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CD
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BORNBAD 157CD
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To produce a record can be quite an adventure -- to do so with young girls from Northwest Benin is one tall order. Though not exactly a world music label, Born Bad Records took up the challenge and released Star Féminine Band's first album in late 2020 (BORNBAD 128CD/LP). Heaps of acclaims and praise and the whole shebang, then boom: the tour that was to materialize, live, all of the band and its entourage's hopes got cancelled due to Covid. The pandemic didn't get the better of them, though; with their desire to go up on European stages still very much alive, the combo reappeared on the Transmusicales festival's line-up just one year later -- a highlight of their first tour, regardless of all the hurdles and hiccups. "The procedure wasn't as simple as the first time around." That's how self-appointed "band dad" (two of his daughters are part of the formation, which he initiated in 2016) and songwriter André Balaguemon euphemistically describes the obstacles he had to go through in order to go to France. Inviting over minor African girls is a long shot, not to mention in full Covid season. A first in this tour of all of the first times: leaving Benin, taking the plane, discovering Paris... "Everything intrigued them!", JB adds, never out of flowery anecdotes. National newspapers, specialized magazines, radios and TV stations, Arte and TV5, then the BBC had interest. They left convinced, just like the audience, enthralled by the direct, live formula. All the same when they had to record in the studio -- a whole new thing too, like a final challenge they rose to with youth's talent, thanks to the listening skills of Laurent Boisgisson from One Two Pass It studio. A feverish and energetic soundtrack in which nabo, peulh and waama are enlivened with drum lines and spiced up with more "modern" sounds, spreading words of tolerance and kindness. Simple and direct, they speak of their reality, of the ills of young women who don't always have a choice. JB welcomed them in a record studio, and allowed for the formula to be sharpened into a sort of garage band with an Afro twist. Thanks to the English lessons that their manager Jérémie Verdier has been providing every Sunday night for two years over video conference, the girls even experimented with English lyrics in "We Are Star Feminine Band" and "Woman Stand Up". In Paris is the happy outcome of that challenge. Liner notes in English and French. CD version includes 12-page booklet.
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LP
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BORNBAD 157LP
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LP version. Includes printed under sleeve; includes download code. To produce a record can be quite an adventure -- to do so with young girls from Northwest Benin is one tall order. Though not exactly a world music label, Born Bad Records took up the challenge and released Star Féminine Band's first album in late 2020 (BORNBAD 128CD/LP). Heaps of acclaims and praise and the whole shebang, then boom: the tour that was to materialize, live, all of the band and its entourage's hopes got cancelled due to Covid. The pandemic didn't get the better of them, though; with their desire to go up on European stages still very much alive, the combo reappeared on the Transmusicales festival's line-up just one year later -- a highlight of their first tour, regardless of all the hurdles and hiccups. "The procedure wasn't as simple as the first time around." That's how self-appointed "band dad" (two of his daughters are part of the formation, which he initiated in 2016) and songwriter André Balaguemon euphemistically describes the obstacles he had to go through in order to go to France. Inviting over minor African girls is a long shot, not to mention in full Covid season. A first in this tour of all of the first times: leaving Benin, taking the plane, discovering Paris... "Everything intrigued them!", JB adds, never out of flowery anecdotes. National newspapers, specialized magazines, radios and TV stations, Arte and TV5, then the BBC had interest. They left convinced, just like the audience, enthralled by the direct, live formula. All the same when they had to record in the studio -- a whole new thing too, like a final challenge they rose to with youth's talent, thanks to the listening skills of Laurent Boisgisson from One Two Pass It studio. A feverish and energetic soundtrack in which nabo, peulh and waama are enlivened with drum lines and spiced up with more "modern" sounds, spreading words of tolerance and kindness. Simple and direct, they speak of their reality, of the ills of young women who don't always have a choice. JB welcomed them in a record studio, and allowed for the formula to be sharpened into a sort of garage band with an Afro twist. Thanks to the English lessons that their manager Jérémie Verdier has been providing every Sunday night for two years over video conference, the girls even experimented with English lyrics in "We Are Star Feminine Band" and "Woman Stand Up". In Paris is the happy outcome of that challenge. Liner notes in English and French.
