The music Of Balka Sound was unique in Congo-Brazzaville. While rumba dominated the Congolese music scene during the 1960s and ‘70s, vocalist and traditional ngonfi player Albert “Lusialala” Nkibi began honing his own fusion, drawing on the traditional Balka music and rhythms of the Beembe people and adding Western instrumentation. The result was three groundbreaking early '80s albums that directly linked the modern and the traditional. As founder member Henri Nsika Nkaya explains, “it was intended to be an update, a unification and an internationalisation of Congolese cultures.” The band’s guitarist / bassist Pierre “Dana” Ngoula @danaofficiel is still going strong in Paris and we asked him to play an exclusive acoustic session for us. Here. he performs a new composition around his days with Balka Sound.