Son[i]a #339. Aho Ssan Deleted scenes

Aho Ssan is a French musician of Ivorian and Ghanaian descent who has been involved in graphic design and film works under his given name, Desiré Niamké. These practices, like his multiple identity, resonate in his music. In this podcast we talk to Aho Ssan about his grandfather’s lost trumpet and about an Ivory Coast jazz band that’s impossible to track down. Along the way, we share the cinematic tension of his debut LP Simulacrum and the various routes that led him there. Techno’s cultural appropriation, Black Bandcamp, and the glaring lack of representation of black artists in global electronica are part of the road he has travelled and the lessons learnt along the way.

Desire Marea and Fela Gucci talk about performing masculinity and self-policing, vulnerability, Siyakaka feminism, South African pop culture in the 90s, racialised queer bodies, music as a medium and dealing with contradictions.