Gbaya Music

This new release presents Intimate songs of the Gbaya people- a large ethnic group from the Central African Republic, with sanza ("thumb piano") and rattle accompaniment. The Gbaya occupy a vast area on both sides of the Cameroon border. This release features music of the village Ndongue, which is 45 miles southwest of Bouar. The village activities follow the seasonal alternation of dry season and rainy season and are fundamentally collective. That is, individual relationships in all circumstances are of a primordial nature: basically family and village ties. In the music, be it solo or ensemble, with or without the interjections of an assembly, the communication between individuals takes place both physically and instrumentally. Thus the music depends closely on the performing situation and by the same token remains difficult to define.