»Ghana’s ancient empire and the 21st century global express. The rhythms that created the past alongside the beats forging the present. In King Ayisoba, they all converge. Everything morphing into one. They stand together, history and today, side by side. The tradition hewn from the future.« It’s rare that we quote the official press of one of our artists, because it’s rare for us to feel that we couldn’t have said it better. It’s an incredible privilege to present King Ayisoba at our festival this year. The Ghanian musician not only, as described above, bridges epochs—he also does this with a raw, idiosyncratic, heavy-hitting sound. King Ayisoba tips his hat to Hiplife (a popular Ghanian music style connecting Highlife with hip hop) but concentrates mostly on percussion, and therefore on tradition. He builds the nucleus of his songs with the Guluku and Dundun drums as well as with the percussive, two-stringed Kologo lute, which has King Ayisoba to thank for its current popularity in Ghanian pop music. Using these instruments as a base texture, Ayisoba chants in Frafra, Twi, or Pidgin English, always with maximum urgency, political angles, and one of the most charismatic voices you’ll hear anywhere. From the first second, it’s clear that there’s a motivation behind the music. “It’s a preaching,” says Ayisoba himself. “You can never cut the small stone. This means you have to stay strong, when you are big or small, they can never cut you when you are a stone.” The Western ear, by the way, might connect Ayisoba’s sound to the great tradition of punk, not least because of the anarchist politics it endorses. It’s all connected.

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