Pierre Akendengue is a brilliant poet-musician from Gabon who is acknowledged to be one of the most original voices in African pop music. My first contribution to The Beat magazine presented a survey of his prodigious music, up to then, which you can read here. I also interviewed him once, and that interview is here.Eseringila is one of Akendengue's early recordings, and it is rare indeed. It took me twenty years searching to find it. I recently wrote about the search on another site. Since getting the record, I learned that it had a limited re-release on the now-defunct French label, Melodie, in 2003. That CD adds Eseringila's songs to those from the other nearly impossible-to-find Akendengue album, Mengo, but places them in a completely different order. I recommend getting one of those CDs while they last, which seems only possible in Europe.
Yet I believe it is important to present music the way the artist originally intended, so here I offer Eseringila intact. It is my first post, and the next will be in a few weeks when I get back from a trip to warmer climes.