African Paradigm
It took Mr Raoul K more than three years of work inside and outside the studio to complete his first album for Compost Records.
01_Mr Raoul K - African Paradigm (Intro)
01:3202_Mr Raoul K - Africans In Deep And Dance feat. Ahmed Sosso
11:1603_Mr Raoul K - African Paradigm (Chapter 1 - 4)
12:2904_Mr Raoul K - O Mera Dil (Oh My Heart) feat. Lady Parul
07:0005_Mr Raoul K - Touman (Right Time) feat. Ahmed Sosso
08:4706_Mr Raoul K - African Paradigm (Chapter 5)
04:3607_Mr Raoul K - African Paradigm (Chapter 6)
09:5108_Mr Raoul K - Kele Bila (Stop Fighting) feat. Ahmed Sosso
08:46
It took Mr Raoul K more than three years of work inside and outside the studio to complete his first album for Compost Records. His first goal was to show all the musical influences he came across during his time in Ivory Coast. Ivorian music has incorporated musical traditions and instruments from East-Africa, West-Africa and from Central Africa – a real musical melting pot. To complete 'African Paradigm', Mr Raoul K used lots of the instruments he bought during his trips to Africa - including a Kenyan Mbira and Senegalese talking drums, for example. All instruments you hear on 'African Paradigm' were played the old-fashioned analog way - no synthesized sounds. Mr Raoul K teamed up with vocalists Ahmed Sosso, Lady Parul and Sona Diabate to emphasize his message, because sometimes (only sometimes) words speak louder than music. His second goal was to share his view on Africa through his music, making 'African Paradigm' a political album as well. Mr Raoul K has always used his music as a means of political expression - 'Le Karantkatrieme Peul' dealing with Barack Obama's presidency, for example. The album's main track, 'African Paradigm', was an epic track with a running time of about 50 minutes. Mr Raoul K thinks of the track as a work in progress.
Here he releases two finished parts plus an additional intro. The remaining parts are scheduled for a later release. If you listen closely, you can hear Mr Raoul K painting layer after layer after layer of sound until the whole picture finally appears. Showing a beautiful continent, torn apart by foreign powers, independent by law but still suffering from the burden of being colonialized for cheap labour and raw materials and suffering from inner conflicts and civil wars. The music mirrors this picture. You can hear the sense of urgency, the suffering - different kinds of driving drums, haunting percussion, dancing flutes, irie effects lurking in the shadows... But there are contemplation and hope as well - the hope, that there will be a better future for Africa.
Shortly after the album release, Mr Raoul K will also present the “African Paradigm EP 2” in cooperation with Manoo.