Represented in Europe, UK, North & South Americas
Photo by Cian O’Day
“music rooted in drones and ritual rhythms..like a visitor probing a dark cavern, occasionally knocking something loose that clatters noisily into the void” – New York Times
“a strange, discomfiting document of the singer-composer’s energy..tangles together traditional African sounds and rhythms with Western electronic styles ranging from ambient to harsh noise” – The FADER
“a divine, spectral source of unease..“mother” is the only lyric in the song, but it hits you like a paragraph, rummaging through your skin until it crawls” – Paste Magazine
“A startlingly engaging collection.. informed by place but remains enchantingly placeless.. Mambouka has created something astonishing” – The Wire on debut album Play at Night
Listening to Devi Mambouka, the artist known as Masma Dream World, is bearing witness to a personal journey through hell and back.
The experimental project led by Mambouka, Masma Dream World turned heads with her 2020 debut Play at Night, a record that established the multi-instrumentalist as a singular voice, combining field recordings, throttling bass, skittering electronics and traditional Gabonese rhythms for an awe inspiring, transportative sound. Previous single “PLEASE COME TO ME” is an aural ritual, an invocation to the mother of the universe and a communion with the unseen world. The track was highlighted at The FADER, Paste Magazine, and The New York Times.
With roots in Gabon and Singapore, Mambouka is a child of the world. She recalls rainforest rituals and the presence of ghosts and spirits throughout her childhood in Gabon before immigrating to The Bronx. Here, instead of forests, she lost herself in record stores and began a spiritual, educational journey, DJing and immersing herself in NYC’s nightlife. A former Catholic school student, she studied religions of all kinds but found her guides in magic, maternal Hindu ancestors, the Black Madonna and Kali, the Hindu goddess of creation and destruction, and the mother of the forgotten ones.
PLEASE COME TO ME was culled from sessions over the course of two weekends with no specific concept in mind, but the result was years in the making, time focused on deepening her spirituality through meditation, Hindu mysticism, and Advaita Vedantic texts. At the same time, she was learning the craft, training in sound therapy, audio engineering, and sound design. The technical developing alongside the spiritual, the electronic with the natural. Her father was from the indigenous Bahoumbou tribe of Gabon, while her mother is Bengali and Cantonese from Singapore. Her influences are global in scope.
This past October, Devi shared her first Masma Dream World single since her 2020 debut, the thunderous and ceremonial track “Ancient DNA,” along with the album title track single, “PLEASE COME TO ME.” released on December 10th. And “Pordeno Me” to be released January 14th.
Her new album is set to be released on February 21, 2025.
PLEASE COME TO ME beacons you to come into the darkness, inviting you into Devi Mambouka’s personal abyss. It’s music you hear in the middle of the night, happening upon a ritual already in progress, music meant to put you in a trance.
Masma Dream World performance ceremonies have been performed at international festivals such as Le Guess Who?, REWIRE, Transmission Waves Festival, Raw Power Festival, and Afrofuturism Festival presented by Carnegie Hall, just to name a few.
Photo by Mike Gustafson
RELEASES:
2025 – PLEASE COME TO ME [Valley of Search]
2020 – Play At Night [Northern Spy]
PRESS:
Full Press Kit here