DESPITE its opulence Geneva is a multicultural city with many African venues and eateries where musicians, artists and activists gather and provide each other with help and assistance. 

Three musicians from north and east Africa, Moroccan guembri player Anouar Baouna, Eritrean krar player Samuel Ades and Algerian darbouka player Ali Bouchaki, all made the arduous journey from their homes to get to Switzerland. 

Along with European musicians the Cyril Cyril Duo, Simone Auber, Marcel Duchamp and Vincent Bertholet, they formed Yalla Miku whose self-titled debut set is now out on the Geneva-based Bongo Joe label.

Samuel Ades was detained in a Swiss migrant camp, living in miserable conditions having carried his krar (similar to a lyre) all the way from Eritrea. 

As music was not permitted he hid his krar outside the camp. “One day a garbage truck thought it was trash and destroyed it. It was a very tragic moment,” he recalls.

Even with his krar gone, music would help him get out of the camp and he began contacting musicians and activists. Ades contributes vocals and his krar on several tracks including Asmazate, an Eritrean dance number. Hyper Tiger opens with Ades’s vocals over his hypnotic krar riffs and Ali Bouchaki recounts his journey from Algeria on the track Suiise. 

Sung in Arabic, Tigrigna and French and borrowing from Eritrean folklore, euro-rock and trance music, Yalla Miku cross musical and geographical boundaries in this impressive debut.

Analog Africa’s releases include reissues from South America and this new set — Ecuatoriana: El Universo Paralelo de Polibio Mayorga 1969-1981 — features music from the 1970s and ’80s in Ecuador produced by accordionist, organist, poet and composer Polibio Mayorga. It was a period when Ecuadorian rural workers flocked to the capital city Quito and the port of Guayaquil in search of work and a better life. 

Many rural musicians looked to get airplay and work on urban radio stations to capitalise on the explosion of Andean cumbia music with lyrics which described the reality of life in the big city. 

Polibio Mayorga travelled 100 miles from his hometown of Chisalata to Quito and decided to modernise the traditional rhythms of Ecuador using a synthesiser and electronic keyboards, establishing a mix of avant-garde, cumbia rhythms and traditional rural music.

A prolific musician, he began racking up hits and record dealers complained he was releasing too many hit records (including tracks like America India, Cumbia Totorana and La Perra Vida) — so he began releasing records under a variety of pseudonyms, which are included here.

Polibio Mayorga is an Ecuadorian musical legend. While synth-based music may not be to everyone’s taste this is worth hearing.