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CD
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BORNBAD 128CD
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Without warning, a group of young girls from a remote region of Benin is shaking up the world of garage rock with breathtaking freshness, ingenuity and energy, playing spot-on, loud and clear. A musician named André Baleguemon decided to form an exclusively female band rooted in the concerns of its time. He puts the spotlight on the guitar, drums, and keyboard, instruments he has admired since his childhood, symbols of modernity in this remote region. Originally from Tchaourou, a vast commune located in central eastern Benin, André Balaguemon developed a passion for music at a very young age. During the 1990s, he joined the Sam 11 Orchestra in Parakou, in the northeastern part of the country. In 1999, he spent some time in Cotonou before settling in the northwest, in order to reconnect with his roots and musical passions. On July 25th, 2016, with the support of the city of Natitingou, André launched a press release on Nanto FM offering to help train girls in music for free. Since the independence era, having your own instruments has always been the prerequisite of any self-respected African orchestra. The girls have already performed dozens of concerts in the region, forging and expanding an already solid repertoire, while attracting an ever-increasing local audience. In addition to musical progress, he has been personally involved with each family, showing them the importance of his project, both musically and humanly and in particular the fact that each girl must remain in school and not be forced into marriage. There are very few female bands in the history of popular African music. If the Amazones de Guinée, la Famille Bassavé, and les Colombes de la Révolution in Burkina, the Soeurs Comoë in Ivory Coast or the Lijadu Sisters in Nigeria notably come to mind, Star Feminine Band has no equivalent in Benin. The originality, carefree attitude, freedom, and above all the talent of these young girls is undeniable. At the end of 2018, their encounter with the young French sound engineer Jérémie Verdier accelerated the course of things. On a mission in the region, he called on his Spanish friends Juan Toran and Juan Serra who showed up with their recording equipment in order to record the band's first songs in the annex of the local museum. Random encounters and fate led Jean-Baptiste Guillot to hear the tapes. CD version includes 36-page booklet.
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LP
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BORNBAD 128LP
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2021 restock; LP version. Includes six-page booklet and download code. Without warning, a group of young girls from a remote region of Benin is shaking up the world of garage rock with breathtaking freshness, ingenuity and energy, playing spot-on, loud and clear. A musician named André Baleguemon decided to form an exclusively female band rooted in the concerns of its time. He puts the spotlight on the guitar, drums, and keyboard, instruments he has admired since his childhood, symbols of modernity in this remote region. Originally from Tchaourou, a vast commune located in central eastern Benin, André Balaguemon developed a passion for music at a very young age. During the 1990s, he joined the Sam 11 Orchestra in Parakou, in the northeastern part of the country. In 1999, he spent some time in Cotonou before settling in the northwest, in order to reconnect with his roots and musical passions. On July 25th, 2016, with the support of the city of Natitingou, André launched a press release on Nanto FM offering to help train girls in music for free. Since the independence era, having your own instruments has always been the prerequisite of any self-respected African orchestra. The girls have already performed dozens of concerts in the region, forging and expanding an already solid repertoire, while attracting an ever-increasing local audience. In addition to musical progress, he has been personally involved with each family, showing them the importance of his project, both musically and humanly and in particular the fact that each girl must remain in school and not be forced into marriage. There are very few female bands in the history of popular African music. If the Amazones de Guinée, la Famille Bassavé, and les Colombes de la Révolution in Burkina, the Soeurs Comoë in Ivory Coast or the Lijadu Sisters in Nigeria notably come to mind, Star Feminine Band has no equivalent in Benin. The originality, carefree attitude, freedom, and above all the talent of these young girls is undeniable. At the end of 2018, their encounter with the young French sound engineer Jérémie Verdier accelerated the course of things. On a mission in the region, he called on his Spanish friends Juan Toran and Juan Serra who showed up with their recording equipment in order to record the band's first songs in the annex of the local museum. Random encounters and fate led Jean-Baptiste Guillot to hear the tapes.
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