Nana Benz du Togo

Borrowing its name from the female fabric merchants of Lomé who left their mark on Togo's economic history, Nana Benz du Togo develops a musical project that sits between local heritage and electronic experimentation. Based in Lomé, the all-women collective positions itself within an afro-electronic scene where traditional singing, percussion inspired by ritual rhythms and synthetic textures intersect, with a strong emphasis on collective voices and call-and-response between soloist and choir. The first recordings released in the early 2020s established Nana Benz du Togo as an ensemble attentive to urban popular forms while remaining rooted in Togolese languages and cadences, in a register that ranges from slow trance to tempos approaching club music. In studio work as well as on stage, Nana Benz du Togo collaborates with producers and arrangers from various African and diasporic scenes to refine an aesthetic that plays on repetition, rhythmic ruptures and the articulation between spoken and sung voice. This approach situates Nana Benz du Togo in a space where oral traditions, contemporary concerns and electronic culture circulate continuously, without strict separation between dance music and more meditative forms.