8-OK
TRADITIONAL AFRICAN MUSIC AND ELECTRONIC BEATS WITH POETIC GOURMANTCHÉ LYRICS.
8-Ok is the incredible meeting between Dias the Nigerian singer and Phil St George the Parisian producer. It’s an original mix between traditional African music and European electronic music, the poetry of Gourmantchés lyrics and Electro Beats.
This project was born in 2015 from the meeting in France of the Parisian producer Phil St George with the Nigerian singer Dias. 8-Ok delivers a sound inspired by the dialogue between the traditional elements of Niger (language and instruments) and the structures and digital dressing of electronic beats with funk and jazz influences.
The solid career of this two veterans coming from different but complementary universes could only give a surprising and innovative result. Phil St George, a musicologist and computer scientist by training, has made a name for himself in the Paris jazz scene since the 1990s as a guitarist and singer, before turning to electronic music in the last ten years. A singer of Gourmantché origin (Sahelian people settled in Burkina, Togo, Benin and Niger), Dias has recorded six albums between traditional music and reggae, where his voice, his mastery of the calabash and his engaged lyrics have made him a singular artist in the musical landscape of Niger where the Gourmantché are a minority.
From Paris To Niamey, A Strong And Cultural Link Between Phil St George & Dias
The first 8-ok EP will be released in 2017. The two artists then continued to meet the public and perform many times. Their collaboration is endless and their objective: to set the stage on fire.
Décamper project (Book with Audio CD)
Quickly identified, the two artists are participating in a collective project around the book-disc « Décamper » alongside devoted artists such as Dominique A, Susheela Raman, Acid Arab, Bachar Mar-Khalifé, Natacha Atlas or Oum …
Refugees, volunteers, researchers, journalists and artists have come together for an exceptional book-disc based on the observation of the places and living conditions of refugees in the camps of northern France since 2002. A collective place for reflection and creation on exile, which questions the contexts and objectives of public authorities, humanitarian action and recent European migration policies.