Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rhytmo has been going for over 40 years now, but by a strange twist of faith you guys never made it out of Africa.
Gustave Bentho (bass):
"True, we did a lot of tours in Africa - we played in Libya, in Angola, at the Festival des Arts Nègres in Senegal and FESTAC ‘77 in Nigeria - but we never played a single concert in the West. We've never given up dreaming about it, though. Lots of promises were made, but in the end nothing ever manifested - and then on the 1st of August 2008, Benin's national holiday, we met Elodie Maillot and everything changed. When she came to interview me, I didn't hesitate to ask her if she couldn't arrange some concerts for us over in Europe, but she answered me she was but a journalist and knew next to nothing about booking concerts and arranging tours. Luckily for us, she gave the matter some more thought and, deciding to give us a chance, she organized a first small tour in Europe in 2009."

Elodie, how did you first discover the music of Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rhytmo?
Elodie Maillot (management):
"I discovered their albums in the rich archives of RFI (Radio France Internationale, red.). I did some research into Beninese music before I left to do a report in the country itself. I couldn't resist their groove and philosophy; travelling to Cotonou without trying to interview some of the band members simply wasn't an option. The search wasn't easy though, and on more than one occasion I was told all the band members had passed away or weren't playing together anymore."

Did the encounter with Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rhytmo change your life?
Elodie Maillot:
"In quite a big way to be honest! I had to quit a job I loved a lot, formed a label and started a SARL (Société à responsabilité limitée or a private limited liability corporate entity, red.), but above all else I had to learn to live "on the road". Being the only female travelling with a bunch of "old chaps" is not always easy."

Back when you guys first started, Benin was still a Marxist/Leninist republic with you guys playing the role of national orchestra.
Vincent Ahehehinnou (vocals):
"The story is a bit more complicated than that. Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo was never an official national orchestra; we've always cherished our independence, but the fact was that we were living in an era when, politically speaking, things were changing at a great tempo - a group of soldiers had taken power (Hubert Maga, Sourou Apithy and Justin Ahomadegbé, all representing a different area and ethnicity of the country, agreed to form a presidential council after violence marred the 1970 elections. However, on October 26, 1972, Lt. Col. Mathieu Kérékou overthrew the ruling triumvirate, becoming president and announcing that the country was now officially Marxist. On November 30, 1975, he changed the country's name to People's Republic of Benin, red.) - and because we were tired of all the consecutive coups - Benin was the country with the most coups in the world - we decided to support this latest communist inspired revolution. It was our own personal engagement, nothing more. We then started to write songs in support of the regime, and pretty soon we were getting invitations from the government to play at official functions. That's how the misguided idea of us being a national orchestra really started. Sadly for us, not much later the government declared a curfew and from that moment on we were no longer allowed to play after a certain hour at night. To make things worse, the government then also proceeded to close most of the bars and nightclubs in the capital, forcing us to seek gigs abroad. That's how in 1982 we ended up in Libya, where we were scheduled to play at the Festival de la Jeunesse Africaine. Unfortunately that's when we suffered another setback. The Libyan customs officers were somehow convinced we were trying to smuggle liquor into the country and they seized all our equipment for thorough inspection. When they ended up not being able to find anything, they got so frustrated they threw all our equipment out of the window of their offices on the second floor. That day we lost everything we needed to be able to play and the regime in Benin we had always supported coldly refused to give us a helping hand. From that point onwards, every time we wanted to take to the stage, we had to rent equipment, so Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rhytmo concerts became a rare occurrence."

When critics discuss the music of Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, a name that often pops up is that of the late James Brown, rightfully so?
Vincent Ahehehinnou:
"Absolutely! At that time there was only one source in Benin that would play western music and that was La Voix de l'Amerique (Voice Of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It produces about 1,500 hours of news and feature programming each week for an estimated global audience of 123 million people, red.). We were all still attending high school, when the Beninese national radio organised an inter-scholar talent contest one day; it was then that we were really introduced to the music of James Brown for the first time, but even artists like Otis Redding or Johnny Hallyday took our fancy. To be honest, it was precisely because I was a mean imitator of James Brown's repertoire that the other musicians came to find me when they were forming Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo in 1968. Before Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo you already had the Sunny Black's Band and when that band called it quits, several musicians decided to continue playing together under another name."

