La République de Guinée - Sons Nouveax D'Une Nation Nouvelle (1962)

This mysterious record from the Republic of Guinea in West Africa is a frenzied kora string jam session with light, varied percussion. Almost trance-like or ecstatic, this obscurity was originally posted by Blank Dogs on his blog years ago.  The group's(?) name translates to "Sounds of a New Nation," and it appears to be a state-sponsored record in much the same way as Mali's Orchestre Régional de Kayes.  Guinea and Mali both declared their independence from French colonial rule at the end of the 50s.  The two neighboring countries fell under one-party rule almost immediately, and their autocratic leaders hoped to tap into a pre-colonial cultural identity by commissioning musicians to perform the "traditional" music of their respective peoples.  However, I get the feeling that these musicians had already gotten way into psych by this point.  There's certainly an undoubtable psych influence on many of the other Mali and Guinee records of the era.

Sons Nouveax D'Une Nation Nouvelle. La République de Guinée

• Throughout the sixties and seventies, Tempo International released many, if not all, the République de Guinée albums.  Check out the discography here.