Kananayé by Kanazoe, Clotilde Rullaud, Abdoulaye Traore, Boubacar Djiga, Achille Nacoulma

Kananayé is a story that begins in Bobo-Dioulasso in 2019, a first time in Burkina Faso for the singer Clotilde Rullaud on the occasion of the Badara festival and an obvious musical encounter, as sometimes happens, with the drummer Achille Nacoulma and the guitarist Abdoulaye Traore, shining stars of the Burkinabè music scene. Later joined by Kanazoe on balafon and Boubacar Djiga on the kunde, the artistic combination was perfect, the team too beautiful not to concoct, in the cozy warmth of Bobo’s studios, a musical hydra with 5 heads, an album collectively written, at the crossroads of plural artistic universes.

Combining slam, songs in French, Dioula, More, English, riding the wave of improvisation but always with the compass pointed towards the traditional music of West Africa, the sound of Kananayé travels between Paris and Bobo, telling today’s life, borrowing the paths of blues, meandering towards Afro-American shores, ultimately infusing a very current music, driven by a beautiful complicity and the joy of playing together.
“Kananayé”, as they say in the streets of Bobo, “it’s not easy” but it will be okay!

Seydou “Kanazoe” Diabate: balafon, percussions, vocals, composition

Boubacar Djiga : kunde, percussions, composition

Achille Nacoulma: drums, percussions, vocals, composition

Clotilde Rullaud: vocals, flute, composition

Abdoulaye “Debademba” Traore: guitars, composition

Photo Credits : Jacob Bonkian, Maxim Francois