The music heard on Yokuwela - New Sounds from Africa only became possible in the 20th century as a result of intercultural exchange between Western classical and African traditional music cultures. The six composers represented here - from West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana), East Africa (Ethiopia) and South Africa - offer a good cross-section of musical syncretism in "neo-African art music"3 or what Ashenafi Kebede calls "third-stream music"4. Some pieces have a greater melodic dimension (Sadoh and Yifrashewa), while others focus more specifically on rhythm (Uzoigwe, Blake and Onovwerosuoke).
All these examples stand roughly in the tradition of Béla Bartóks creative conversation with East European folk music and could be conceptualized as examples of 'African Pianism', of which Euba has identified the following characteristics: thematic repetition; direct borrowing - or allusion to rhythmic and tonal motifs - from traditional sources; percussive treatment of the piano; and "allowing the piano to 'behave' as African instruments". Stefans Grové's project Music of Africa, on the other hand, sketches what he himself describes as a romanticized image of Africa.
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