LMN-001 . EDMONY KRATER et ZEPISS "Tijan Pou Velo" - LP OUT NOW.

So that’s it! Here we are!
After 7 years feeding the blog with our musical and graphical researches, Les Mains Noires is now officially also a record label!
Humbly and unpretentiously, we’ll try to offer you on physical format - vinyl only - super selected official reissue of wonderful forgotten music from the past.
In a first moment, we’ll focus on a place we deeply love, the French West-Indies island of Guadeloupe and Martinique!

And so, for our first release, we are very proud and happy to present to you “Tijan Pou Velo”, a stellar gwo ka jazz fusion masterpiece recorded in 1988 by Edmony Krater, a former member of Gwakasonné (one of the most famous Gwo Ka modern group from Guadeloupe) with the help of the group Zepiss.
Through this long time underrated album, Edmony pays a tribute to the heroes of traditional music from Guadeloupe, starting with Marcel Lollia better known as Vélo.
Check it out!

So that’s it! Here we are!
After 7 years feeding the blog with our musical and graphical researches, Les Mains Noires is now officially also a record label!
Humbly and unpretentiously, we’ll try to offer you on physical format - vinyl only - super selected official reissue of wonderful forgotten music from the past.
In a first moment, we’ll focus on a place we deeply love, the French West-Indies island of Guadeloupe and Martinique!

And so, for our first release, we are very proud and happy to present to you “Tijan Pou Velo”, a stellar gwo ka jazz fusion masterpiece recorded in 1988 by Edmony Krater, a former member of Gwakasonné (one of the most famous Gwo Ka modern group from Guadeloupe) with the help of the group Zepiss.
Through this long time underrated album, Edmony pays a tribute to the heroes of traditional music from Guadeloupe, starting with Marcel Lollia better known as Vélo.

GET YOUR COPY HERE!

This 500 copies only limited reissue has been made in partnership with Digger’s Digest, the man behind the amazing and critically acclaimed “Kouté Jazz”, “Mobilisation Générale” and “Freedom Jazz France”.

Grab your copy now!

A1° TIJAN (Edmony Krater & Tisseur)
A2° GWADLOUP (Edmony Krater)
A3° CREPUSCULE (Freddy Tisseur)

B1° CHIMIN SPIRIT (Edmony Krater)
B2° WEST INDIES (Eddy Lebouin)
B3° OCCITAN DANCE (Edmony Krater pour Larrazet)


With 3 tracks on each side this album strikes by the originality of the compositions, Tijan Pou Vélo the eponymous opening track is a soulful version of traditional song played in toumblak. Gwadeloup - compiled on Kouté Jazz - is a uptempo groovy ballad transended by electric jazz arrangement. Crépuscule - last track of side one - is a kaladja (a slow rhythm) with Edmony Krater, strongly inspired by Don Cherry and Miles Davis, playing trumpet.

On the B-side Chimin Spirit offers a lighter, more danceable view of the world led by the boulagyel (the traditional mouth drum that ka singers use to mark the rhythm) and silky arpeggios on the guitar, singing a message that couldn’t be any simpler: “Let’s follow nature; she will guide us!”. In West Indies, Edmony Krater mixes a variety of Caribbean rhythms in with the lewoz rhythm, which is so warlike and mystical, tough and courageous. “We are all children of a common, shared history.” And this history even contains a sense of “terroir” or place, a notion that the Guadeloupian found in the work of Bernard Lubat. “That’s why I wanted to call this piece Occitan Dance. It’s a fusion based on my encounters with Bernard Lubat, with whom I share a common vision of music and its relationship to creation.”.

Like Lubat, Edmony Krater is incredibly open-minded to a variety of influences as well as a masterful player of numerous instruments (trumpet and drums as well as guitar and keyboards). He has managed to surround himself with a group of musicians who are well in sync with his vision: Eddy Lebouin, bassist and guitarist from Gwokasonné, the guitarist Freddy Tisseur, a childhood friend, the saxophonist Filip Augusty, the drum major Roger Raspail, the drummer Jean-Pierre Coco, the flutist Roseline Pougeol, whose brother played with Konket, and Jean-Claude Predantos on keyboards.

GET YOUR COPY HERE!