i have been hosting this week end a friend of mine who brought with him a common friend/pal  who used to be amida's pire petit,so we were discussing about all sorts of stuff including music and he was talking about most of what he could remember  from when it started as a secret project then when it started officially as a project until it materialized years after
obviously its 30 plus years after now since "the real start" so there might a couple of forgotten things or little confusion here and there,be tolerant with it please

Yes do it

hell yeah

To understand the history of the legendary album feux de l'amour,we have to go back years before
in fact 3 years before the official release of the album,the first hint of an idea of an album appears from late sony denewade who watches them at a concert and tell them you are the beatles of zaire then,and takes jb and werrason apart to give them ideas as he sees them as the two leaders of the band
one year later in 1995 he meets then again after a concert and tells them they are getting really big so they should have solo albums to solidify their reputation,since they are the two most influent administrators of the band
in the meantime,alain makaba who had Always had a "semi-marginal" role in the band with him spending a lot of time in europe,decides to release his own album as he is highly appreciated by producers and is the one with the oldest kids then,but only a handful of members of the group participate as the group prefers to focus on their group album they are coming for
and on the side of jb and werra sony denewade's words will be fuelling gradually ideas of how they could shape a solo project
for werrason,the plan is more first about individual tours and playbacks with a little band within the group,ferre seguin mbokaliya ali mbonda and co,and later it would gradually evolve to an album project
as for jb the plan is clear,he has songs at his disposal and funnily enough is starting to have "premonitory" dreams of him presenting his album
it coincides with their former guitarist junior tabu fataki who is back in Kinshasa after some time in japan and who is a gifted writer and jb remembers that he has his friend jules kibens who was already helping them out on lyrics before settling in Brazzaville,and calls him,to kickstart preliminary work for the album then he returns having taken orders of which type of songs he'd want,he already has songs from pascal poba at his disposal unused from the previous wenge album and tasks bogus bompema to come with some songs aswell before they make a selection among all what he collects here and there,then alain mpela and seguin's uncle nkoumen ilo also comes with his songs and they are focusing on pentagone first and jb intentionally saves the new songs using the old version of the song which became kin e bouger later to start,which was already a nkoumen ilo song from his group with senado and chela de chine then modified with group contribution
 in 1996 jules kibens is back again and brings his songs as planned,they will then all sit in a reunion at jb's house and pick 20 songs out of 45 which would be contenders to be in the final version,he tries to seek help of lutumba simaro to give an assesment on some of the songs and since albums often start from private rehearsals before reaching group rehearsals
it was time to setup a structure to rehearse at home,and there was obviously bogus bompema who remains closely working with him after having falled out with werrason,tabu fataki is missing as he goes back so champion vualu then in street groups of bandal before joining wenge kumbela joins as he also has a good writing touch,and then there would be mbokaliya patient ficarre alternating whenever they were "available" as they also had to work for the pentagone songs of the other musicians and theirs for those who had songs,alain mpela and aimelia obviously taking parts aswell to building the chorus of songs and so on,and before the trip to pentagone ferre will also attend two sessions as he passes by jb's house to say hello president i was passing by   get some money and finds them working at the backhouse(and then at the return he will not participate anymore as situation will have started to go tense within the group and people around his mentor werrason forbidding him to attend  jb's private rehearsals anymore) and sometimes nkoumen's private singer achille will participate aswell
the first fully rehearsed and "completed" song will be funnily enough an unused song in the final project which was having ferre doing jb's role in his absence,then having a vocal aimelia alain and achille trying to do 2eme voix until alain and him switch and which was originally planned to be a duet with either blaise or werra
that song will be replaced by masuwa of bogus bompema making the cut among the first fully rehearsed as he comes with the lot of masuwa esau and education at last minute of the preliminary work
by the coming trip at the end of 1996 all songs will be fully rehearsed With blaise bula also joining in given the difficulty they were having to have that deep voice balancing the chorus,and due to his role in the group and his friendship with jb and jb will be so pleased that he will almost think about giving him a song but obviously such a big project would not make sense without the maestro alain makaba who gives instructions from France to set up pre-records in the studio bobongo Under direction of one of his childhood mentors al nzimbi
6 songs will not make the cut for the final selection(mboni and courage will be released on zaiko's album) and among the 6 songs two of them being duets with werra as some donors appreciated the experience they had in daddet in pentagone
jb insists in having visas for the whole group including the new members ferre and seguin,in which he sees some potential(both will be replaced by ngulu's of an important donor,while jb planned to give ferre a vocal on masuwa which was one of the two songs he rehearsed with bogus and co)
their arrival fan in France will then give the defining changes leading to the final version,as alain makaba decides to keep the programmed drums of studio bobongo for most songs,and only leave titina having to play with a minimal drum setup,much to his regret as he already experienced the new hard hitting song which was about to be become the norm,with his stellar performance in pentagone,jb who has full trust in alain decides to let him guide everything and he also decides to rearrange a couple of songs and replace rhythm solo and bass by japonais patient and christian mabanga playing it all on his own
Adolphe and werrason due to the conflicts will only have one vocal each,as they have to accept against their will that the group album which was meant to come after is postponed to next tour
while jb stays for mix of the album,he'll be threatened once by some ba zoulou over some people hearing they might miss shoutouts with Adolphe and werra's minimal involvement and album will be released in the middle of 97 and obviously be a continental success despite barely any proper clip

