Saturday, September 12, 2015

Lingala Gospel: Zahara's Limbisa

Zahara sings Limbisa with an exquisite voice. That's all that needs to be said, really. The rest is flourish. Limbisa is a hymnal plea for forgiveness, such as only God can truly and fully render. It is a mea culpa, when the heart is at its most earnest: "Naye lelo, kosenga bolimbisi."

Three 'stringed' instruments are in use in this virtual confessional: Zahara's guitar, her own vocal chords, and her male companion's. I am not sure yet who he is, as I think Tresor Riziki is in a subsequent -- 'remix', or tweaking -- project. Wait! Language, Lingala (all the way from the two Congos), is veritably the fourth, on this imagined stage; at this make-believe altar. A quartet, then, of instruments; which blend into one elevating stream of melody.

Lingala, always musical, is, it is clear I think to all ears, the anchor sound in this song. Zahara crosses borders to bring it here; to make it, something obviously borrowed, her own. It is in turn the bringer-of-everything-together, in Limbisa. All, all for the greater glory of The Forgiver.

The words are chosen, and the lyrics are sequenced, with blessed and restrained passion. It's a perfect audio picture. It is picture-perfect.

There are no video images in this offering, much as one would have liked to have them. Just a stunning camouflage of stillness. Awesome singularity.

Final comment: For Zahara, as for Docteur Nico Kasanda before her, Love doesn't have to mean never having to say Limbisa.


Click to listen to the audio of Limbisa [No video is available]

[Click Here For: Limbisa Lyrics]

READ: Zahara releases a new single