Alliance Francaise Accra Jazz Festival 2022

Wood Sound, known in French as “Le son de bois”, is a Beninese percussion group that took the stages of the Accra Jazz Festival led by Societe Generale Ghana 2022 by storm. Wood Sound is a musical group formed by Bonaventure Didolanvi in ​​2010 in Cotonou. The five-member group offers colorful and warm African music, carried by percussion and traditional singing.

Bonaventure Didolanvi (popularly known as Bona) and his team use wood as their primary instrument, hence the name wood sound. They touch all the musical tools specific to Benin, in particular the “kpahwle”, a drum from southern Benin. Bona has been playing “kpahwle” since a young age. He inherited the talent from his father, Felix Didolanvi, who was a famous singer and traditional percussionist.

Wood Sound was a finalist of the RFI Découvertes in 2015. The RFI Découvertes, created in 1981, is a French reality singing competition that is held every year to highlight new musical talents from Africa.

The group, Wood Sound, is renowned for promoting traditional sounds in Benin and around the world. They emerged victorious from 1st edition of Tremplin Musique organized by the French Institute of Benin (IFB). This program was organized to select a group that would represent the country at the ultimate Visa for Music (VFM) fair, 2022.

The Visa for Music fair aims to discover and promote new talents for cultural professions around the world, thus promoting the establishment of partnerships. For the first edition of Tremplin Musique, the French Institute of Benin received more than 40 applications and 8 groups were pre-selected to pass the auditions.

At the end of the auditions, the members of the jury designated Wood Sound as the winner. The group won on the artistic quality and the diversity of the music, illustrating the versatility of musical creation in Benin.

Wood Sound should represent Benin in the 9e edition of the Visa for Music fair with more than thirty other groups from all over Africa and the Middle East.

REFERENCE

Information from www.24haubenin.info/?WOOD-SOUND, www.opportunitiesforafricans.com was used in this story

Image source: Alliance Française Communications

Ada J. Kenney