Aladari Dembelé - Voyassi (Burkina Faso, 1988)

Full-length cassette side composition by Burkina Faso musician Aladari Dembelé, who is playing the bwaba balafon and singing. In design/construction, as you can see from the stock photo for the video, it is like a marimba. The thickness of the wood keys coupled with the gourd amplifiers makes the sound much thicker and more resonant, though. When I first heard it, I thought he might actually be playing a souped up version of an mbira, the West African metal-keyed thumb piano. The A-Side of the cassette, which song is the eponymous title of the album (Sodassiya) can be found here:    • SODASSIYA - Dembélé Aladari