West African Sounds & Samples
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Senegal Sessions
Splice Sessions is a new label from Splice. With bi-annual editions, we’ll take listeners on an expedition through the sonic stories of regions that have had and continue to have a lasting impact on music-making worldwide. We’ll elevate and pay tribute to the creators, cultures, and instruments from around the world that have influenced modern music while providing unprecedented access to unique sounds. This premier edition features the sounds of Senegal. We traveled to the creative pulse of the region to understand the past, present, and future of its musical landscape. Senegal has a rich and textured musical history. Leaning heavily on percussion, music was a form of long-distance communication, much like smoke signals, and we wanted to capture that. Recorded in Dakar, this pack was a collaboration with the talent, sounds, and genres currently shaping culture in Senegal. It’s a compilation—a highlight reel—of several packs resulting from this session to be released over the coming months. You’ll find traditional instruments (i.e. the kora, sabar, ngoni, and more), drumkits, vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, flutes, and a ton more. Explore where cutting-edge modern music meets deep-rooted familial tradition with Splice Sessions: Senegal.
Congolese Drums with Andre Toungamani
Congolese Drums with Andre Toungamani is the third installment of Senegal Sessions and the first instrumental pack in the series. This groovy pack focuses on creating sounds to dance to in the style of Mbalax, Afrobeat, hip hop, and dancehall. Mbalax (or Mbalakh) is the national popular dance music of Senegal and the Gambia. It has sacred origins in the Serer people, an ultra-religious, ultra-conservative njuup music tradition and their sacred ndut rite ceremonies. By the 1970s, it became a fusion with other popular music from the African diaspora, the West, and Afropop such as jazz, soul, Latin, Congolese rumba, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of the Wolof—an ethnic group of northwestern Senegal. The genre's name derived from accompanying rhythms used in sabar called mbalax. Although Toungamani hails from Congo, he’s considered one of the best Mbalax players in Senegal. This fusion of cultures has provided the music community with a rhythmic gift to be unwrapped loop-by-loop in this pack. Filled with passion, history, cultural pride, and rhythm, find one-shots and loops that will add some serious movement to your next production.
Senegalese Serum with Wagane Faye
Wagane Faye—a prominent keyboardist for many of Dakar’s mbalax and Afrobeat bands—joined us at Laboutique Studios Dakar to record ample MIDI in the styles of mbalax, Afrobeat, dancehall, Afroswing, and Afropop. We then cut those MIDI performances into loops and made corresponding Serum presets for each. These presets focus on the sounds of West Africa. You'll find fula flutes, ngoni, kora, marimba, balafon, kalimba, percussion, plus synths, organs, and bass sounds.
Studio LaBoutique Dakar
The latest installment in Splice Sessions, Studio La Boutique Dakar, was recorded and produced by Pape Armand Boye at his studio in Ngor, Dakar. East meets west, world traveler Armand brings his experience to the sample pack world. The loops were recorded and produced in various styles ranging from Afrobeat to Afro-pop and Mbalax. The instrumentation is comprised of kora, acoustic and electric guitar, drums, percussion, electric bass, talking drum, and ukelele. The resulting sounds showcase both Armand’s travels and deep-seated roots in Dakar.
West African Voices
Recorded at Laboutique Studios Dakar, Senegalese singers Tidiane Batjily and Marietou Kouyate laid down improvised vocals in the style of Malian traditional folk (of the country Mali), mbalax, and Afrobeat. These vocals are powerfully stunning and mesmerizing. Upon his return to the music industry after a many year break, Tidiane Batjily found himself singing on many rap records. But truly, these male and female vocals showcasing many West African styles could find a home in any type of production from pop to psych to electronic and beyond.