MEG/Musee D'Ethnographie De Geneve Schallplatten & CDs

Review: A linchpin of the MEG-AIMP collection, this rare album of sanza music from the Gbaya people of the Central African Republic was recorded by ethnomusicologist Vincent Dehoux and first released on CD in 1993. Now reissued on vinyl and CD to coincide with the Afrosonica: Soundscapes exhibition, it offers a carefully curated selection of "songs for thought." The intimate, introspective tracks are beautifully supported by the repetitive, meditative tones of the lamellaphone - a family of musical instruments that makes its sound by the excitation of a vibrating plate called a lamella - inviting listeners into a pensive soundscape rooted in Central African tradition.