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Montrealer Caleb Rimtobaye, aka Afrotronix, is one of the most emblematic musical Afrofuturists of the moment. Since 2017, first with the initial album Nomadix, then in 2019 its successor Saotronix, he has set the stage for a symbiotic style between electronic modernity and the roots of North Africa, primarily those of Chad, his native country. He is now returning after a few years of hiatus with the third opus of his journey, KÖD, which means tam-tam in the Saar language. Tam-tams were used long before the internet, the telephone, or even the telegraph to communicate quickly and over long distances according to precise rhythmic codes. By fusing field recordings and the synthetic magic of a Montreal studio, Afrotronix has just created a particularly spicy mixture, both a tribute to the rich ancestry of African genius and a relevant use of contemporary digital music-making.
The successful marriage between Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and Africa is also the source of Caleb’s socio-economic reflection, who mentions our country’s absence on the black continent. China is there, Russia also (and not always for good reasons), but not Canada. Yet, Africa is a young, strong, and dynamic continent. There are fruitful collaborations to develop there. What the artist emotionally mixed between the two spaces contributes to, by the way, with a Nigerian representative in Montreal who is looking to stimulate Quebec activities on the other side of the ocean with our African cousins.
I talked with the artist about all of this but especially about this album, Chad, as well as the magnificent visual quality of the music videos associated with KÖD’s pieces.
