W A Y WAYS & MEANS S & M Beta Foly: Experiments with Tradition E A N and Technology in West Africa S ABSTRACT Lukas Ligeti In 1994, together with sev- eral West African traditional musi- cians and German electronics ex- pert Kurt Dahlke, the author founded the music ensemble Beta Foly, based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The group explores cre- BETA FOLY A group of about 15 musicians ative musical possibilities gener- remained, however, and they ated through the bringing together Early one morning about 7 years ago, I was awoken by an un- of different cultures and tradi- expected phone call. It was the Goethe Institute, Germany’s were curious and open-minded tions, placing a strong emphasis network of cultural institutes abroad, inviting me to travel to enough to engage in a more in- on the use of both ancient African Côte d’Ivoire to conduct a workshop with African traditional depth exchange, staying together instruments and the most recent music technology. The members musicians. I was rather surprised, as I was still a student at the throughout the entire 2-week workshop (and, in large part, to of Beta Foly compose and impro- time, enrolled in the composition program at the Vienna Mu- vise eclectic, polymetric music, sic Academy (I now live in New York City). Also, I am not Ger- this day [1]). These musicians, trying to combine styles in innova- man, had never led a workshop and had never been to Africa. who came from many different tive ways in order to find new av- I had, however, become more and more interested in, and in- regions of West Africa, shared enues for composition, ensemble some common aspects of a musi- interplay and cross-cultural under- fluenced by, African music in the preceding years. I happily standing. accepted the Goethe Institute’s invitation, not least for sheer cal language, but their interpreta- curiosity, but did impose one condition. Although at the time tions of a certain basic rhythm, I was starting to develop a serious interest in electronic music for example, could be very differ- and in using the computer for composition, I felt that I had ent. Dahlke and I spent a few days doing little more than be- no experience in this field. I therefore asked to take a collabo- ing attentive, slightly confused onlookers. As Dahlke and I rator with me, someone more seasoned in electronic music asked them questions, trying to understand the structural than I was. I felt that an interesting premise for this voyage makeup of their music, the musicians were trying to come to would be for me not to attempt to play African music, and not terms with one another; an intra-African cultural exchange to ask the African musicians to play in a European style, but to therefore preceded the exchange between the African and construct a “third plane” on which we could meet and inter- Western musicians. act, exploring the creative possibilities of musical electronics. After a few days, consensus between the musicians began to The Goethe Institute recommended Kurt Dahlke, an experi- emerge, and Dahlke’s and my compositional ideas began to mental musician/producer from Düsseldorf who had been solidify. The last days of the workshop were spent experiment- involved in the “Neue Deutsche Welle,” a highly creative direc- ing together and rehearsing pieces, and these few rehearsal tion of early-1980s German pop music, in which humorous days generated such a strong feeling of community and cohe- German lyrics were set to oddly experimental “lo-fi” synthe- sion that it was clear to all of us that we had become an en- sizer sounds. I had never heard of Dahlke. semble. On the final day, before the concert we performed A few months later, I met Dahlke; we discussed our work together to end the workshop, we decided to “officially” form and our ideas for the project and decided that we would like a group, giving it the name Beta Foly, which means “the Mu- to work together. Finally, in February 1994, we traveled to sic of Us All” in Malinké, a language spoken by a sizable num- Abidjan, the largest city in the Ivory Coast. ber of people in northern and western Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea I did not know what to expect of Côte d’Ivoire, but what I and some surrounding regions. As Dahlke and I left Africa, found—the beauty of the country, the friendliness of the we had resolved that this group must go on working together. people, and the richness and diversity of the culture—far ex- I returned to Abidjan in 1995 to record a demo tape on a ceeded anything I had imagined. The local Goethe Institute shoestring budget, and in 1996 the Goethe Institute commis- and its director, Bernd Pirrung, had assembled some of the sioned Dahlke and me to visit Côte d’Ivoire again. By this