Togo All Stars
Togo All Stars is a well-oiled afrofunk band from Lomé, the capital of Togo. Each instrument within the overall sound contributes to the band’s irresistible groove.
There are echoes of Fela Kuti’s highlife and afrobeat from the seventies, but also ancient voodoo rhythms played by percussionist Ayaovi Kokousse on traditional drums. Lomé lies somewhere in between Accra in Ghana, the birthplace of highlife, and Lagos in Nigeria, where Fela Kuti invented afrobeat. Cotonou is not far away either, which is the hometown of legendary and groundbreaking band Orchestre Polyrythmo de Cotonou.
Togo and neighbouring country Benin are regarded to be the heart of voodoo culture, an important element in the music of Togo All Stars. Voodoo is about music in which every God has its own rhythm and chants and where good and bad, man and woman are brought together and form a unity. One cannot exist without the other. Togo All Stars wouldn’t exist without its female stars either: Agbolotovi Sexy and Dodji Alice.
