Album artwork for Antoinette Konan by Antoinette Konan

It makes sense that Antoinette Konan’s eponymous album features nothing more than her ahoko on the cover. The deceptively simple traditional percussion instrument transformed Ivory Coast’s Baoulé music scene when Konan deployed it against a roaring electrified backdrop of synth, bass guitar and drum machines. Released in 1986, the album is a veritable UFO of instrumental force and contemporary pop sensibility landing in a boiling pot of diverse, creative characters inhabiting Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire). Known as the “Queen of the Ahoko” among Ivorians, Konan single handedly put the central-Ivorian instrument on the map when she gave it a 20th-century re- introduction. The three-piece wooden idiophone is handmade from a thin, ribbed, flexible stick, against which a smaller chunk of wood is rhythmically scraped. A hollow nutshell held in the non-scraping hand amplifies and manipulates the resulting overtones. Despite the ahoko's diminutive appearance, Konan and her powerful voice have remained at the forefront of Ivorian music for decades now, in an extremely diverse country—approximately 70 indigenous languages—with a competitive, internationally-recognized music industry.

Antoinette Konan

Antoinette Konan

Awesome Tapes From Africa
Album artwork for Antoinette Konan by Antoinette Konan
CD

£12.99

Released 15/11/2019Catalogue Number

ATFA036CD

Learn more
Album artwork for Antoinette Konan by Antoinette Konan
LP

£22.99

Black
Released 15/11/2019Catalogue Number

ATFA036LP

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Antoinette Konan

Antoinette Konan

Awesome Tapes From Africa
Album artwork for Antoinette Konan by Antoinette Konan
CD

£12.99

Released 15/11/2019Catalogue Number

ATFA036CD

Learn more
Album artwork for Antoinette Konan by Antoinette Konan
LP

£22.99

Black
Released 15/11/2019Catalogue Number

ATFA036LP

Learn more

It makes sense that Antoinette Konan’s eponymous album features nothing more than her ahoko on the cover. The deceptively simple traditional percussion instrument transformed Ivory Coast’s Baoulé music scene when Konan deployed it against a roaring electrified backdrop of synth, bass guitar and drum machines. Released in 1986, the album is a veritable UFO of instrumental force and contemporary pop sensibility landing in a boiling pot of diverse, creative characters inhabiting Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire). Known as the “Queen of the Ahoko” among Ivorians, Konan single handedly put the central-Ivorian instrument on the map when she gave it a 20th-century re- introduction. The three-piece wooden idiophone is handmade from a thin, ribbed, flexible stick, against which a smaller chunk of wood is rhythmically scraped. A hollow nutshell held in the non-scraping hand amplifies and manipulates the resulting overtones. Despite the ahoko's diminutive appearance, Konan and her powerful voice have remained at the forefront of Ivorian music for decades now, in an extremely diverse country—approximately 70 indigenous languages—with a competitive, internationally-recognized music industry.