22/3 -14 King Ayisoba & Zea @ Bohusläns Museum

22/3 -14 King Ayisoba & Zea @ Bohusläns Museum
I samarbete med Kulturföreningen Uddevallakassetten, Studiefrämjandet, Kulturbryggan, Västra Götalandsregionen/Frispel och Koloni.
King Ayisoba från Ghana bjöd på spännande rytmer.

Traditional kologo music from the Upper East Region of Ghana brought with the energy and flavor of the twenty first century. King Ayisoba sings in Frafra, Twi and in English and is a big star in Ghana. There is a whole new scene now starting after King Ayisoba introduced the super catchy kologo beats to the bigger audiences in Ghana and abroad. The kologo is a two string guitar with a calabash gourd resonator, it is rhythmic and melodic at the same time. Traditionaly kologo performances occur at local pito bars, weddings, funerals, festivals or spontaneous jams on the street. King Ayisoba shares the bill alongside a very welcome return from Arnold De Boer (The Ex)’s project Zea, who deploys guitar and sampler for an almighty bout of crazily high energy songs.

KING AYISOBA

King Ayisoba was born in the Upper East Region of Ghana, and learned how to play the kologo from his grandfather, a local healer and herbalist who played his music and sang to the gods to consult them for advice and inspiration. Before he could walk he was learning music from his grandfather, who before long would chastise him for singing his songs and instead teach him how to create his own, which he could then play all day.

From as early as he can remember, he has played in pito bars, at funerals, weddings, festivals, anywhere he got a chance to take out his instrument, sing, and make some money. By the time he was in primary school, the lure of money he could make playing in the pito bars was overwhelming, and soon, the child prodigy was known throughout the Bolgatanga area.

Having achieved everything he felt he could at home, King Ayisoba headed for Accra, where he found employment as a security guard. Whilst working at the Dome Hotel near Circle, he was introduced to a certain Terry Bon Chaka, who had just won the National Hiplife Competition, and was starting a career. The two struck up a partnership that was soon to be the talk of every performance across the country. Sadly, their reign was short. Disaster struck and Terry died in a motor accident, leaving King Ayisoba alone and contemplating returning home to Bolgatanga.

It took BB Menson and Prime I of Radio Gold to convince King Ayisoba to stay in Accra, but it was not easy for him at first. It took another two years finish his solo album, during which time he collaborated with other artists and developed new material, and made the work paid off.

ZEA

The Ex vocalist Arnold de Boer’s solo performances are always a complete blast. He deploys guitar and sampler for an almighty bout of crazily high energy songs – urgent lyrics over guitar, roughshod beats and grimy bass lines. “One guy stands playing his guitar like he’s trying to saw it in half with his bare hands, the other bashes at the vocoding keyboard devices like he wants them to explode, and they end up making one almighty racket that could be called ‘dance’ music. If you happen to dance like a malfunctioning washing machine, that is. Ace.” Drowned in Sound
“It’s incredibly bonkers, that’s for sure, but it’s so bloody energetic, so bull headed and so schizophrenic in its approach to crafting a tune that you simply can’t fail to be impressed by it…The results are astonishing.” Incendiary Magazine