Samy Ben Redjeb OCT - DEC 2018

Samy Ben Redjeb

Samy Ben Redjeb was born in Tunisia to a Tunisian father and a German mother. He has a passion for African music, collects original African vinyl records, works as a DJ and is the founder of the German label Analog Africa.
 
“The future of music happened decades ago” is the moto of Analog Africa for a reason. The label was founded in 2006 by Tunisian born Samy Ben Redjeb with the aim to showcase some of the most fascinating music created by mankind.

Samy became interested in African music while travelling back and forth on vacation and work stints, but turned it into a serious passion after becoming the resident DJ of a hotel in Senegal. It was there in the capital city of Dakar, that he began organising weekly African parties and realize that his perception of African music was riddled with clichés. The music he was discovering was way ahead of its time - much more sophisticated and futuristic than the African sounds that one could hear on western airwaves.
These sounds coming from what felt like a parallel musical world that nobody knew existed had to be showcased.

Analog Africa was established in 2006 with the release of a compilation by the Green Arrows Band from Zimbabwe and the label has since presented close to 40 projects and has travelled to 28 African countries. The music released on the label could be described as twisted, psychedelic, hypnotic, mystic, sometimes quirky and always incredibly groovy. Theses sounds, surprisingly rarely if ever released outside of Africa - were released with the aim of surprising the listener.

The songs are all directly licensed from the artists and the producers on the content and considerable importance is also placed on detailed liners notes telling unusual stories about unusual musicians, complete with rare photographs, interviews and full discographies. The label picked up a number of awards and nominations, including the German Record Critics’ Prize 2011 Winner - "Angola Soundtrack: The Unique Sound of Luanda 1968-1976" (This project was partly funded by the Goethe Institut) and Gilles Peterson´s Nomination for Label of the Year in 2011.

In recent years Analog Africa crossed the Atlantic and ventured into the genres of music that had been influenced by African folklore. 2012 saw the release of “Diablos del Ritmo - The Colombian Melting pot 1960 - 1980” a compilation of Obscure Colombian songs and in 2014 the journey continued deep into northern Brazilian waters with two compilation featuring Mestre Cupijó hailing from the gorgeous fluvial city of Cameta and the modernisation of the mytical Siria style from Pará and the release of an album called “the imaginary Soundtrack to a Brazilian Western Movie” by legendary Accordionist Camarão from Caruarú (Pernambuco), the men responsible for adding a horn section into Forró music.