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Includes unlimited streaming of 2015-2025 : Les Disques Bongo Joe - 10 Years of Sonic Explorations
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Please note this is a mockup, final result may differ from this picture.
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Includes unlimited streaming of 2015-2025 : Les Disques Bongo Joe - 10 Years of Sonic Explorations
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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ALL OUR ORDERS ARE SHIPPED FROM FRANCE
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ALL OUR ORDERS ARE SHIPPED FROM FRANCE
Includes unlimited streaming of 2015-2025 : Les Disques Bongo Joe - 10 Years of Sonic Explorations
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/96kHz.
ships out within 7 days
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Limited ANNIVERSARY SPLATTERED Vinyl 2LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
2LP splatter vinyls (different color for A/B and C/D) in reversed cardboard printed cover with embossed Pantone 8002 print
300g uncoated offset printed insert
Please note this is a mockup, final result may differ from this picture.
ALL OUR ORDERS ARE SHIPPED FROM FRANCE
Includes unlimited streaming of 2015-2025 : Les Disques Bongo Joe - 10 Years of Sonic Explorations
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Please note this is a mockup, final result may differ from this picture.
ALL OUR ORDERS ARE SHIPPED FROM FRANCE
Includes unlimited streaming of 2015-2025 : Les Disques Bongo Joe - 10 Years of Sonic Explorations
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Ten years. Ten years of listening, searching, digging, sharing. Ten years of putting out records we felt mattered—because they told a story. Of a place, a moment, an impulse. Ten years of believing that music, especially the kind that doesn’t fit into any box, deserves more than just attention: it deserves care, time, and deep listening.
Bongo Joe started in Geneva, in a shop that became a label, in a city far more complex than it first appears. Beneath its polished banking façade, Geneva is layered and unpredictable. Beneath the luxury storefronts, the UN buildings, and the watch boutiques, thrives a unique scene shaped by migration, cultural collisions, political struggle, and dissonant sound. It’s here that we learned to improvise, adapt, and stay independent.
This is where the label was born—above all, to put music back at the center, in a time when everything moves too fast, gets monetized, sliced up, and repackaged. In that landscape, we believe a label should remain a space for curation, for storytelling, for quiet resistance — a place where we suggest rather than impose.
Over the past ten years, we’ve built a singular catalogue — a mosaic of archival revivals, contemporary projects, and unexpected encounters. Three main threads have shaped it.
First, the compilation of music from the past. Not to claim it, but to keep it moving. To shed light on forgotten repertoires, marginal histories, musical legacies too rich to be overlooked. To help them exist again, with dignity, and reconnect with new listeners who might never have had access otherwise.
Second, international collaborations. From Geneva, we’ve woven bonds with artists from all over the world — groups from Istanbul, Buenos Aires, London, Baku, Bogotá, Lilongwe, Les Gonaïves, or Amsterdam. Records crafted with love and boldness, in collaboration with like-minded labels, passionate curators, and artists who share our spirit. That international dimension makes us proud — it proves that you can create, exchange, and share sound sincerely, even from a city not exactly known as a musical capital.
And then there’s our local scene. Geneva, always. Because it’s where we live, where we grew up, and where we still believe in a city with a unique voice — full of friction, contradictions, and underground energy. We’ve supported projects from experimental circuits, squats, and clubs. Through our sub-label Les Disques Magnétiques, we’ve expanded the spectrum without losing the thread: defending the margins, giving space to those who don’t fit anywhere else.
Bongo Joe is also a musician. The label takes its name from George “Bongo Joe” Coleman (1923–1999), a street percussionist from Texas who stayed true to his independence for over thirty years. Turning down the offers of formal venues, he chose instead to play in the streets — banging out rhythms on an oil drum with raw charisma. His only album, recorded in 1968 in San Antonio, remains one of our most cherished records. Reissued by our friends at Mississippi Records, it carries a DIY spirit, radical freedom, and lyrical boldness far ahead of its time — a guiding light that continues to inspire us.
Bongo Joe is also a collective story. It’s about people. A team that grew over the years: from Cyril and Vincent at the helm to a tight-knit crew — Juliette, Quentin, Margot, Laurent, Baptiste. Together, we’ve kept this strange, handmade machine running. We’ve hand-stamped sleeves, lost test pressings, pressed the wrong masters on CD, found test pressings again, chased down funding, hauled stacks of records to the post office by bike, crossed our fingers for pressings to arrive on time, cursed at customs delays, botched digital releases, and felt a thrill watching “our” bands play on the stages of major festivals and the most forward-thinking clubs. We’ve been through chaos and joy. Together, we’ve made it this far. And with nearly 150 records in the catalogue, we look back on the road travelled with a mix of pride and disbelief.
This compilation isn’t a summary. It’s not a best of. It’s a trace. A selection among many possible ones. A snapshot of what we’ve tried to do since 2015: believe in music as connection, as memory, as compass. Thank you to everyone who’s supported, followed, or inspired us. Thanks to the institutions who’ve backed us. Thanks to our longtime partners: bookers, fellow labels, record stores, publicists, distributors, printers, engravers, pressing plants, sound engineers, photographers, designers. And most of all, thank you to the artists — without whom none of this would mean anything.
