Foto/photo: Floreal Martorell
Release of the digital EP on 30 april 2021
Théophile Mayoma Diankembo (1960-2021) was born July 28th 1960 in Kinshasa and died on August 11, 2021 in Bondekola, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mayoma learned Esperanto in 1983 and began writing and singing in Esperanto in 1985. He never sang in a group, but sang alone, wrote and composed his songs in Esperanto, without playing any instrument.
Mayoma enjoyed listening to music from different parts of the world: USA, Jamaica, France, England, and South Africa; that is why he liked writing and singing his songs in the international language.
At first he sent his songs to people he knew, to Esperanto groups and associations, in order to find singers to interpret them, but without success.
Then he tried recording the songs on cassettes and sendig them as he had done with the texts. Until 1987, when the American composer David Gaines responded, and finally made the arrangements and recorded two songs on a cassette and sent them to Mayoma in 1992.
After 1992 Mayoma lost contact with David Gaines, and started looking again for other singers and producers, but without success.
Finally, in 2006, JoMo (Jean-Marc Leclecq, a well-known singer in Toulouse, France) accepted, and in early 2007 he began recording several of Mayoma's songs in his home studio, with the aim of releasing them in the Afrika Kompilo (African Compilation) project that Vinilkosmo has just launched.
2021 sees new collaboration between Mayoma and jOmO, but in addition with Marta, jOmO’s daughter, who sang his new compositions. The album was recorded in jOmO’'s homestudio, then mixed and mastered at Studio de La Trappe at Vinilkosmo by sound engineer Triboulet.
Click on his albums to listen to or download them.