most interesting resident traditional musicians to participate time, Intuition Music, a German record label specializing in in the dialogue with us. From the beginning, I tried to make it jazz and world music, had also become interested in the clear that I wanted to adopt an experimental approach to this project. In September of 1996, we recorded a CD in Abidjan, collaboration, and that some of my influences came from mu- documenting our work up to that point. (The pieces discussed sical areas that were not widely known in Africa such as con- in this article, and the two pieces included in the Southern temporary composition, experimental jazz, electronica and Cones CD accompanying this issue of Leonardo Music Journal, non-African traditional music. However, I also “confronted” are all on the Intuition Music recording [2].) Much of the the local musicians with ways in which I had incorporated Af- composition of these pieces was done in the period immedi- rican elements into my work, by playing for them drum solos ately preceding the recording sessions, and in the studio itself. containing such concepts. Undoubtedly, what Dahlke and I did sounded quite unusual to the African musicians, and, not Lukas Ligeti (composer), 440 West 47th Street, #3D, New York, NY 10036, U.S.A. surprisingly, many stopped showing up by the third day. E-mail: <[email protected]>. © 2000 ISAST LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL, Vol. 10, pp. 41–47, 2000 41 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/096112100570594 by guest on 30 September 2021 W A Y S After completing the recording, Beta MUSICIANS AND ing of his ancestral region, he has also & Foly undertook its first voyage to Europe INSTRUMENTS adopted a heptatonic (diatonic) tuning M (some band members had traveled ex- very close to the European C major (the E A tensively before this, others never at all) The African members of Beta Foly come white keys of the piano), in order to be N from numerous different cultures and S and played at the Wien Modern festival, more compatible with Western musi- a festival usually devoted to contempo- ethnic groups, and many of them play cians. (A heptatonic balafon in a major rary “classical” music. For this concert, instruments typical of these cultures. key is, however, not unheard of in this we were joined by electric guitarist Babagalé Kanté and Yero Bobo Bah are region; Malinké musicians have used Henry Kaiser, who also appears on our Peul (Fulani) musicians from the Fouta such tunings for a long time.) Keïta is CD as guest soloist (overdubbed in Ber- Djalon region in the Republic of Guinea interested in experimentation and espe- keley, California, after our sessions in (Conakry) and play pastoral flute and cially enjoys working with musicians who Abidjan). A highly creative improvisor wassamba, respectively. The Peul flute is do not share his cultural heritage. Siriki with a strong interest in traditional mu- an instrument with three holes, capable Keïta, Aly’s brother and a founding sics, Kaiser is also the producer (with of producing up to 12 distinct pitches, member of the group, died recently, a David Lindley) of very successful CDs and Babagalé has a large number of shock from which we are trying to recu- featuring the music of Madagascar [3]. flutes to play in different “keys.” (De- perate. He played the bara, a gourd His approach is eclectic and often incor- scribing African music using European drum of flexible tuning that is character- porates unconventional uses of effects terminology is not always useful; for ex- istically used to accompany the balafon units such as harmonizers. (Kaiser does ample, it is questionable to speak of in Senoufo and Bobo music. not appear in the two Beta Foly pieces “keys” in many forms of African music, Some other members of the group on the Southern Cones CD.) as tonality in the European sense, with play instruments that are not uniquely In 1997, a further work phase took the concept of tonic, dominant and sub- characteristic of this region. Lamine place in Abidjan, in which the group dominant, is not necessarily relevant Baldé, a central figure in the ensemble, underwent the transformation from a here.) The wassamba is a pair of rattles, is from Guinea-Bissau and sings (in workshop band into a professional per- one held in each hand, in which gourd Crioulo, Portuguese, Balante, Mandinka forming ensemble. We visited Europe discs are centered on a curved wooden and other languages) and plays the again, performing at the opening festi- stick. Tchemsé Kanté, also from Guinea, acoustic guitar; his style, however, is val of the Goethe Institute’s new concert is an exponent of the Malinké griot tra- highly syncopated and infused with vo- hall in Munich, among other venues.