Who is William Onyeabor?
He’s a myth-wreathed Nigerian musician who released eight albums of visionary self-produced synth-funk on his own label between 1977 and 1985. Onyeabor gave up recording after becoming a born-again Christian, but his previously obscure music began to find a new audience in the early years of this century when his incendiary postcolonial anthem Better Change Your Mind cropped up on two widely heard compilations. In 2013, after a long struggle to secure the artist’s consent, David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label released a best-of album, Who Is William Onyeabor?, to rapturous acclaim from celebrity fans including Carl Craig and (inevitably) Damon Albarn.
How do you pronounce his surname? US chat-show host Jimmy Fallon went with “Ownyabar”, but the New York Times more plausibly suggests “On-YEA-a-bor”.
by Ben Thompson via Electronic music | The Guardian
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