To understand the history of the legendary album feux de l'amour,we have to go back years before
in fact 3 years before the official release of the album,the first hint of an idea of an album appears from late sony denewade who watches them at a concert and tell them you are the beatles of zaire then,and takes jb and werrason apart to give them ideas as he sees them as the two leaders of the band
one year later in 1995 he meets then again after a concert and tells them they are getting really big so they should have solo albums to solidify their reputation,since they are the two most influent administrators of the band
in the meantime,alain makaba who had Always had a "semi-marginal" role in the band with him spending a lot of time in europe,decides to release his own album as he is highly appreciated by producers and is the one with the oldest kids then,but only a handful of members of the group participate as the group prefers to focus on their group album they are coming for
and on the side of jb and werra sony denewade's words will be fuelling gradually ideas of how they could shape a solo project
for werrason,the plan is more first about individual tours and playbacks with a little band within the group,ferre seguin mbokaliya ali mbonda and co,and later it would gradually evolve to an album project
as for jb the plan is clear,he has songs at his disposal and funnily enough is starting to have "premonitory" dreams of him presenting his album
it coincides with their former guitarist junior tabu fataki who is back in Kinshasa after some time in japan and who is a gifted writer and jb remembers that he has his friend jules kibens who was already helping them out on lyrics before settling in Brazzaville,and calls him,to kickstart preliminary work for the album then he returns having taken orders of which type of songs he'd want,he already has songs from pascal poba at his disposal unused from the previous wenge album and tasks bogus bompema to come with some songs aswell before they make a selection among all what he collects here and there,then alain mpela and seguin's uncle nkoumen ilo also comes with his songs and they are focusing on pentagone first and jb intentionally saves the new songs using the old version of the song which became kin e bouger later to start,which was already a nkoumen ilo song from his group with senado and chela de chine then modified with group contribution
 in 1996 jules kibens is back again and brings his songs as planned,they will then all sit in a reunion at jb's house and pick 20 songs out of 45 which would be contenders to be in the final version,he tries to seek help of lutumba simaro to give an assesment on some of the songs and since albums often start from private rehearsals before reaching group rehearsals
it was time to setup a structure to rehearse at home,and there was obviously bogus bompema who remains closely working with him after having falled out with werrason,tabu fataki is missing as he goes back so champion vualu then in street groups of bandal before joining wenge kumbela joins as he also has a good writing touch,and then there would be mbokaliya patient ficarre alternating whenever they were "available" as they also had to work for the pentagone songs of the other musicians and theirs for those who had songs,alain mpela and aimelia obviously taking parts aswell to building the chorus of songs and so on,and before the trip to pentagone ferre will also attend two sessions as he passes by jb's house to say hello president i was passing by   get some money and finds them working at the backhouse(and then at the return he will not participate anymore as situation will have started to go tense within the group and people around his mentor werrason forbidding him to attend  jb's private rehearsals anymore) and sometimes nkoumen's private singer achille will participate aswell
the first fully rehearsed and "completed" song will be funnily enough an unused song in the final project which was having ferre doing jb's role in his absence,then having a vocal aimelia alain and achille trying to do 2eme voix until alain and him switch and which was originally planned to be a duet with either blaise or werra
that song will be replaced by masuwa of bogus bompema making the cut among the first fully rehearsed as he comes with the lot of masuwa esau and education at last minute of the preliminary work
by the coming trip at the end of 1996 all songs will be fully rehearsed With blaise bula also joining in given the difficulty they were having to have that deep voice balancing the chorus,and due to his role in the group and his friendship with jb and jb will be so pleased that he will almost think about giving him a song but obviously such a big project would not make sense without the maestro alain makaba who gives instructions from France to set up pre-records in the studio bobongo Under direction of one of his childhood mentors al nzimbi
6 songs will not make the cut for the final selection(mboni and courage will be released on zaiko's album) and among the 6 songs two of them being duets with werra as some donors appreciated the experience they had in daddet in pentagone
jb insists in having visas for the whole group including the new members ferre and seguin,in which he sees some potential(both will be replaced by ngulu's of an important donor,while jb planned to give ferre a vocal on masuwa which was one of the two songs he rehearsed with bogus and co)
their arrival fan in France will then give the defining changes leading to the final version,as alain makaba decides to keep the programmed drums of studio bobongo for most songs,and only leave titina having to play with a minimal drum setup,much to his regret as he already experienced the new hard hitting song which was about to be become the norm,with his stellar performance in pentagone,jb who has full trust in alain decides to let him guide everything and he also decides to rearrange a couple of songs and replace rhythm solo and bass by japonais patient and christian mabanga playing it all on his own
Adolphe and werrason due to the conflicts will only have one vocal each,as they have to accept against their will that the group album which was meant to come after is postponed to next tour
while jb stays for mix of the album,he'll be threatened once by some ba zoulou over some people hearing they might miss shoutouts with Adolphe and werra's minimal involvement and album will be released in the middle of 97 and obviously be a continental success despite barely any proper clip

