VARIOUS – Lespri Ka: New Directions In Gwo Ka Music From Guadeloupe 1981-2010 – 2LP – Vinyl

2LP Black Vinyl

(With 4-page full colour liner notes.)

As Guadeloupean vocalist and composer Marie-Line Dahomay writes in her liner notes to the compilation, gwoka is more than a style of music, it is a way of living and thinking. Rooted in the social, musical and ritual practices of enslaved African people and their descendants on Guadeloupe, gwoka has always sought to express the spirit of independence and resistance authentic to the island.

Building on its traditional call-and-response form and the ideas of pivotal figures like Grard Lockel and Christian Laviso, modern gwoka evolved throughout the second half of the twentieth century to include funk, jazz and electronic influences.

Defined by its propensity for innovation and experimentation, this compilation charts the most radical changes to modern gwoka, capturing a sensory riot of traditional rpertoires, rhythms and make techniques fused with a rich seam of genre-defying experimentation.

Whether heard in the deeply cosmic, spiritual music of Dao, Freydy Doressamy and Gaoul Mizik, or the jazz funk inflections of Gui Konket and Horizon, the music here is united by the feeling of santiman ka, crucial not only to gwoka music but the identity of Guadeloupe at large.

Tracklisting:

A1. Dao Chenn La
A2. Gaoul Mizik Sonn Lkla Sonn
B1. Thibault Freydy Doressamy O Fon A K An Nou
B2. Emboule Jean-Claude, Louison Gerome Et Le Groupe Kako Enjafann Kann
B3. Gui Konket Kimb Rd!
C1. Michel Laurent Matla La Mouy
C2. Horizon Ti Malo
C3. Kalindi Ka Yo
D1. Selekta Ka Nou Woukou Mans A Zero
D2. Groupe Bloka Menm Chimen-La