K-Town
(N’Gotshima and Bebson) 3. African Space Anthem (A.S.A.)
(Ewing
Sima of Tout Puissant Mukalo) 4. Love
(Love) 5. Lingala
(Bokatola System and
Evala Litongo) 6. Lourds
(Yende Bongongo of
Okwess International) 7. Respect Of The Rules
(Loi X
Liberal) 8. We Come From The Forest
(Bokatola
System) 9. Customs (Bokatola System) 10. Virginia (Magakala Virginia
Yollande and Yowa Hollande) 11. Ah Congo (Jupiter Bokondji
and Bokatola System) 12. Three Piece Sweet Part 1 & 2
(Bebson) 13. If You Wish To Stay Awake
(Washiba) 14. Departure
(Bokatola System)
The physical formats will include
unique code to download three bonus tracks. The vinyl edition
will also feature 14 special art cards.
So far it is confirmed that
Damon does vocals on "Hallo". You can listen to it and two
other tracks on the new
official site of DRC Music.
The album was recorded over five
days in Kinshasa with 11 producers and over 50 local performers.
All proceeds from
the album's sale will go to
Oxfam's work in the Congo.
