STUDIOS KABAKO
flamme kapaya
banningsville

Banningsville became Bandundu after Independence
Returning to a native country where I was never born
The country of my mother, the country of my father …

The story of a music, sent over years and forests by grand-father Louison, a witch
doctor, a great musician, whom I never met. The story of a sound that entered my
childhood in the buzzing city of Kinshasa.

In February 010, for the first time, I headed home, to meet my unknown family …
Bandundu, Kikwit, Bulungu, Kivanva, familiar names that sound at the same time so
strange…
After a 3-day ride, I arrived at the doorstep of the family house, but I could not enter.

Before talking to the family, I had to bury all the dead. I gave money for shrouds and
nails for coffins, I stayed up a whole night, drinking palm wine in front of the house.

I entered the house the morning after. We talked, talked, talked. Evenings and days…
of life and destinies, family secrets and daily matters…

Every morning, waiting in front of the house, were men and women who had walked
from villages far away, to meet the son they listened to on the radio but who, for sure,
would never come back.
Nobody comes to Bandundu, and those who are there only try to escape… to
Kinshasa and beyond.

Musicians walked for hours, some for days, to bestow their music upon me. I met a
Puita player whose mission was to play at each funeral without asking for anything in
return…

Ten days, then I went back… Kinshasa, Paris…
Since, Banningsville stayed with me…
>> Banningsville, an album by Flamme Kapaya, produced, recorded and mixed by Faustin
Linyekula for the Studios Kabako.
The Banningsville concert will be staged by Faustin Linyekula and will feature Flamme and 4
other performers (drum, bass, vocals and computer).
<< Schedule
February 010 / 3 weeks / First journey to Bandundu
August 010 / 3 weeks / Kisangani / Research work with Faustin Linyekula
April-May 011 / 3 weeks / Kinshasa & Bandundu / Recording stage
July-August 011 / 3 weeks / Kisangani / Recording and staging
>> Music : Flamme Kapaya
Production and staging: Faustin Linyekula – Cast to be confirmed (4 musicians)
Management: Virginie Dupray
A production of Studios Kabako, supported by the KVS Theater, Brussels and the
French Embassy in DRCongo. Thanks to the French Cultural Centre in Kinshasa / Halle
de la Gombe.
Studios Kabako
www.kabako.org / virginie@kabako.org
France + 33 6 60 90 51 25 / RDCongo + 243 81 7101393
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Zoé fotografie
One of the best guitar soloists of his generation, Flamme Kapaya lives and works between
Paris and Kinshasa.
Raised in a musical tradition – his grand-father, a traditional chief in the Bandudu area, was
also a gifted musician – he is first trained by his brother Bavon.
Teenager in Kinshasa, he starts singing in local traditional groups.
Self-taught, he draws his inspiration from various musical genres, listening to jazz masters,
including great George Benson, but also to classical and Latin music.
In 1997, he enters the mythic ndombolo group, Maison mère, accompanying the Congolese
singer Werrason. At the heart of the group, as a musician but also as a composer and
producer on numerous albums, he becomes “Flamme”, taking his name from the cartoon
hero of the 80s, Captain Flamme. He works 10 years with the group, taking part to several
international tours.
In 2007, he met Faustin, accompanying the performances of his piece Festival of Lies at the
Avignon Festival (July 07) and at the Faïencerie Theatre in Creil / France (May 08).
In August 2008, he joined Faustin for two performances in Berlin as part of the 20th
anniversary of the Tanz im August Festival, Future?.
This first step leads to more more more… future (2009), Flamme composes the score and
performs on stage. The piece has extensively toured in Europe (Brussels, Paris, Montpellier,
Caen, Maubeuge, Strasbourg, Vienna, Hanover, Berlin, Zurich, Geneva, Lisbon, Groningen,
Rotterdam, Limoges, London…), in Canada and on the African continent (Cape Town,
Kinshasa).
Flamme also composed the music of Bérénice, staged by Faustin at the Comédie Française
in 2009 and the score of Pour en finir avec Bérénice, premiered at the Avignon Festival in
2010 and which will be presented in March 011at the Chaillot National Theater in Paris and
at the KVS Theater in Brussels.
Other recent collaborations include film director Djo Munga for his latest release Viva Riva!
(2009) and Fabrizio Cassol and the Aka Moon ensemble (June 010).
In December 09, Flamme released his first single Surprises.
Studios Kabako
www.kabako.org / virginie@kabako.org
France + 33 6 60 90 51 25 / RDCongo + 243 81 7101393
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Dancer and choreographer, Faustin lives and works in Kisangani, North-East of the
