Since their 2006 debut with an exchange program run by the Akiba Association in Cameroon, Paris-based African meets Western music project ABAKUYA has only strengthened their craftsmanship, their musical traits remaining the same: enchanting, transporting and invigorating long past the final notes resonate on stage, the audience float on smiling and the festival packs up.

Traditional/world/folk/jazz fusion outfit, the incomparable ABAKUYA is also the voice of a sacred and endangered music. Inspired by Cameroonian oral tradition and created by renowned musician and Bulu storyteller FRANCOIS ESSINDI, in collaboration with consummate Australian musician and composer JIMI SOFO, ABAKUYA’s music is the result of a search for the healing elements of polyphonic traditional music from central Africa, specifically the Ekang and le Bal (pronounced Bol) with their fascinating histories.

By presenting traditional music in a contemporary format, the group allows global audiences access to these sacred sounds. In the universe of ABAKUYA, Essindi, Sofo and regular guest musicians present the acoustic and electric bass, violin, accordion and drums weaved magically with traditional voice, percussion, and instruments such as the mvet, and the ngômo (central African harps).