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Yelli is still sung to enchant animals by Pygmy women in the rainforests of Africa. This is a collection of modern arrangements of these ancient songs, highly listenable yet other worldly.
The Baka's share of royalties, as with all the Baka Beyond albums, will be administered through the charity Global Music Exchange to ensure that all money gets back to the Baka musicians and their community. Whereas "Gati Bongo" was led by the Baka men, these songs mostly involve Baka women.
This will be a chance for the women to set up their own projects and directly control the income.
(See www.1heart.org)
"Martin Cradick weaves his magic spell again with the music of the Cameroon rainforest...
...it swings like crazy and deserves to be top of the World charts." Joe Boyd
"Mesmerisingly beautiful" The Scotsman
"eerily otherworldly, yet instantly accessible" R2 (Rock "n" Reel)
"hard to resist" fRoots [listen] [watch video of the recording] [full press release]
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The June '09 Songlines review, where it was one of their "Top of the World" albums, describes Beyond the Forest well...
"The latest project from African-Celtic fusion maestros Baka Beyond sees them once again in the Cameroonian rainforest teamed up with the Pygmy extended family band Baka Gbiné. The previous collaboration, Gati Bongo, was a stunning recording of acoustic guitar and shuffling percussion adorned by the charming and very distinctive yodeling vocals characteristic of the Baka hunter-gatherer tribe. On that last album, Baka Beyond leader Martin Cradick recorded predominantly male members of the Baka group. This new project focuses on the female vocalists. Cradick's instrumental involvement this time is far more forceful. . . . his electric guitar explorations sound totally appropriate alongside the ethereal vocal yodels. There are distinct suggestions of the Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, although most world music pundits would point the finger directly towards the electric guitar stylings of Mali and Guinea.
"Beyond The Forest deserves the same sort of critical acclaim that the groundbreaking 1993 Spirit of the Forest album received. This is a spectacular episode in a thoroughly worthwhile ongoing project."
Martin Sinnock, Songlines 60, June 2009
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