Konono N°1 Tour Dates and Upcoming Concerts

Konono N°1 is a musical group from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire). They combine three electric likembé (a traditional lamellaphone similar to the mbira) with voices, dancers, and percussion instruments that are made out of items salvaged from a junkyard. The group's amplification equipment is equally rudimentary, including a microphone carved out of wood fitted with a magnet from an automobile alternator. The group was formed by Mawangu Mingiedi, a likembé player and truck driver now in his 70s. Dates for the group's formation vary: Crammed Discs, who released Konono no 1's Congotronics album in 2005, places the group's formation around 1980. However, in November 1978, an ensemble called Orchestre Tout Puissant Likembe Konono No. 1 (All-Powerful Likembe Konono no. 1 Orchestra) recorded one track, "Mungua-Muanga", for the compilation album Zaire: Musiques Urbaines a Kinshasa. Their typically Congolese repetitive beats, together with their DIY approach resulting in an (initially unintentional) distorted sound called congotronics, has brought the group some renown in North America and Europe. They have toured both continents, documented by the 2007 album Live at Couleur Cafe. Konono no 1 collaborated with Björk on her 2007 album, Volta and the Dutch rock band The Ex has covered one of their songs.