Frank Bessem's Musiques d'Afrique: Douleur

Frank Bessem's
Musiques d'Afrique:

Douleur
(Cameroon)

retour aux Musiques d'Afrique
Back to Musiques d'Afrique
Back to Musiques du Cameroun

Douleur's career started in 1983, when his debut album was released with a black cover and just the word Douleur, no picture of the artist. Over the years, he revealed hardly anything more of his face, he preferred to let his music speak for itself. Of douala origin, Douleur started with makossa rhythms and ngosso blues, his lyrics are reflective. As he rarely appeared in shows, people wondered who he was.
After a couple of albums, he disappeared from the music scene in Cameroon discretely, only to resurface nearly 10 years later with the album « Fureur » (1997). His long silence was partly caused by his deception by producers who were not interested in his success and did little to promote his music. Although his latest albums received more media attention, his criticism toward African producers remains loud and clear.

So what happened? Alexandre Douala, as his real name is, was not a brilliant student, and already in secondary school, he was more interested in singing and composing than study his books. One of his school comrades happened to be Guy Lobé and together they composed their first songs. In 1981, hardly 20 years old, he went to Paris and after two years work he recorded his debut album produced by Toto Guillaume.

Since 1988, he stayed in Paris but left the music scene. He worked in factories just like thousands of other African immigrants until Aladji Touré convinced him finally to make a new start in music. After three albums, he can finally make a living in music and has plans to explore further the music of the sawa region (douala and surrounding ethnical groups).

Source: Le Messager (Douala);
Massai Mara (www.massaimara.com).

Born: as Alexandre Douala
Style: makossa, ngosso, essèwè, bolobo, ambassi-bey

Discography:

Title	Year	Label	Remarks
Best of Douleur Vol.2	2004
C'est Magique	2002	JPS Productions CDJPS193
Armageddon	2000	JPS Productions CDJPS60
Fureur	1997	TJR CDAT173
Benyengen Ba - Golden Collection Vol.2	1996	Production TN 604
Stop! (Best of Douleur)	1988	Tiger Sound Production TSP 01
Beneground	1988		I have the impression that "Beneground" and
Musango	198?	Sonodisc	"Musango" are actually one and the same album
Wake Up Africa	1986	Production TN 592
Nkumbele	1984
Douleur	1983