bobo & behaja | aia haja? @ songlines (en)

Bobo & Behaja
Aia Haja?
Carton Records / Boomslang Records
8/10

On Aia Haja? Bobo & Behaja channel the dust and heat of Madagascar’s bals-poussière (dust balls) into six rax and electrified tsapiky tracks. A collaboration between the French four-piece Electric Vocuhila and the Malagasy group Behaja — the album was forged in motion, born from missed flights, lost gear and last-minute recording conditions. Opener ‘parepare’ launches straight in with a frenetic energy, Behaja’s virtuoso noodling picking out tightly coiled guitar melodies, while Maxime Bobo’s alto sax cuts across the groove with free-jazz grit. The galloping rhythms of ‘Kabosy’ loop and release with unrelenting momentum. ‘Handeha Hihisa Zaho Baba’ brings François Rosenfeld’s bass to the fore, a shuffling foundation upon which guitars, sax and singer Malala’s Beatific vocals build. Its feverish momentum feels inseperable from the story of its making — music shaped by airports, accidents and the stubborn will to play. In the process, tsapiky is stretched into something both fiercely traditional and restlessly novel.

OLIVIA CHEVES