In his 1969 treatise African Music: A People’s Art, Cameroonian writer and composer Francis Bebey wrote:  “Welding and regeneration will be the pattern for African art […] It is imperative that the future of African music be based on the idea of development and not merely upon preservation.” Judging from his music — over 20 albums on his Ozileka label — he definitely lived by his word, becoming the first musician to use synthesizers, electric keyboards and drum machines alongside traditional African instruments. African Electronic Music 1975 – 1982, released by Born Bad Records, compiles some of his most avant-garde compositions, leaving us with no doubt that Bebey was nothing short of a visionary. 

– Megan Iacobini de Fazio