Les Mamans du Congo, Rrobin - WA SANGI (2026) [Hi-Res]

The Congolese collective Les Mamans du Congo & Rrobin releases its third album, "WA SANGI" ("listen to the forest"). The project unites vocalist Gladys Samba and her Mamans du Congo with the electronic musician Rrobin. After their self-titled debut and "Ya Mizolé", which asserted a bold Afro retro-futuristic and feminist identity, the group widens its gaze while keeping its anchor: women and mothers as guardians and transmitters of knowledge. Their aim is no longer only to preserve, but to warn.

The trigger is deforestation in Congo. It disrupts the climate, impoverishes the soil, dries up rivers, undermines agriculture, the main means of subsistence, and destabilizes entire social foundations. Amid instability and restrictions on free speech, music remains one of the few available ways to speak out, and sometimes the only one. The album takes a direct stance: the voice of mothers who observe, tell, and pass on.

The working method has no predetermined framework: no tempo, no aesthetic, no format. Songs emerge from the voices, chants, and rhythms of the Mamans du Congo, which Rrobin picks up and extends in real time. The material takes shape in sessions resembling a live performance, where chords, structure, and texture arise in direct contact with the vocals. Rrobin, who has worked with the same instruments for over twenty years, deliberately goes against current production standards. His electronic textures are handmade rather than drawn from sample libraries or presets, forming a personal, organic, ever-evolving sonic palette.

"WA SANGI" is the collective's most direct work to date. It can be read on ecological, social, economic, and human levels: it documents what is happening and demands a response. Listening to the forest here is not a metaphor but a necessity.

Tracklist:
1. Les Mamans du Congo - Bidilu Bia Sangi
2. Les Mamans du Congo - Taleno
3. Les Mamans du Congo - Nlembo Ntila
4. Les Mamans du Congo - Ngoma Ngoma
5. Les Mamans du Congo - Les casseuses de pierres
6. Les Mamans du Congo - Mwana Yo Leya
7. Les Mamans du Congo - Ya Ngo
8. Les Mamans du Congo - Mamba Kani
9. Les Mamans du Congo - Lylie
10. Les Mamans du Congo - Mankweji (belle mère)