01/11 FR: Akwaaba on Radio Nova

Bintou Simporé, renowned host of Néo Géo on Paris France’s Radio Nova, is interviewing Akwaaba founder Benjamin Lebrave on her show. Bintou spearheads Nova’s Sono Mondiale, and has long been the purveyor of fine yet underrated sounds from across the globe.

With Benjamin, she will focus not only on Peul and Manding sounds from Senegal and Mali, which are somewhat recognized in France, but also on highlife and hiplife from Ghana, which are gaining momentum in other European nations, but remain underrepresented in France. Enjoy!

Update: you can listen to the show as part of the Néo Géo podcast on Radio Nova’s website.

12/31 WW: 2009 agenda

We’re wrapping up 2008 with a smile, a lot of people have shown love and support for Akwaaba, mainly in the US and France, where our team spent an intense week of meetings with major tastemakers, labels and radios to pave the way for a strong 2009.

Now that we’ve planted a few seeds, we’re headed back to Africa, starting in Angola, a country begging for attention. Between classic semba sounds, beautiful ballads and contemporary kuduro, we should have plenty on our hands. And this means plenty for you to discover and enjoy, as our entire journey will be heavily documented here on our site, as well as a handful of partners sites and blogs… so stay tuned, join our mailing list, you won’t want to skip a beat!

12/10 WW: Akwaaba on KPFK

Yatrika Shah-Rais, host of Global Village every Wednesday on KPFK, hosts a wonderful show, and also runs a great music program at the Skirball Cultural Center. She has invited Benjamin Lebrave to her show on Dec 10 to explain Akwaaba’s concept and mission, and share some of the sounds from our catalog.

Tune into 90.7FM in the Los Angeles area, listen on KPFK’s site or here: