Konono Nº1

Electrified likembés

Konono Nº1 is a Congolese group from Kinshasa built around the likembé, or thumb piano, played through homemade amplification. Founder Mingiedi Mawangu, a likembé player and truck driver of the Zombo people, came from Maquela do Zombo in Angola's Uíge Province. The video banner reads L'orchestre folklorique T.P. Konono Nº1 de Mingiedi, and Wikipedia says T.P. stands for tout puissant, in homage to Franco's TP OK Jazz, though it tags that as needing a citation. World Music Central describes three electric likembés, bass, medium and treble, with hand-made microphones built from magnets salvaged from old car parts, makeshift percussion of pans, pots and car parts, singers and dancers, and a PA of colonial-era megaphones the band calls lance-voix, voice-throwers. Founding dates differ: 1966 on Wikipedia and MusicBrainz, the early 1980s on World Music Central and Village Voice, the 1970s on PopMatters.

In November 1978 they recorded "Mungua-Muanga" for the Ocora compilation Zaire: Musiques Urbaines à Kinshasa, issued in 1987. The producer Vincent Kenis recorded the band in Kinshasa in 2002 and 2003 and brought it to the Netherlands, where it toured with The Ex in 2003; Lubuaku (Terp, 2004) was recorded live at Vera in Groningen. Congotronics (Crammed Discs) followed in 2004, with a US release on September 27, 2005, and began the Congotronics series. The group won a BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in the Newcomer category in 2006, toured with Björk for Volta in 2007, playing Radio City Music Hall, and was nominated for a Grammy for Live at Couleur Café. Assume Crash Position (2010) was produced by Kenis, and they appeared on Herbie Hancock's "Imagine".

Mingiedi stopped touring around 2009, and his son Augustin Mawangu Mingiedi took over and added effects pedals. Mingiedi died on April 15, 2015, aged 85, and Augustin on October 16, 2017, aged 56, after which Makonda took over. Later releases include Konono Nº1 Meets Batida (2016), Kinshasa 1978 (2019) and Where's the One (2022). French Wikipedia says the group no longer performs, while setlist.fm lists a June 2026 show in Barcelona, so its status is unclear. The Congotronics series inspired the Tradi-Mods vs Rockers tribute with 26 artists, and the Inquirer wrote that LCD Soundsystem would kill for their crushed, compression-heavy groove.