Kristo Numpuby is a guitarist, bassist and singer born in Paris but raised in Eséka, South Cameroon. Author and composer, Kristo sings mainly in Bassa and French on Assiko music the traditional rhythm of the southern Cameroon forests, using a guitar, knives, forks and spoons, and empty bottles for the percussion. He is also inspired by other Cameroonian music styles (Makossa, Bikutsi) and Jazz. Biography If the term " cosmopolitan " did not already exist, it would have to be invented for Kristo Numpuby. This musician, born in Paris and raised in a tropical forest, personifies the Africa of yesterday, today and tomorrow. At the age of 8, he began composing songs for children, and took an interest in percussion. " In the village, there were always evenings with musicians, either baptisms, marriages or wakes, "he comments. "They became opportunities for me to admire the percussionists, playing bare-chested with their big muscles." The education that his musician-grandmother gave him made Kristo a boy with a great interest in anything musical. "My grandmother Nguéba ran a bar in Eséka," he says. "We listened to lots of different music ail day long... classical, jazz, rhythm and blues, James Brown, Afro-Cuban, rumba from Zaire, highlife, makossa and biguine. You could say that I was totally immersed in a very colourful music world." Kristo finally received his first guitar at age 12. He began playing ail the hits he heard on the radio. Two years later, he was guitarist in one of the four groups in his school. At age 18, he formed a trio that played only his own compositions. The three musicians constantly played each other's instruments during their concerts. He was the lead singer in a group that mostly played assiko music, which no young people usually played. Kristo says, "my buddies didn't understand how a guy like me who spent his vacations in Paris was still interested in village music. Even though I liked disco and ail the music in fashion, that music still fascinated me. Why? I can't tell you. But I found real pleasure in playing Jean Bikoko, Médjo Me Nsom and Dikoumé Bernard, and to finger the guitar strings like them in an unusual way. The assiko musicians and dancers have a special knowledge and a particular technique. I liked their style of music because it was different. But I was just as interested in classical technique