Masango Obase-Aboli Namolongo builds his music around a double 22-key chromatic balafon. He grew up in Cameroon playing football before music, only turning fully towards sound at Bishop Rogan Minor Seminary in Buea, where he discovered the xylophone, became music prefect and won a regional Catholic schools conducting prize.

From there he moved into choir directing at the University of Buea and added guitar, piano, atentebe and other percussion to his work. In 2015 he relocated to Abu Dhabi for an introductory jazz course at New York University Abu Dhabi, joined Blue Fever Jazz A Capella and the Abu Dhabi National Symphony Orchestra, then shifted to Ghana in 2016, drawn by the country’s highlife history and Fela Kuti’s time there.

His double 22-key chromatic balafon have since travelled into collaborations with Salif Keita, Lassana Diabaté, Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako, Kronos Quartet, Just a Band and Ghana-based bandleaders such as Ambolley Jedu Blay, Bessa Simons and Aka Blay.

Since 2022, Obase-Aboli is based in the UK, working as Head of Music at a college. He recently won Best Diaspora Artist at the Cameroon Music Evolution Awards. “Wongoro” is written around his Double 22-key balafon, with patterns drawn from makossa, highlife, agbadja, rumba and jazz. The instrument he first picked up at Bishop Rogan Minor Seminary still shapes his writing.

Listen and stream the single via THIS LINK