Vincent Kenis is a Belgian musician and record producer. He was a member of the

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

group

Aksak Maboul Aksak Maboul are a Belgian avant-rock band founded in 1977 by Marc Hollander with Vincent Kenis, and now revolving around Hollander and Véronique Vincent. Aksak Maboul hasn't stopped changing shape and form throughout its existence (the only pe ...

( Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine, 1977) and of

The Honeymoon Killers ''The Honeymoon Killers'' is a 1970 American crime film written and directed by Leonard Kastle, and starring Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco. Its plot follows a sullen, overweight nurse who is seduced by a con man, with whom she embarks on a ...

, an experimental rock band (Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel, 1982). As a musician, he also collaborated with Congolese artists such as

OK Jazz OK Jazz, later renamed TPOK Jazz (short for ''Tout Puissant Orchestre Kinois de Jazz''), was a Congolese rumba band from the Democratic Republic of the Congo established in 1956 and fronted by Franco. The group disbanded in 1993, but reformed in ...

Franco Luambo Makiadi François Luambo Luanzo Makiadi (6 July 1938 – 12 October 1989) was a Congolese musician. He was a major figure in 20th-century Congolese music, and African music in general, principally as the leader for over 30 years of TPOK Jazz, the most ...

(La Réponse de Mario, 1988) and

Papa Wemba Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba (14 June 1949 – 24 April 2016), known professionally as Papa Wemba (), was a Congolese singer and musician who played Congolese rumba, soukous, and ndombolo. Dubbed the "King of Rumba Rock", he was one of the ...

(La Vie est belle, 1989). Closely associated with Belgian label

Crammed Discs Crammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released around 375 albums and 275 ...

since its inception, both as an in-house producer and an A&R, he co-produced the semina
''Noir et Blanc''
album by

Zazou Bikaye The zazous were a subculture in France during World War II. They were young people expressing their individuality by wearing big or garish clothing (similar to the zoot suit fashion in America a few years before) and dancing wildly to swing j ...

(with

Hector Zazou Hector Zazou (11 July 1948 – 8 September 2008) was a prolific French composer and record producer who worked with, produced, and collaborated with an international array of recording artists. He worked on his own and other artists' albums, inclu ...

and Bony Bikaye, 1983), one of the first albums which blended electronic and African music. He produced the first album by a cappella band

Zap Mama Zap Mama is the music act of Belgian artist Marie Daulne. Zap Mama sings polyphonic and afro-pop music, a harmonic music with a mixture of infused African vocal techniques, urban, hip hop with emphasis on voice. The worldwide success of Zap Mam ...

, and several albums by Balkan Gypsy bands

Taraf de Haïdouks Taraful Haiducilor ("Taraf of Haiduks") are a Romanian-Romani ''taraf'' (a troupe of ''lăutari'', traditional musicians) from Clejani, Romania, and one of the most prominent such groups in post-Communist era Romania. In the Western world they ...

and Kocani Orkestar, while also being involved in the sonic design of many Crammed releases, including albums by

Tuxedomoon Tuxedomoon is an experimental music, experimental, post-punk, New wave music, new wave band from San Francisco, California, United States. The band formed in the late 1970s at the beginning of the punk rock movement. Pulling influence from punk an ...

Cibelle Cibelle (born 1978), birth name Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, is a Brazilian visual artist and musician based in London, Berlin and São Paulo. They graduated in 2015 from the Royal College of Art in London. Cibelle has released four music albums and ...

Zuco 103 Zuco 103 is a Dutch musical ensemble which plays music chiefly in the styles of the music of Brazil. The ensemble was initially founded under the name Rec.a in 1989 by students at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Three members of the ensemble SfeQ (si ...

, as well as the label's purely electronic output during the 1990s (such as the Freezone compilations). He has compiled an anthology of early Congolese rumba
Roots of Rumba-Rock
1991, re-issued in 2006). Since 2004, Vincent Kenis has developed the Congotronics series (on

), which popularized electro-traditional music from the suburbs of

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

(

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

). He "re-discovered" Konono N°1, whom he encouraged to reform and record again. The resulting albums (''Congotronics'', 2005, ''Live at Couleur Café'', 2007 and ''Assume Crash Position'', 2010) have earned the band worldwide recognition, as well as a BBC World Music Award (2006) and a nomination for a Grammy Award (2008). Vincent Kenis' recent productions include an album by Malian Tuareg band

Tartit Tartit (meaning "union") are a band from the Tombouctou Region of Mali. The group consists of five women and four men, all of whom are Tamasheq-speaking Tuareg. They formed in 1992 in a refugee camp in Mauritania. Imharhan, an expanded group tha ...

(''Abacabok'', 2006), the multi-artist ''Congotronics 2'' CD/DVD, featuring other

Congotronics ''Congotronics'' is the official debut album by Konono Nº1. It was released in 2004. by Crammed Discs. It has won the band massive favour in the dance and alternative rock scenes as well as in world music circles and in the North American and E ...

-style bands such as Kisanzi Kongo, Masanka Sankayi, Basokin, Konono N°1 and

Kasai Allstars Kasai Allstars are a 25-piece musical collective based in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The musicians originally come from the Kasai region, but originating from five different ethnic groups: the Songye, Lulua, Tetela, Luba, and L ...

Congotronics 2
2006), the debut album by

(''In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned into A Swimming Fish And Ate The Head of His Enemy By Magic'', 2008), ''Très Très Fort'' (2009) and ''Bouger le monde'' (2012), the two albums by Kinshasa band

Staff Benda Bilili Staff Benda Bilili are a group of street musicians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They used to live around the grounds of the zoo in the country's capital city, Kinshasa, and play music which is rooted in soukous, with elements of old-sc ...

, ''The Karindula Sessions'' (a DVD+CD documenting the music of 4 bands from south-eastern Congo), the latest albums by

, ''Beware The Fetish'' (2014) and ''Around Félicité'' (2017), by

Taraf de Haidouks ''Taraf'' ("Side" in Turkish) was a liberal newspaper in Turkey. It had distinguished itself by opposing interference by the Turkish military in the country's social and political affairs. It was distributed nationwide, and had been in circula ...

, ''Of Lovers, Gamblers and Parachute Skirts'' (2015), and by Konono N°1, ''Konono N°1 Meets Batida'' (2016).

References

External links

Discography on DiscogsVincent Kenis
on the

site {{DEFAULTSORT:Kenis, Vincent Living people Belgian record producers 21st-century Belgian musicians 20th-century Belgian musicians Year of birth missing (living people)