Baka Beyond is a world music group formed in 1992 with members from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures, fusing Celtic and other western music styles with traditional Baka music from Cameroon.
It was in 1992 that musicians Su Hart and Martin Cradick (formerly of the group Outback) travelled to south-east Cameroon to live with the Baka tribe in their natural rainforest environment. During their time there they recorded music with the Baka people, and some was later released on their return to the UK on Baka Beyond's first album, Spirit of the Forest. In the early days of the band, Baka Beyond consisted of English musicians trying to re-create the sound recorded with the Baka people and integrate it into their music, but it eventually grew to include musicians from Senegal, Brittany, Sierra Leone and Ghana.
Their 2009 album "Beyond the Forest" is arrangements of traditional Baka women's songs recorded in the Cameroon rainforest and mixed in Martin Cradick's studio in Bath.
Baka Beyond Live are musicians from 6 countries on the Celtic fringes of Europe and Central Africa coming together to play the most original live world fusion sound around. The spirit of the music lives in the rhythm. All Baka Beyond's rhythms are played by human beings not machines!
See also the musicians who inspired Martin Cradick to form Baka Beyond, Baka Gbiné. Cradick recorded their album Gati Bongo in the rainforest on a portable laptop based studio.