For a long time now, I’ve been drawing a line between two forms of making modern music: vibrated creation and synthetic creation. Yes, they can combine them, but the further you midi a vibrated instrument’s sound (i.e. string instrument, tapped persecution, wind resonated hollow body, voice box, etc.) the more it becomes less of that. Neither negatively or poorly, though. It just seems as though in the modern world of music making, more people choose to laptop their works, rather than refine the primitive sound vibration. Either works, it’s just more satisfying when you hear modern composition of the purely natural kind. Maybe it’s even holistic, if you believe. But when you hear an album entirely composed on your favorite instrument — xylophone all day, bb — and that instrument was MADE by the composer of this work, it feels as though all the ailments in your life are set adrift. So SK Kakraba Lobi’s “PIRIFU” helps me throw up on a Friday like a cool breeze in Ghana.
Words:
SK Kakraba Lobi is a Master Xylophonist from Ghana, the son of Master Xlophonist Kakraba Lobi. SK is a Master of the Gyil, which means that he is both an instrument maker and a virtuoso performer. The Gyil is the Ghanaian Xylophone, and the primary instrument of the Lobi, Sisala, and Dagara people of Northern Ghana. It is constructed of 14 wooden slats suspended over calabash gourds that have been fitted with resonators.
Pre-order SK Kakraba Lobi’s YONYE via Drag City sister-label Sun Ark, and get yourself a little bit closer to musical paradise. And until it arrives, keep “PIRIFU” on repeat:
• Sun Ark: http://www.sunaraw.com/sunarkshop.html
• Drag City: http://www.dragcity.com
More about: SK KAKRABA
