Pierre Akendengué - Biography
Pierre Akendengue is from Gabon, an African nation nestled between Cameroon and The Congo. While almost unknown in the west, even to many world music aficionados, Akendengue is one of Africa’s most visionary musicians. He is an internationally recognized singer, composer, poet, playwright and musician, and has spent several years of his life in exile because of his political opinions. His masterpiece Lambarena (1993 CellulOid/Melodie France) blended the music of Bach, African percussion and Pygmy chants into something that still sounds stunningly original.
Akendengue was born into a middle class family on the island of Aouta, just of the coast of Gabon. He went to a Catholic grammar school and suffered from vision problems as a child. He went to Paris at 22 to study literature in Caen and psychology at the Sorbonne. He took his PhD in Psychology in 1976. He was also studying music at Le Petit Conservatoire, where he met Pierre Barouh, a producer and musician who helped him make his first record Nandipo (1974 Saravah France), a concept album that detailed his African upbringing. It was a simple production, just guitar, voice, stand up bass and percussion accents by Brazilian great Nana Vasconcelos, but it showed Akendengue’s international vision already in place.
Unfortunately, he was also going blind and returned to Gabon, but his opposition to the government forced a return to France. Africa Obota [Africa My Mother] (1976 Saravah France) gained him recognition as an important Afro/Franco songwriter and won the Prix de la Jeune Chanson Française at that year’s Midem convention in Cannes. His next few albums included songs critical of Africa’s political and social turmoil, but he was not happy being cast as a protest singer. He started his own label for a while, but it failed after three albums. In 1982 he was signed by CBS France and delivered Mando (1983 CBS France) with songs sung in Myéné, his tribal tongue, with lyrics that were more poetic and only implicitly political. He followed up with Awana W’Africa (1983 CellulOid/Melodie France) and Reveil de L’Afrika (1984 CellulOid/Melodie France). These early albums, along with the work of Toure Kunda and Youssou N’Dour helped fuel the early ‘80s French interest in African music.
In 1985, Akendengue returned to Gabon and continued releasing music that combined poetry, traditional and electric instruments, political lyrics and music with Caribbean, Latin, North American (funk, bluesy guitars) and African elements. The political climate had changed too. Akendengue became President Omar Bongo’s advisor on cultural matters.
In 1993 Akendengue made Lambarena (1993 CellulOid/Melodie France), which he called “Johann Sebastian Bach goes to Africa.” He brought in a baroque chamber orchestra and an African rhythm section and to play the music of Bach. He arranged choral works for African voices, adapted African traditional music for chamber orchestra, and had his drummers work changes on Bach’s cantatas and partitas. The project included 250 African singers and a group of 50 French classical musicians and stands as one of the greatest African albums ever. Still, even with its obvious crossover potential, it has never been issued worldwide.
Akendengue’s health had been bad for a few years and he took time off to recover. Maladalite (1996 CellulOid/Melodie) [the title is a contraction of the French words malade (ill) and alite (in bed)] deals again with the problems plaguing the average African - social, political and economic. It combines the French chanson tradition with Latin rhythms and African touches. The next year he released Carrefour Rio (1997 Melodie France) and saw the reissue of two more CDs Espoir à Soweto (1997 Melodie France) an 1988 album that took on apartheid and Passé Compose (1997 Melodie France) a collection of tracks from his early French albums. He also won the Prix d'Excellence at the Africa Music awards in Libreville.
Obakadences (2001 Melodie France) and Ekunda-Sah! (2005 Melodie France) prove that Akendengue isn’t getting mellow or creatively fallow in his old age. The lyrics still hit hard on poverty and injustice, and his arrangements remain an eclectic blend of African, Caribbean, European and North American influences. The Congolese guitars and blazing horn section on Obakadences are particularly impressive. In 2005 Akendengue visited Gorée, a small island off the coast of Senegal that was once a holding pen for enslaved Africans on their way to the New World. The experience was overwhelming and led to Gorée (2006 LusAfrica) a collection of songs about the slave trade that indicts the Americans and Europeans who created it and the African kings who collaborated with them. The lyrics also remind us that the effects of slavery and racism are still reverberating throughout the world today. In 2009 he released La Verite d'Afrique.