Typically Beninese elements in the music of Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo are the vodun rhythms you guys use.
Vincent Ahehehinnou:
"Our forefathers were all vodun adepts; logically so because it was the main religion in Benin before the era of colonization. It wasn't the French colonizer who introduced us to God; we had already been paying reverence to our own vodun gods for centuries. When we were still little kids, our parents still sang us the old vodun songs whenever we needed soothing. Even though we don't practice vodun anymore, it's still a big part of our culture. The word "vodun" means "god" or "spirit" and in Benin every tribe has its own deities. With Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo we wanted to mix our ancestral heritage with those western rhythms we loved so much. That's also what the "Poly-Rythmo" part of our band name refers to: we're polyrhythmic musicians! And, boy, were we productive at the time! At the highpoint of our career we turned out at least one vinyl album a week. There are thousands of our songs out there, most of which we don't even remember ourselves. (laughs) Back in the day in West-Africa no one had a clue about archiving and, on top of that, the Nigerian vinyl that was used often started to warp after a while due to the heat; all in all we didn't manage to save that much of our recordings."

Let's focus on the new album for a moment. What's the story behind its title, 'Cotonou Club'?
Vincent Ahehehinnou:
"Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo played all the clubs in Cotonou! I even would go as far to say that some were just created so we could play there! One could argue that Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo embodies the Cotonou club scene in a way, so that's why we decided to name the album 'Cotonou Club'. The club we were most at home at was Le Zenith and these days we're getting a lot of requests to rebuild it."
Elodie Maillot: "'Cotonou Club' was also the title of the first radio programme I did for France Culture back in 2007. In that programme I talked about a world that had long time disappeared - that of the bustling club scene in Cotonou - and of course I also played some tunes of Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo. The album is almost like a logical extension of that radio show and we hope it will earn us a start to open a new club in Cotonou and revive that old spirit."          

Could one compare Le Zenith with Fela's legendary club in Lagos?
Vincent Ahehehinnou:
"Yes, but it was different in character; his Kalakuta Republic or Shrine was a bit more politically oriented."

For the album you also did a couple of collaborations; there's Angelique Kidjo and Fatoumata Diawara, but most surprising is the presence of the Scottish band Franz Ferdinand.
Vincent Ahehehinnou:
"If you ever have the chance to meet the musicians of Franz Ferdinand, ask them about their favourite band. I'm sure they will answer you: "Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo!" For us it was very surprising to learn that the music we recorded three decades ago had travelled such a long way. When we learned of this band in Europe that kept dropping our name, we asked Elodie to contact them as soon as we arrived in Paris. Fatoumata Diawara is another story. She started out as a backing vocalist for Oumou Sangare, with whom we did a small tour in the UK. Fatoumata really loved 'C'est Lui Ou C'est Moi', a song she would perform with us on stage every night, and that's why she also insisted on recording it with us for the album. Angelique Kidjo used to sing with Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo at the beginning of her career; she's like our little sister. These days she's an international star, but when she heard her "older brothers" were coming to Paris to record an album, she absolutely wanted to be there. When she then heard us play 'Gbeti Madjro', possibly the biggest hit we ever scored, she could no longer control herself and joined us in the studio."

Do you think the international attention Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo is now finally receiving, will also create an interest in/for other Beninese groups or artists?
Vincent Ahehehinnou:
"The popularity we're now enjoying is already creating a renewed interest in our country, Benin. Wherever we perform, people come up to us to ask us where we're from. When they learn we're from Benin, lots of them go in search of more information about this small and fairly unknown West-African country. I honestly believe our popularity can benefit tourism in Benin, the interest in Beninese culture and possibly open doors for other Beninese bands or artists."