Search - Lokua Kanza :: Nkolo

On his latest album, Nkolo, Congolese singer Lokua Kanza draws on sounds from his father s village and his native Lingala tongue to give the African Diaspora a musical sense of place. Listening to the album is an unabashedly uplifting experience the theme of love is ever-present. The title track Nkolo translates as God and the album is unashamedly spiritual. A devout Christian, Kanza cut his musical teeth aged eight singing in the church in Kinshasha. Kanza, who now lives mainly in Brazil, was known as the Brazilian from an early age. The album s tunes are a mixture of ndombolo [Congolese dance music] and samba, but Kanza also introduces instruments from outside these traditions, such as an ondes Martenot and a cristal Baschet (similar to a glass harmonica). Sung in Lingala, Portuguese and French, Nkolo is the embodiment of a perfect cross-cultural mix, a blend of beautiful melodies and radiant atmospheres. Its aesthetics simply defy categorization, touching at times on unseen spiritual forces.