“Sit back and relax while we blow through your minds”
(Byron Morris & Unity)
Revolutionary jazz, soul, dub, fourth world, Brazilian, funk, Afro, zouk, gwoka, freedom sounds, deep house, leftfield nuggets, obscure grooves and forgotten classics – the idea is to find the connections to create a unique cosmic bubble. Some of these connections might be obvious, like a transition from zouk to makossa, or from Miles Davis to Gangstarr, while others might appear much less so, like a jump from Tom Ze to Junior Murvin, or deep techno to uplifting soul – it’s this combination of knowledge, ability to read the crowd and spur of the moment inspiration which can create magic.
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I am a Norwegian going to Guadeloupe to hear the good music. Gokwa moderne. Could you help out.
The best is to go to Pointe-à-Pitre market (“la piétonne”, next to Vélo’s statue) to hear Akiyo, every Saturday from noon to 3pm-ish. It’s amazing every time and once there you can enquire about other gwoka events/gatherings across the island.
Hi,
Thank you for response! And I’m sorry to be late in doing it. My friend and I arrived a week ago in Point-à-Pitre for the carnival season. I got so much inspiration from your blog and yesterday I came across your writings about Akyio and checked out the incredible tracks from their 1993 album. We are in touch with Michel Halley and Pierre Edouard Decimus and hope to do interviews with them. I wanted to thank you for inspiration and what you are doing with Beauty and the Beat.
Best wishes
Øyvind Pharo and Asbjørn Øverås
That’s so great to hear! Hope you guys have the best time (am sure you will!) – looking forward to hearing some reports 🙂
Hi,
Thank you Cedric! We’re just back in Oslo. We went to the Point-a-Pitre landmark statue of Velo on two Saturdays and heard Akyio there with dancers. Made connections with them and got invited to their centre on the northern outskirts of town. We interviewed three of their spokesmen about their roots, music and mission. We haven’t transcribed it yet, but we will. They took very good care of us and served us a lot of food and drink and let us hang with them when dressing up in palm leaves and the rest, transforming themselves for their kind of parade through town with gwoka drumming. The same happened when we were with Voukoum in Bas-Terre. Check out the videos my fellow traveller Asbjørn posted on Facebook.
His name is Asbjørn Øverås. You might have to spell his name Asbjorn Oeveraas, but I don’t think you have to.
More later
Øyvind
Sounds amazing! I will add Asbjørn on FB and look up for these videos 🙏🏼