Yalla Miku – 2 (Bongo Joe Records, 2025)
Geneva-based collective Yalla Miku released their second album, aptly titled 2 on Bongo Joe Records. They continue to deliver a tantalizing mix that intertwines postpunk, Afrofunk, disco, dub, krautrock and East African influences. Moreover, the group persists to operate as an outlet for Geneva’s musical underground. At the same time, They focus on migration, power, and identity.
The project centers on co-founders and longtime collaborators Cyril Yeterian (vocals, guitar, “UFO banjo”) and drummer Cyril Bondi, also known as the duo Cyril Cyril. Yeterian runs the Bongo Joe label and record shop, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, and used the store as a hub for recruiting musicians. Eritrean refugee and krar player Samuel Ades joined after frequent visits to the shop, contributing vocals and strings on tracks including “Embeyto” and “La Tour Eiffel.”
The current Yalla Miku formation is a quintet. New members include synthesizer and electronics player Emma Souharce, active in Geneva’s experimental circles and the ensemble Boxing Noise with Bondi; as well as Lausanne artist Louise Knobil, who records idiosyncratic, rock-edged vocal jazz as Knobil and now plays bass in the band. Four musicians from the first album, Simone Aubert, Anouar Baouna, Vincent Bertholet and Ali Bouchaki, have departed.
Line-up changes coincide with a shift in Yeterian’s role. He draws more directly on his family background between Anatolia, Syria, and Lebanon and sings in Arabic for the first time on 2. The album opens with “Al Sayf,” a brooding piece about religion as a tool of power, set against Bondi’s loose, Afro-leaning drum groove.
“Scarlett Chien” filters chaabi through psychedelic rock, with droning organ, call-and-response vocals and touches of Autotune, while “Al 3Mal” moves from quick vocal exchanges to heavy guitar and a noisy electronic section led by Souharce.
The band wrote 2 through informal sessions in their own studio before arranging the material and recording the album live, including Souharce’s electronic parts. All five members sing. Souharce and Knobil handle French-language lyrics on “Maximum Self-Care” and “Post-Aventures,” both written and sung by Souharce, who provides dry humor, Dada-inspired twists and emotional nuance into the songs.
Ades leaves a strong mark on the record’s lyrics. “Embeyto,” named for his hometown, reflects on Eritrean marriage traditions through contemporary eyes, moving between spoken French verses, sung Tigrinya refrains and dense, industrial-leaning funk percussion.
Closing track “La Tour Eiffel” weaves dubbed-out postpunk and heavily treated flute with lyrics about life as a newly regularized refugee able to cross borders again and planning a first visit to the Paris landmark.
Musicians: Samuel Ades Tesfagergsh on krar, vocals; Louise Knobil on electric bass, vocals; Cyril Bondi on drums, percussion, vocals; Emma Souharce on machines, synths, vocals; Cyril Yeterian on Ufo Banjo, electric guitar, vocals.
All tracks composed and produced by Yalla Miku
Recorded at Insub.studio by Leo Cheb Tartine Bananarussich & David Super Dawoud Chesnel. Mixed by Johannes Buff at Shorebreaker Studio. Mastered by Benoit Bel at Mikrokosm.
Artwork by Félix Vincent
has photos
Author: Sonia Keller
