Staff Benda Bilili — Très Très Fort

Staff Benda Bilili lived in and around the grounds of Kinshasa's zoological garden, most of the band paraplegic from polio and moving on customised tricycles. Producer Vincent Kenis recorded them where they were, outdoors, across sessions spread over roughly two years.

The technical setup was improvised to the point of comedy: a laptop, a handful of microphones, and a hundred-metre extension cord run from a deserted refreshment bar nearby. The supply cut out constantly, which meant long gaps between takes — time the band used to rehearse, so the parts got better the worse the power got.

Everything the garden contained is on the record. Toads resident in the zoo appear on "Polio." The permanent rumble of Kinshasa traffic sits under everything. Roger Landu, seventeen at the time, plays lead lines on the satongé, a one-string lute he built himself from a tin can and a length of electrical wire.