Ten years is a little, and a lot. We’re not done yet.
credits
released September 5, 2025
ALAIN PETERS – Plime la misère
BJR007
Music by Alain Peters & Lyrics by Jean Albany
ALAIN PETERS – Rest’La Maloya (2016) - LP
Originally released in 1998
ALTIN GÜN – Goca Dünya
BJR4502 / BJR025
Music by Onur Gençer & Lyrics by Abdullah Nail Bayşu - LP
ALTIN GÜN – Goca Dünya (2017) / ALTIN GÜN – On (2018)
MAUSKOVIC DANCE BAND – Bukaroo Bank
BJR082
Music & Lyrics by Mauskovic Dance Band feat. Kasper Frenkel Frank
MAUSKOVIC DANCE BAND – Bukaroo Bank (2022) - LP
ESPLENDOR GEOMÉTRICO – Moscú está helado
BJR015
Music & Lyrics by Esplendor Geométrico
VA – LA CONTRA OLA : Synth Wave & Post Punk from Spain (2018) – 2LP
Originally released in 1981
HYPERCULTE – Temps mort
BJR041
Music & Lyrics by Simone Aubert, Vincent Bertholet
HYPERCULTE – Massif Occidental (2019) - LP
MADALITSO BAND – Wasakara
BJR058
Music & Lyrics by Yobu Maligwa, Yosefe Kalekeni
MADALITSO BAND – Musakayike (2022) - LP
MERIDIAN BROTHERS – Puya del empresario
BJR054
Music & Lyrics by Eblis Álvarez
MERIDIAN BROTHERS – Cumbia Siglo XXI (2020) - LP
DERYA YILDIRIM & GRUP ŞIMŞEK – Nem Kaldı
BJR014
Music & Lyrics by Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek
DERYA YILDIRIM & GRUP ŞIMŞEK – Nem Kaldı (2017) - LP
NORDINE STALFI – Zinw Ezzinet
BJR045
Maghreb K7 Club
Lyrics by Nordine Staïfi
VA -MAGHREB K7 CLUB : Synth Raï, Chaoui & Staïfi 1985–1997 (2020) – LP
Originally released in 1985
CYRIL CYRIL – Les Gens (Radio Edit)
BJR005
Music & Lyrics by Cyril Yeterian, Bondi Bondi
CYRIL CYRIL – Yallah Mickey Mouse (2030) - LP
AFRICA NEGRA – Zimbabwe
BJR040
Lyrics by João Seria
VA - LÉVE LÉVE : São Tomé & Principe sounds 70s-80s (2019) – 2LP
Originally released in 1981
YĪN YĪN – One Inch Punch
BJR046
Music by Yves Lennertz, Kees Berkers
YĪN YĪN – The Rabbit That Hunts Tigers (2019) - LP
LES ABRANIS – Chenar le blues
BJR020
Music & Lyrics by Karim Abdoon
LES ABRANIS – Amazigh Freedom Rock 1973-1983 (2023) – LP
Originally released in 1977
ORCHESTRE TOUT PUISSANT MARCEL DUCHAMP – Breath
BJR104
Music by Vincent Bertholet & Lyrics by Liz Moscarola, Spencer Bambrough
ORCHESTRE TOUT PUISSANT MARCEL DUCHAMP – Vente Unique (2024)
COCO MARIA – Me Veo Volar
BJR062
Music by Max Weissenfeldt & Lyrics by Ana Lucia Adame Delgado
VA – Club Coco (2021) - LP
AMAMI – Ivory (Radio Edit)
BJR047
Music & Lyrics by Inès Mouzoune, Gabriel Ghebrezghi, Raphael Anker
AMAMI – Giant (2019) - LP
LALALAR – Abla Deme Lazım Olur
BJR069
Music Ali Güçlü Şimşek, Barlas Tan Özemek & Lyrics Ali Güçlü Şimşek
LALALAR – Bi Cinnete Bakar (2022)
NUSANTARA BEAT – Djanger
BJR45028
Music & Lyrics traditional
NUSANTARA BEAT – Djanger (2023) – 7’’
YALLA MIKU – Asmazate
BJR083
Music & Lyrics by Simon Aubert, Anouar Bouaïni, Cyril Bondi, Samuel Ades, Vincent Bertholet, Boussad Akhouayri, Cyril Yeterian
YALLA MIKU – S/T (2023)
CHOUK BWA & THE ANGSTROMERS – Amounay
BJR108
Music & Lyrics by Jean Claude Dorvil
CHOUK BWA & THE ANGSTROMERS – Live at Cafe Oto (2025)
SAMI GALBI – Dakhchi Hani
BJR112
Music & Lyrics by Sami Galbi
SAMI GALBI – Ylh Bye Bye (2025)
BABY BERSERK – What I Mean
BJR019
Music & Lyrics by Lysbet Elzinga, Mano Hollestelle, Peter Beales
BABY BERSERK – What I Mean (2020) – 7’’
DRESSED UP ANIMALS – Mondtanz
BJR050
Music & Lyrics by Karl Lowenherz & Christof Colombus
VA – INTENTA : Experimental & Electronic Music from Switzerland 1981–93 (2020)
Originally released in 1983
Artwork by David Mamie
Original artworks by
Gaspare Balducci, Francoiz Breut, Fred Fivaz, Bora Genel, Kara Gözüktü Kaptan, Lisanne Janssen, Ma¯ra Krastin,a, Félicité Landrivon, Yves Lenertz, David Mamie, Flor van het Nederend, Dove Perspicacius, Mateo Rivano, Gaye Su Akyol, Glenda Torado, Chi-Long Trieu, Felix Vincent, Madame Ipsum, Razab.
Bongo Joe explores contemporary undergrounds to dig out extraordinary sounds and plows the furrows of time to unearth rare nuggets from here, there and everywhere.
