After Hours : Congo Square in D# minor by Mo Laudi

2021

Sound work: Sonic composition Commissioned by Sammy Baloji to accompany his sculptural project Johari Brass Band, Grand Palais, Paris

Invited by Sammy Baloji to delve into the historic preparatory research for Johari Brass Band and hours of music archives, Mo Laudi has connected this to his own archive to construct a soundscape that form parallels between Congo and South Africa via New Orleans and France, questioning the shared pan-African experience of appropriation, of exploitation of natural resources and Black bodies.

Congo Square in D# Minor merges multi-layered influences: how slaves reappropriated Western wind instruments (the metal of which had often been extracted from African mines), trumpets, tubas, trombones, French horns appear, mixed like a Gumbo dish, with African roots, Black and Creole roots of Jazz inspired by Congo Square, samples from a jazz funeral, a New Orleans tradition of burying the dead by having a ‘second line’ street procession, found recordings of the Congo river, funeral processions in South Africa, scarification ceremonies in Congo, the horns blowing in a call-and-response unison creating a trance atmosphere capturing collective spirituality. This track is linked to the interview of Sammy Baloji that will be broadcasted on Friday 5th February at 4PM.