Teranga is a Wolof word for hospitality, the welcome extended to a guest. Wau Wau Collectif named their third album after it, and after years of building songs remotely, this is the record where the band finally met in person. “Oh Africa!” is the second single from it.

The Swedish-Senegalese project runs on files traded over WhatsApp. Karl-Jonas Winqvist in Sweden and Arouna Kane in Senegal started it in Toubab Dialaw in 2018, a fishing and artist village on Senegal’s Petite Côte, about 60 kilometres south of Dakar. The town has long drawn dancers, musicians and sculptors. From there the pair built a network that grew to 26 musicians and songwriters across three albums.

Teranga was finished and mixed on the group’s first tour, five weeks across Europe with, as Winqvist puts it, “three Swedes, three Senegalese, and a French driver”.

“Oh Africa!” turns on a winding guitar line with an almost Turkish bend, the kind of riff that could pass for a lost cut on a decades-old reissue. It comes third on Teranga, where the collective sets balafon, ngoni and calabash against violin, cello, saxophone and Omnichord. Winqvist has named Barney Wilen‘s Moshi, the French saxophonist’s 1972 album built from recordings made during his travels in Africa, as an influence.

Released by Sahel Sounds, Teranga closes the trilogy that began with Yaral Sa Doom and Mariage, though Winqvist says the band have “barely started in some ways”, with more touring planned.

Stream “Oh Africa!” and pre-order Teranga via THIS LINK