The meeting of two generations of musicians – Mario Canonge, from Martinique, one of the greatest representatives of Caribbean music who has been living in France for forty years and whose collaborations are countless (Kassav, Voulzy, Dee Dee Bridgewater…), and the 35-year-old Guadeloupean singer Erik Pédurand – around a strong subject: capital, which allows them to go to the heart of Caribbean culture!
Kapital is first of all La Ramée dwelling, property of the department of Guadeloupe, composed of a plantation and thus the history of such a place. The idea of the album was to create a project that was both relevant and innovative while being well anchored, rooted in the culture of the two musicians. Everything started from a one-week residency in Guadeloupe, where Erik Pédurand brings only a few ideas for lyrics, evoking capital, nothing more; because of the very place where they are gathered, it seems important to them to find traditional music in what was to be created, and finally, to find… the drum! which will be evoked here by the piano of Canonge.
They thus establish a link between work, the music of labour (of ploughing) starting from the rhythms which made the culture of Guadeloupe and Martinique (Gwoka, Bèlè), and suggesting them melodically and rhythmically. Concerning the lyrics of the songs, it was necessary to succeed in remaining in the evocation of a serious subject without necessarily going into the details of the explanation, to keep a form of poetry while keeping a form of harshness; it is finally the very definition of the traditional music and the Creole: things are said, they are clear, frank but they remain at the same time imagery.
Pédurand then chooses to go towards a form of theatricalization of the text by declaiming, reciting or even shouting it; Canonge’s piano gives the voice free rein to explore its various possibilities. Kapital is therefore a pamphlet, a satire, which evokes capital, money, because the history of the West Indies comes from there: if there was exploitation of man by man, it was to make a kind of profit, everything being organized around money. As Erik Pédurand summarizes it: “Can we get out of the racial question, of the peoples who are opposed and simply talk about a system that perhaps does not work as well as we imagine, a system that deals with the poor? Through our consumption, maybe we feed that system.“
Technical details
Year: 2020
Label / Reference: Aztec Musique
Musicians: Mario Canonge (piano), Erik Pédurand (voix)
Tracks: 1- Aksyon (4:09) / 2- Bay Adan (3:27) / 3- Jou An Nou Rivé (5:26) / 4- Plis (3:55) / 5- Café (3:03) / 6- Krédi (3:29) / 7- L’espoir Marcelo (3:53)/ 8- Fakation (3:47) / 9- Mèsi Patron (3:58)