Otodi

Description

For many years, no one had passed through its doors. Watched over by a guard, it had remained unchanged, wondering if one day the light would shine through it again. Built by Scotch in the 70s, there were about twenty of them around the world. Twenty studios, all identical. Many had gotten a digital facelift in the 80s. Not this one. In Lomé, this one had stayed the same. Silent and unused, but waiting for only one thing: for someone to strike the match here that would rekindle its sacred fire. That of the Office Togolais du Disque. The OTODI studio for the initiated. Beneath the layer of accumulated dust, the console still vibrated, impatient for the power to be turned back on so that analog sound could burst forth once more. That is what Peter Solo and his band Vaudou Game had come to find. The original vibrations of the sound of Lomé, those that remained captive in the place, which still energize the floor, the walls, and inhabit the atmosphere. An electric and mystical presence, captured directly at the source by plugging into amplifiers that had never truly cooled down despite a forced slumber. By taking over the 300 square meters of this studio, capable of hosting a full orchestra, Vaudou Game secured the necessary space to invoke the voodoo spirits. Those who watch over men and nature, and with whom Peter converses daily. So that the most authentic frequencies could deeply weave through this third album, Peter Solo entrusted the fate of his rhythms to a Togolese bass-and-drums duo, an unbeatable way to hand the keys of the groove to experts with a feel taught in no school. Also a way to set OTODI on a decidedly more funk-driven sonic path. To make it a backbone that retains flexibility and agility when it comes to shifting into highlife mode. It stiffens when the regular guest Roger Damawuzan bombards the microphone with James Brown-style screams. It becomes soft when it's time to yield to a soulful string section. It snakes and undulates when a choir of Togolese women takes hold of it to guide it into a slow, hypnotic trance. Until now, Vaudou Game had maintained its connections with Togo from France. This time, by recording OTODI entirely in Lomé and with local musicians, Peter Solo drew the voodoo fluid directly from the source, once again using only the Togolese scale to make his guitar ring out. And to make his strings the transmission belts between the deities and the listener.