Lulanga Tales by Nyati Mayi & The Astral Synth Transmitters

Les Disques Bongo Joe are happy to announce the release of Nyati Mayi & Astral Synth Transmitters first album ever : Lulanga Tales ! After the release of a first 7’’ last year, we’re proud to continue our work with one of the most astonishing duo from Belgium !

Two travelers, in the eclectic and evolving musical underground in Brussels, their paths having crossed over many years, finally seal the deal and record a deep, emotional, jazztronic Afro-bomb of an LP that has no respect for genre limits and mines the crannies of both players’ musical taste. The name might suggest a bigger ensemble, but Nyati Mayi & The Astral Synth Transmitters are currently duo Nyati Mayi & soFa elsewhere who weave the electronic and acoustic yet with a stark rhythmic punch, rendering heartbreaking vocals (sung in no specific language) across six delicious tracks. 

Nyati Mayi is a long-term resident of the Belgian capital with heritage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He provides the powerful vocals on Lulanga Tales, as well as the harp-like instrument referenced in its title. A lulanga is a stringed member of the zither family with a rectangular, shallow-troughed body, native to the DRC. Nyati was gifted his lulanga on a visit to Nyangezi, his mother’s village and it’s now a pretty important part of his musical philosophy.

On the production side of Lulanga Tales, the Astral Synth Transmitter himself is renowned cratedigger, compiler and taste expander soFa, best known as soFa elsewhere. A Brussels face himself since the late 90s, soFa elsewhere had preferred not to produce his own music until fairly recently. Following projects like CCCVVV’s Balearic dreaminess and Mameen 3, electro-boogie whisked to Morocco via co-producer Cheb Runner, soFa elsewhere started recording with Nyati Mayi with each party pushing the other further ‘out’ than they’d been before.

The highly resonant sound of the lulanga, soFa’s arsenal of dub techniques, sliced-up hand drum, sweeping Afro-cosmic synths, scat-adjacent vocal style, or perhaps a West African griot interpretation of it, Japanese influences and 80s African disco rock… influences in this album are as vast as the imagination of the two artists.

Nyati Mayi dubs this project a case of “complementarity”: two distinct entities uniting to each other’s benefit. Indeed, he and his bandmate have arrived at this point via fairly different roads, but settled on fertile common ground. For soFa elsewhere, decades hunched over record crates seeking obscure and overlooked gold is an ongoing round-the-world quest, while Nyati speaks of a lifelong musical evolution leading to his present-day love of the spiritually guided Moroccan gnawa music, Benin voodoo drums and plenty more.

Outsider music ? Nyati Mayi & The Astral Synth Transmitters unleash two cosmic tracks that sound like nothing you’ve ever heard. Free form music, no boundaries, nothing you’ll be able to grab. Just listen and climb on board of their spaceship!