Dela Botri out with Tabeyiriba

Atenteben supremo Dela Botri and Hewale Sounds will on Thursday September 13 launch “Tabeyiriba”, a ten track album at the W.E.B Dubois Centre in Accra with a magnificent concert.

A complete instrumental piece, the album features a use of the vast resources of indigenous Ghanaian rhythms to create refreshing compositions and re-arrangements that tend to capture and sustain the interest of the listener.

With atenteben, gonje, xylophones, gome, fontonfrom, kpanlogo drums and other traditional instruments, Botri managed to create a new sound that is set to dazzle both local and international traditional music lovers.

Indeed, the album is a cacophony of indigenous Ghanaian rhythms that have been effectively laced with contemporary extensions thus producing a new kind of synthesis that captivates, enchants and captivates the listener.

Nicknamed Flute Magician by a Norwegian journalist in 1999, Botri has over the past few years managed to popularize Ghanaian traditional instruments through his numerous compositions and performances in Ghana and overseas.

A former member of the Pan African Orchestra, he has held workshops at the University of Colorado, USA and served as a resource person at the World Music Village in Vakeela, Finland.

Currently based at the W.E.B. Dubois Memorial Centre in Accra, Hewale Sounds is an instrumental ensemble that has over the past eleven years managed to expropriate the elements of indigenous Ghanaian rhythms thereby vigorously proving the capabilities of traditional musical instruments.

With two albums to its credit, the group has performed for highly enthusiastic audiences in Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Jordan, Norway and the United States. In Ghana, the group has enchanted audiences at the Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institut and residencies of ambassadors to Ghana from France, Germany and the United States.

Formerly a resident group at the International Centre for African Music and Dance, University of Ghana, Hewale Sounds has performed alongside international artistes and ethnomusicologists such as Stevie Wonder, Sharon Katz (Peace Train), Egya Koo Nimo, Nana Danso Abiam, Rocky Dawuni, Amandzeba Nat Brew, Prof. John Collins, Dr. Willie Anku, Prof. Kwabena Nketia, Dr. Kwasi Ampene and others.

“Tabeyiriba” was recorded at the Hush Hush, Drum Beat and Fredyman Studios in Accra with Cyrus Dugan, Freyman, Albert Kwashie Lawson and James Johnson as engineers.

The launch is being sponsored by the Public Affairs Section - US Embassy Accra, Akosombo Textiles Ltd, W.E.B Dubois Centre, Alliance Francaise and Touareg Arts.