Album: Various artists, Tsikaya: Musicos do Interior (Pangei-Art)

Portuguese-Angolan Victor Gama went to Angola to salvage what he could of his musical heritage after 20 years of civil war.

This remarkable disc shows how the detritus of that war was turned to creative ends, with shell cases transformed into percussion instruments, and ammunition boxes into primitive harps. We get traditional chants plus Gama's new compositions, played by his Tsikaya collective. Thumb pianos, banjos, congas ... all backed by the reco-reco cylinder wrapped in its beads: lovely.