Plantation

"Plantation" is a new born project Founded and produced by:Tony Bowers - Filippo Scrimizzi - Lao Kouyatè. Tony Bowers: Born in England in 1952 of English/Irish parents… has played bass and guitar for around 32 years.. starting with various blues groups. His "first love" to then go on to other types of music with: Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, The Durutti Column and The Mothmen... in the same period he also co-produced (with Bob Harding, fellow ex Alberto and Mothman, now of Blood and Fire records) the first album of the legendary Pink Military Stand Alone a seminal Liverpudlian group in the 80's, after which began to experiment with the newly emerging "electronic music "with the ex Pink Military keyboardist, the avant-garde, Charles J Griffith's " Club 204 "..next stop was another direction, Simply Red... having already experimented musically with Hucknall in '83, he was then called upon to play bass in the newly formed Simply Red along with ex Durutti and Mothmen and Wah Heat! drummer Chris Joyce... he played bass with Simply Red for the first five years, three albums plus various singles and one soundtrack (Frantic ,R. Polanski)... after that, with a pause to start a family he collaborated with the production of various projects with Italian artists such as Vittorio Cosma, Giancarlo Parisi, Eugenio Finardi, Demo Morselli and others… he also produced, arranged and played on " Who Stole The Sky " by Sainkho Namtchylak, an extraordinary female Tuvan singer, he also played on and co-produced Ray Tarantino's first album “Recusant”. Several years ago he revisited his irish roots and now also plays Uilleàn Pipes and flute, (in this case a Bansuri or indian cane side-flute, which is fine for other music too) and is currently compiling a series irish airs done in his particular fashion. Currently, Tony is mainly working with Fil and Lao on PLANTATION Lao Kouyate: Born in Senegal in 1970, Lao's family belong to a long dynasty of praise musicians (Jali or "Griot") who occupy a special role in Senegalese and primarily Malian societies. It is passed down the family lines both male and female, Lao's Father playing the Kora and his mother being a singer from a Malian background. Lao started playing at an early age, accompanying his parents on their typically traditional tours of their different "patrons", for weddings and other such celebrations. His musical life changed when, after transferring to Dakar in 1987, he came into contact with different cultural and linguistic customs and of course different musical styles. He started playing with Alabatu going on to collaborate with important Senegalese artists such as Abu Guade, Fatou Laoba, Athia Vele, Demba N'Diaye, Asane Boub e Dom Jelof, after which he spent a year in Guinea Conackri playing with Kade Jarawat, "king "of the mandengue music. In 2000 he came to Europe for the first time on a six month tour (Afrope) in 2001 he returned and worked in Italy with likes of Mau Mau, Canto Discanto, Sainkho Namtchylak and of course currently with PLANTATION. Filippo Scrimmizzi: Born in Italy in 1971, started his musical experience playing guitar in an experimental " art rock " group (Ecozeegoa) to then change style and dedicate himself totally to electronic dance (Psy-Trance) also becoming founder member of Lotus Omega and collaborating also with Crop Circles. In this ambient, even if the major part of the productions were " dance ", he also collaborated with Giovanni Nicolini and Massimo Zamboni and with Cesare Monti, writing music for piece of conceptional art. He is currently working on his "Pay-trance" project as soloist , on an electro-house project with Patrick Di Stefano (Tekson Family) and of course above all, PLANTATION.PLANTATION is a project open to different musical influences from world music to reggae to jazz and electronic dance and ambient .There are no real limits to the " contamination ", as long it fits our "taste", so different guests could possibly appear on recordings, or live also.