Following the success of ‘Bosana’ released in Mid-2021, El Mukuka collaborates again with Congolese singer Gaz Mawete, and this time on the original release ‘Te Ou’.
Mukuka recalls how the reunion came about saying “After working on ‘Bosana’ in 2021 I became fascinated with Gaz’s voice and writing style and always knew we would work together again. Towards the end of 2021 I started working on the instrumental for ‘Te Ou’ and as I began to think about vocals and who to approach in terms of vocalists and songwriters, my gut feeling told me to send the demo to Gaz first to see if he was keen. Thankfully he was and we quickly dove right into the project. One of the most interesting things about ‘Te Ou’ is the song structure. I think it’s rather atypical but works at the same time, which I love.”
Mawete lyrically mixes his native Lingala language with French and explains what ‘Te Ou’ is about, saying “The song ‘Te Ou’ [translated to English, meaning “Where are you”) is a cry of alarm for my soul mate, who moves further and further away from me.”
A maestro in the Afro House genre along with his world class production skills, El Mukuka has always had a great intuition when it came to which artists he should work with. Gaz Mawete is certainly one of those talents and Mukuka has much respect for him. “Working with Gaz has really been such a smooth experience. He thoroughly understands his strengths as a singer and has a unique approach to songwriting, which I think generates really interesting results when mixed with electronic music. Lingala is also such a beautiful and musical language and when mixed with a bit of French it’s an explosion of colors!” mentions Mukuka. There’s seems to be a real musical connection between Mukuka and Mawete, who intriguingly have still not met in person. Mawete elaborates saying “Working with El Mukuka is always a pleasure, there is a certain alchemy that binds us. It’s the second song we’ve made together, but we’ve never met and that’s the magic of the world we live
Check it out below.