The Cornish Bank's Summer Sessions in Trefusis Estate
- 3 gigs
- Camping
- Family + season discounts
Poly-Rythmo returns to the UK for rare summer 2025 performances, bringing five decades of groundbreaking African music. As one of the continent's oldest active orchestras, they've mastered an extraordinary fusion of traditional Beninese music, American soul and funk, Nigerian afrobeat, Congolese rumba, and Afro-Cuban rhythms.
Founded by conductor Mélomé Clément, who coined their name for the "great variety of rhythms they mastered," Poly-Rythmo published hundreds of recordings from 1969 to the mid-1980s. They helped invent afrobeat alongside Fela Kuti, with whom they frequently performed in Lagos and Cotonou.
Now led by founding members Vincent Ahehehinnou and Pierre Loko, joined by a new generation of musicians, Poly-Rythmo continues their legacy following bassist Gustave Bentho's passing in February. Their 2016 comeback album showcased the "remarkable percussion, striking brass formation and glorious chorus" that defines their sound.
Expect an evening of passionate African orchestral music from a band whose lyrics explore Beninese society and the complexities of love, delivered with the polyrhythmic mastery that made them legends.