I'm surprised Damien Dimonekene didn't commission clips for JB like he did for Pentagone, did the group not have enough time before resuming their tour?

If all the songs on the album have programmed drums, what does Titina do for the entire recording sessions in Europe? I would be so mad, can you imagine the hours of rehearsals spent each day and not even the sebenes will keep your drum partitions.

Why did Alain Makaba modify the rhythm and bass section from Christian Mabanga and Patient? I know Japonais ran away, but did slowing down the guitar of ndomblo generique have something to do with it?

Apart from the song Education, Esau, Guy Mbuala and 50 Ans, were there other songs that were later used in TH, Anti Terro or albums that came later ?

I really wonder how that narrative started about Feux de l'Amour not being a continental succes, some journalists even interviewing former Wenge 4x4 artists and saying y'all did record Feux de l'Amour, but it was Loi which was a continental succes. Not knowing how huge the impact of Feux de l'Amour was in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Mali and Zimbabwe. I don't know which flogger it was from Kenya. But I saw the person crossing the boader from Rwanda to Congo DR and saying proudly "I am now in the country Ndombolo ya Solo". Maybe that the narrative in our community would have been different if Feux de l'Amour had videoclips or if JB Mpiana just accepted to have tour in multiple African countries like Defao with the risk to getting scammed by concertpromoters instead of staying months in Kinshasa