Alogte Oho & His Sounds of Joy

Mass services in the village church, with all the singing and drumming, made a deep impression on the Ghanian musician Alogte Oho when he was a child. The musical pull was so strong on young Alogte that he was always the first to be ready for church each Sunday. Back then, he yearned to be old enough to join the church choir. Today, he leads his own vocal ensemble, Sounds of Joy, consisting of powerful and inspiring female voices that embed his soft yet striking lead singing in sweet harmonies. Oho is known as the “King of Frafra Gospel” – the vivacious traditional sounds of the Frafra people of Ghana, which have at least one foot in Afro-Caribbean polyrhythm. This heritage is a clear influence on Oho’s latest album Yam Yinne Wa, which also has an incredibly contemporary feel with beeping synthesizers, highlife grooves, Afro-funk elements and dub rhythms.