Wouassa

Ovni vibrant du paysage musical suisse depuis plus de 15 ans, le combo Professor Wouassa revient avec un troisième album « Yobale Ma » à la créativité exacerbée. Dans ce nouvel opus, les Lausannois ne gardent leur Afrobeat qu’en filigrane pour mieux nous faire découvrir toute la palette des couleurs de l’Afrique. À coup de guitares qui claquent, de grooves incisifs et de mélodies percutantes, Professor Wouassa invente une communion entre Nile Rodgers, Mulatu Astatke et Papa Wemba. Ce soir, on fête leur vernissage fribourgeois !

After performing some of the biggest swiss venues (Cully Jazz Festival, Paléo Festival, Festi’Neuch, Festival de la Cité…), the eleven pieces combo from Lausanne is back with the sequel to their critically acclaimed album Dangerous Koko!. Grow Yes Yes! is a nine-track LP transcending the codes of afrobeat with spicy grooves and a warm sound, revisiting Fela Kuti’s music in an impertinent and relaxed manner. Between vintage afro-funk, contemporary highlife and tropical flavor, Professor Wouassa will to make you sweat, dance and wiggle from the get go.

Recorded in Hamburg, Zurich and Berlin, the album is a collaboration between Amuri and the Hamburg-based AmberYard production team as well as the songwriter, Walter Esposito. Born in Congo, Alina Amuri arrived in Switzerland at the age of two. She loved dancing even as a child, learnt to play the flute and joined the children’s choir of the Zurich Opera House. Later on, she became a sought-after backing vocalist, singing with outfits as diverse as Namusoke, afro-funkster Professor Wouassa, reggae group Kid Jango and the Scrucialists, and rapper Stereo Luchs. She also contributed some of her own tracks to a number of compilation albums before she recorded her full-length debut “Be One With Me” in 2015.