An important inter-cultural and commercial crossroads in the centre of the Ivory Coast, the town of Bouake prospered during the 20th century around one of the richest and most colourful markets of West Africa.
Working in this town in the mid 1970s, the biologist Bernard Mondet was fascinated by the Ivorian, Ghanaian, Malian, Guinean or Voltaic musical traditions he encountered there. Armed with his Nagra tape recorder and a pair of microphones, he collected a vast number of sound documents in which Senufo and Bobo balafons, lute harps kora of the Manding, Peul and Mossi flutes and Birifor musical bows are mingled skilfully.