Various Artists - Music for a Revolution Vol.1 - Guinea's Syliphone Recording Label (1967-1973) [Radio Martiko]

Format: 2x12" in a gatefold sleeve.

On October 2nd, 1958, after more than 60 years of colonial rule, Guineans overwhelmingly voted for their independence, and Guinea was declared a Republic with Sékou Touré as president. Guinea was the first of the French-speaking West African colonies to gain independence. To liberate Guinea from its colonial legacy, President Touré sought to restore his nation's dignity and give Guineans reason to be proud of their culture, history, and new freedom. To achieve this, he instructed his government to implement new cultural policies aimed at revitalizing and celebrating indigenous culture. The focus of these new policies was on music.

In 1961, President Touré launched authenticité, the name of his new cultural policy for Guinea. One of his first acts was to gather the best Guinean musicians into new state-sponsored orchestras, tasked with presenting traditional Guinean music in a new and modern way. All musicians in Guinean orchestras were officially designated as civil servants. During the years of Sékou Touré's presidency (1958 – 1984), the authenticité cultural policy was strictly applied to the creative arts. Guinea's sole political party, the Parti Démocratique de Guinée, exercised complete authority over artistic production. The magnitude of the Guinean government's commitment and efforts to revitalize its indigenous musical cultures was unparalleled in Africa, and stood in stark contrast to the sparse efforts of Guinea's former colonial rulers.

Between 1967 and 1983, the Guinean government released selections of songs from the Voix de la Révolution catalog on its own record label, Syliphone. These recordings were described as “the fruit of the revolution.” Syliphone was revolutionary in many aspects: it was the first record label to include traditional African musical instruments like the kora and balafon within an orchestral context; it was the first to feature traditional griot songs in an orchestral setting; and it was the first government-sponsored record label in post-colonial Africa. Syliphone represented authenticité in action, and the label released over 750 songs on 12-inch and 7-inch vinyl records, all highly sought after by collectors worldwide.

This first volume in a two-part series presents a selection of the best of Syliphone's early recordings. The songs demonstrate not only the essence of Guinea's authenticité policy and its subsequent Cultural Revolution, but also the confluence of musical styles from Cuba, jazz, highlife, and the diverse influences of Guinea's cultural groups.