Today we take a short break from my North African series and listen to a guest post from Benn loxo listener and fellow Parisian, Henri.

“Coronthie is a large working class district in Guinea’s capital, Conakry. A mightily crowded place it sure seems to be: population density there is the same as that of central Paris, for instance, although buildings tend to be built in mud and are only one story high, instead of a typical six or seven in Paris. The name of the place comes from the Portuguese word for “quarantine”, since it originally harboured Conakry’s lazaret.

From there comes a bunch of young guys (one of them is barely 13) playing traditional instruments but not the traditional way. Guinean music tends to be high-tempo and slightly harsh. These guys exude a delightful laid-back feeling; their stuff is mellow, elegant yet complex acoustic African folk.

They have been incredibly successful at home over the last two years and their last CD sold more than 70,000 copies – not bad for a small, rural country of less than 10 million people. Unfortunately, their records seem to be totally unavailable on the world market – but rejoice! they have a Myspace (in French) and will be touring Europe during the Spring of 2007.”

Thanks for the great music, Henri. Does anyone else have any suggestions for African groups on MySpace?

Les Espoirs de Coronthie – Dunuya iguiri
Les Espoirs de Coronthie – Grand GN
Les Espoirs de Coronthie – Khata remix