Democratic Republic of Congo....
Following literature and theatre studies in Kisangani, he settles in Nairobi in 1993 and
collaborates with mime artist Opiyo Okach and dancer Afrah Tenambergen, co-founding in
1997 the first contemporary dance company in Kenya, the Gàara company.
Back in Kinshasa in June 2001, he has developed there a company dedicated to dance and
visual theatre, providing training programmes, as well as supporting research and creation:
the Studios Kabako. Memory, forgetting, and the suppression of memory, - in his work,
Faustin addresses the legacy of decades of war, terror, fear and the collapse of the economy
for himself, his family and his friends.
With the Studios, Faustin has presented nine pieces. Based on Congo’s recent history, Le
Festival des mensonges (Festival of Lies, 2005-06) is performed in two versions: a 2-hour
version and an all-night-long version from 11pm to 6am. The Dialogue Series: iii. Dinozord
(2007) tells the story of a return to the native country: what happened to the city after several
years of war? After several years away, where are the friends who dreamed once to change
African literature and theatre? Both pieces were performed in Avignon as part of the 2007
Avignon Festival.
In 2009, Faustin directed more more more future, a ndombolo punk opera, under musical
lead by Flamme Kapaya (premiere in Brussels as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts).
2009 marks also a collaboration with Raimund Hoghe who wrote for him the duet Sans-titre.
Faustin is teaching in Africa, Europe (Cork, Parts / Brussels, CNDC / Angers, Lisbon,
Impulstanz / Vienna, Laban Centre, London…) and in the United States.
In December 2007, he received the Principal Award of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and
Development.
Since 2009, Faustin is dedicating a great part of his time to sound engineering. In 2010, he
mixed his first album, La mort dans l’âme by young rap singer Alesh.
Studios Kabako
www.kabako.org / virginie@kabako.org
France + 33 6 60 90 51 25 / RDCongo + 243 81 7101393
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Pasnas live oncert in Kisangani, October 09
Founded in 2001 in Kinshasa by the Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula, the
Studios Kabako are a place for dance and theatre, a training, exchange and creation
centre. One of the too rare places in Central Africa where a contemporary approach to
performance is practiced.
Since 2006, the Studios Kabako have resettled in Kisangani, the third largest city in the
country, North-East of Congo and have opened to new artistic fields: film and video, but also
music with the launch in May 09 of the first professional recording studio in the Eastern part
of the country.
In August 010 was released the first album produced by the Studios Kabako, fully recorded
and mixed in Kisangani, La mort dans l’âme by Alesh.
Since 2007, the Studios Kabako are also producing rap singer Pasnas, financing a series of
concerts in Kisangani, Kinshasa, Goma and Rwanda. Pasnas’ first album will be released
early 012.
The Studios Kabako are also fostering the debuts of young Congolese choreographers,
including Papy Ebotani and Dinozord.
Training is an important part of the project, training in dance, theatre, music, but also in arts
administration and light and sound management.
The Studios Kabako and German architect, Bärbel Müller, are now working on the
conception and production of decentralized spaces for art and urban culture dispersed
throughout Kisangani, collaborating on "acupuncturing" the city, capital of the North-Eastern
Province Orientale. Three cultural centres will be spread throughout the city. The vision for
Kisangani is based on the desire to establish a network of energetic points with
transformative potential for the city and its inhabitants.
Right in the centre, a performing venue will show dance and theatre pieces, films,
concerts… The land has already been bought.
A 4200 m2 land, ten kilometres from city centre, will host a residence and laboratory space. It
will include a recording and mastering studio, a music rehearsal space, a post-production
room for video, a dance and theatre rehearsal space, as well as administrative offices and
accommodation to fit 8 to 12 people. We broke the ground in August / September 010 for a
scheduled opening in 2013.
A third space located in Lubunga, one of the most destitute parts of the city on the other bank
of Congo river, will open to communities and local organizations, addressing daily issues and
communal work. Or how to speak to a city from its most fragile part….
Studios Kabako
www.kabako.org / virginie@kabako.org
France + 33 6 60 90 51 25 / RDCongo + 243 81 7101393
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