Amédée Pierre L'Ivoiro Star
Gbahi Godo / Aba Blywan

1979 Ni Bel Jounin par Cap'Tain Créole, maxis 45 tours aux influence Funk, Rock, Reggae, Zouk. Assez unique ! 1979. The suburbs of Paris. Five friends, whose origins stem from the West Indies and North Africa, came together to form Trenchtown Meditation, a “creole-speaking” French reggae band.Heavily inspired by the seminal sound of Bob Marley, Trenchtown Meditation was one of the pioneering bands of the burgeoning French reggae scene. It was also at this time that France saw the explosion of pirate radio stations; like many other bands of the era, Trenchtown Meditation would play live sets on-air in these small radio shacks in between gigs on the various scenes of Paris and its vicinity.In spite of their strong desire to make a living from music, the daily grind caught up with the band; in 1984 the guitar player quit the band.Subsequently, the four members decided to rename the band ‘Cap’tain Créole’ with the aim – while remaining true to its reggae roots – of exploring new musical horizons, driven by the will to go beyond all that they’d done up to that moment. With the help of 3 new members – among them a sax player and a trumpet player, both coming from the jazz scene, Cap’tain Créole recorded their unique outing, Ni Bel Jounin.A single composed of 2 titles Fré Moin / Ni Bel Jounin, both sung in creole, using with great impact some subtle electronic elements.Both tracks are at the crossroads of many universes: Afro, Rock, Funk, Reggae. The result is quite unique and foremost, the spiritual vibe that oozes from the record is an obvious marker of their reggae roots.

The Dap-Kings' electro-sax space warrior returns with a groove-heavy sequel to All My Relations. Vol. II: Baca Sewa, an expressive, transcendental voyage through the archives of his indigenous roots and beyond. Drawing on ancestral memories and family histories to wrap new flesh around the bones of history, this album is a bold, semi-autobiographical work that leads us deeper into the annals of family histories, mythology and the cultural imaginary.“Baca Sewa” is Cochemeaʼs original family name prior to Spanish colonization and the fracturing or erasure of ancient knowledge and ways. The melody for the title track was composed by Anthony Gastelum and features vocals and drumming by the Baca Sewa Singers- a group composed of several generations of family members. The album runs thick with sonic tributes and remembrances. “Chitoʼs Song” is a contemplative, ethereal tribute to a beloved uncle. “Curandera” conjures the memory of the irrepressible healing power of medicine women. “Black Pearl” recalls his great grandfather, heir to a legacy of indigenous peoples enslaved as pearl divers in the Sea of Cortez.Leading a 7-piece ensemble composed of New Yorkʼs top percussionists and members of Daptoneʼs rhythm section, Cochemea recombined ancient elements of drums, winds, and voice, creating his own world of emotional textures and rhythmic possibilities. His musical and spiritual synthesis is made possible through his deep reverence of the horn and of the music and traditions preceding him. Vol II: Baca Sewa - is an offering and continuation of Cochemeaʼs explorations, part of a musical process of cultural reclamation and healing through connection, relations, memory and imagination.

Nyssa Musique - Comme au MoulinAfter NEF's album in 2019, Ici Bientôt is happy to present today the reissue of "Comme Au Moulin" by Nyssa Musique. Paris 1985... ‘Extra-European’ Traditions meet Jazz and Minimal Music. An unusual array of instruments turn music into a dialogue. For a unique record ... vivid, full of texture, somewhere between Midori Takada, Don Cherry and Jon Hassell.Beginning of the eighties, 5 musicians rehearse in a contemporary dance class hall, upstairs from the ‘’New Morning", renowned Music venue in Paris. Nyssa Musique is born. Passionate for a long time about traditional music, like those of the Middle East, India and East Asia, but also about African traditions, they throw a bridge between Jazz and ‘Extra-European’ traditions, resulting in what would be called "Spiritual Jazz" today, a little bit in the style of Don Cherry's Organic Music or Pharoah Sanders. With the notable difference, however, that their creations are strongly infused by contemporary classical and repetitive music, notably Steve Reich's work with whom they share a great interest for the traditional cultures of Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and its gamelans.In the original group we have Armand Amar, Ballet Music composer and John Boswell. Both specialists of traditional hand percussion which they had been studying for a long time in India and the Middle East, they are also very fond of synthesizers. Three other talented musicians quickly join them: Jean-François Roger, percussionist, marimba and vibraphone specialist, Henri Tournier, multi-flutist and Renaud Garcia-Fons, double bass player, who has a passion for the Middle East and has developed a virtuosic play of the bow, reminding that of Cecil Mc Bee.Each of them enriches the ensemble with their personality, originality and musical generosity. The rehearsal hall is rapidly invaded by the phenomenal instrumentarium put together by Armand Amar. A great opportunity for the musicians, for the dancers, to have access to an endless choice of instruments, offering infinite possibilities for mixing different colors and timbres. Their sense for being a group and their great capacity for improvising culminates, in 1986, in the composition of their first and only album Comme au Moulin (« As by the windmill"), testimony of years of creating without hidden agenda.Authentic, free and vibrant, still today, this album has no real equivalent. Even though it recalls the Fourth World current by its combination of traditional instruments with a subtle use of synthesizers, Comme au moulin gives more space to improvisation. It may also recall those of Midori Takada, less the New Age esthetics. An album that should delight as well lovers of "Love Supreme" by John Coltrane, of "Vernal Equinox" by Jon Hassell, as those of Moondog, an artist who, like them, invented a music based on the use of untypical percussions, at the confluence of 'Extra-European' traditions, Jazz and Classical, all together complex and hypnotic.

ELECTRIC JALABAEl Hal The FeelingStrutElectric Jalaba comprises six accomplished musicians with an empathy that feels telepathic and a groove that immerses. In Arabic, the mother tongue of Moroccan-born singer and guimbri player Simo Lagnawi, a leading practitioner of Gnawa music in Britain, they call this indefinable quality, “El Hal” – “The feeling”. “It’s the feeling that comes when we’re playing and totally forgetting where we are,” says producer and bassist Olly Keen. “The feeling of being grabbed by the music and lost in the groove.”El Hal is the new third album from Electric Jalaba and their first release in five years. It’s a multi-faceted work that finds the band tighter than ever, deploying a vast cache of influences across nine tracks improvised and developed in their south London studio then deftly produced by Keen. Some tracks pay homage to the origins of Gnawa music, whose repertoire of Arabic-language praise songs contains remnants of West African dialects – Bambara from Mali, Fulani and Hausa from the Sahel region – that point to a centuries-old migration.