247: En Mana Kuoyo, by Ayub Ogada

Ayub Ogada (Kenya)
En Mana Kuoyo (1993)
10 tracks, 40 minutes
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Kenyan nyatiti (eight-string lyre) player Ayub Ogada didn’t make too many albums in his career, but En Mana Kuoyo (recorded for Real World Records) is undoubtedly the most famous one. There are lots of lovely tracks on the album, including ‘Kronkronhinko’ and ‘Wa Winjigo Ero’, and the production is quite minimal, although what there is is very 1990s (it’s dripping with reverb, but that’s alright).

Today though, I just want to talk about one piece in particular. ‘Kothbiro’ is really the hit of the whole album. While the rest of the tracks are nice, ‘Kothbiro’ stands out by a mile for its sheer breath-taking beauty. Ogada had previously played the track with his rock band Black Savage in 1976, where they’d adapted it from a traditional song. A good song, but its mood was very different, a solid Afro-groove:

And now the En Mana Kuoyo version:

It’s so much simpler, and with it, so much deeper. Starting with just Ogada and his nyatiti, his voice is haunting. Here that 90s production really works for it, creating and highlighting the resonances of his voice so that they seem to ring out into the distance. He’s joined by double bass, guitar and piano, but they’re all so subtle – even when the piano takes a solo – that they seem to be drifting away even as they’re played, as if Ogada is being accompanied by the whistles of the wind. The overlaid harmonies are fragile but spot-on, and even though there is quite a full sound by the time everything has built up, it still feels stark and quite lonely. It’s easy to see why the song in this form became Ogada’s signature piece, and even went on to be used in several films and TV shows. Peter Gabriel said of the track: ‘In the early days of WOMAD and Real World Records many people weren’t interested to listen to music from other cultures and whenever I was trying to convince them I would play Ayub singing ‘Kothbiro’ and invariably win them round.’ – a testament to the piece’s real power.

Ayub Ogada died earlier this year at the age of 63. His death was felt strongly within Kenya and throughout the African music scene around the world, but En Mana Kuoyo and ‘Kothbiro’ will make sure that his music will be heard and revered in the future generations.