Ghana-Burkina Faso duo Mabiisi embark on Euro tour

Since the Burkinabe rapper Art Melody and Ghanaian singer Stevo Atambire formed Mabiisi, they have shown a musical chemistry evident since both artists freestyled at the Last Chance Studio in Dzorwulu in Accra. Now their sound is on the verge of going global.

Atambire plays music from his two lute kologo with a calabash gourd resonator attached, while belting high pitched vocals on stage. Like many players of the kologo, he is from Bolgatanga in the north of Ghana. Art Melody, on the other hand, has held a passion for hip hop since the early 1990s when the genre landed on the African continent.

As he says, the basis of his inspiration is a response to injustice and is also “interior. To know everything buried deep within me.”

The duo recently made the Transglobal World Music Chart for July 2016 after they had released their debut album, Mabiisi, with Akwaaba Music in June. US magazine Fader describes their music as a sound metaphor for “spring time”. Benjamin Lebrave of Akwaaba Music who works close to the team said in an interview, that “traditional music plays a central role in the Mabiisi music.”

The duo has already performed in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. On Friday 22 July, Mabiisi will be performing at Brussels’s Recyclart Art Center in Belgium. And then on to Sweden for a 30 July concert in Göteborg at the Clandestino Festival. The last Euro stop for Mabiisi is Lyon, France on 6 August.

After that, the group returns to Africa in time for a 3 September performance at the Nyege Nyege Festival in Uganda.