Ode to dance and love for this Cameroonian and Lannion singer

Emile Doumbe, says Mani Welli, from Lannion for three years, released his second album. Entitled “Massak” which translates as “dance” in the Bassa language, it is imbued with Cameroonian culture. It was among these people located in the center of Cameroon that he grew up. “This album is an accomplishment for me,” admits the man who recently retired, after a career as a milling turner. Despite a shoulder operation, which seriously handicaps him from playing, he was able to count on the support of his wife, Michèle, who accompanies the guitarist on the transverse flute: “It’s the first time that I was recorded for an album,” she confides.

His nephew Guy Bilong was also an essential help in the production. “It was he who pushed me to make an album again after the one in 2000 and who managed to bring together the musicians and choirs for the album,” says Émile. The recording studio was set up the old-fashioned way, in the attic of their house in Lannion. “We put in glass wool and a few other accessories. In the end, it worked very well,” judges the artist.

The result is an album that oscillates between love, homage to elders and dance. The title “Babike”, a mixture of traditional percussion, bass and choirs, pays homage in bassa to “those who left”, more precisely the parents of Émile Doumbe. The song “Lo Dissak Mil Reggae” is a call to dance for his wife, Michèle. “It’s the call of the heart, I very often want to dance. We transform doubt into love, from one song to another,” says the artist.

Michèle works on the title “Beba I Bilol”, a questioning of the biblical character of Eve. She admits to having had some difficulty following the particular rhythm of her songwriter husband. “I have classical training, so I was always out of step with this rhythm, which was very focused on offbeats. » “But it allows the mixing of genres,” adds Émile with a smile.

If the album has been distributed in Cameroon or in Zambia, Congo and Namibia for a short week, the songwriter admits that “finding distributors in France is more difficult. I just dropped it off at Fnac in Lannion and Saint-Brieuc and at Leclerc in Lannion for the moment.”

Practical