Until recently not much was known about music from Burkina Faso, formerly called the Upper Volta. It is still one of West Africa lesser known forms of popular music. A few years before the country changed its name to Burkina Faso, thanks to Thomas Sankara's dream for a new society, Voltaic music emerged as some form of true cultural revolution. Remote, poor and isolated, Burkina Faso looked to the orchestras and artists from neighbouring countries such as Mali, The Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin. Located at its northern border, Niger is the only other West African country whose music stayed as isolated as the music hailing from Burkina Faso. Most of its bands and artists hail mostly from Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. They infuse some of the rich local traditions, such as mossi dances or dioula singing, with afro-cuban flavours, American rhythm'n'blues, French pop or Congolese rumba. Electric guitars and organs swirl around balafon and solid horn sections. Despite the fact that the 1960s and 1970s Upper Volta lacked a proper recording studio and record pressing plant, there was a great deal of popular music produced in the country from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, mostly on 7-inches. Vol. 1 contains 13 rare and some very sought after recordings from Burkina Faso. Rich and fascinating stuff! The release comes with extensive liner notes and an insert with photographs of the original 7-inches the release was compiled from...
