Gangbé Brass Band

About

For over twenty-five years, the group has been building a journey from stage to stage, from country to country, with a regular presence on international circuits. In parallel with its tours, it continues to evolve as a collective, enriching its polyphonic aesthetic through contact with the contexts it traverses. Gangbé thus asserts itself as a sonic body in motion, nourished by the back-and-forth between Africa and diasporas, between transmitted heritages and evolving forms. Their new album, From Ouidah to Another World, extends this dynamic of transversality. It is built around a single evocation: that of the port of Ouidah, the starting point of a story of displacement, ruptures, and reinventions. Drawing on this symbolic place, it seeks to question the invisible circulations between African and Anglo-Saxon music. The project follows the journey of brass bands, born in New Orleans, carried by African memory, then brought back to the continent in other forms. The Gangbé Brass Band places its practice within this loop, as a witness to these cultural circulations of which it is now a relay. With a desire to connect diasporic sonic memories, while creating a dialogue between what remains beyond what has left and what has been acquired in what has returned.