GUTS new album 🌟Estrellas🌟 OUT October 21st !
Order Triple LP / CD : idol-io.link/Estrellas
HHV Exclusive Blue Vinyl Edition : bit.ly/3BoyGEY
TRACKLISTING :
00:00 01) El Retorno
00:51 02) Última Llamada ft. Kumar Sublevao-Beat
09:51 03) San Lázaro ft. Akemis
13:51 04) Yebo Edi Pachanga ft. José Padilla
19:15 05) Déjame en Paz ft. Brenda Navarette
24:57 06) Oda ft. Al Quetz
30:01 07) Adduna Jarul Naawo ft. Alpha Dieng & Assane Mboup
34:49 08) Medewui ft. Pat Kalla & Assane Mboup
41:47 09) Dakar de Noche ft. Iss 814, Samba Peuzzi, El Tipo Este, Kumar Sublevao-Beat
45:26 10) Nunca Pierdo Ft. Assane Mboup, Alpha Dieng, Akemis, Pat Kalla, David Walters
54:54 11) Por Qué Ou Ka Fè Sa ft. Brenda Navarette & David Walters
01:01:43 12) Sin Pantallas ft. Cyril Atef & El Tipo Este
01:06:01 13) Barrio ft. Iss 814, Samba Peuzzi, El Tipo Este, Kumar Sublevao-Beat
01:09:23 14) Dansons Cadencés ft. Annas G, DjeuhDjoah & Lieutenant Nicholson
01:14:13 15) Il n'est jamais trop tard ft. El Gato Negro
01:19:05 16) Estrellas ft. Florian Pellissier
•••
Without a pandemic, you’d now be listening to an album wholly recorded in Cuba with local musicians. Back in 2020, everything was organised, so that in May 2021 we could get started. Yet, the sanitary measures proved to be a fierce adversary, so rather than giving up entirely we decamped to Dakar in October the same year - a compromise that ended up being a positive event in itself.
Cuba has a long African history. Under mass enslavement and the Transatlantic trade, Africans were forced from their homelands, against their will, taking their music along with them. Merging throughout the centuries, taking on European influences, led to the birth of a distinctive Afro-Cuban musical tradition. Highly percussive, brass-based, simmering, full of danceable rhythms. The spirit etched into thousands of recordings, forever turning towards Africa. The departure point here is not to keep things the same. Rather, a return to the source enacts a loop - much the same as those providing the foundations for hip-hop beats.
The flame when it’s re-lit illuminates everything. Thanks to the Senegalese musicians in Dakar, the Cubans who crossed the Atlantic to join us and my usual family of musicians, this music - a cross-section of covers and original compositions - exists as a homage to Afro-Cuban music. Made in Africa, in Senegal. Three worlds, three languages, three colours. Recorded over 17 days, non-stop, germinating the seed born in Cuba at the end of 2020 so that the most beautiful fruits might be cultivated in Dakar, 2022.
When the world doesn’t seem big enough, we look up to the sky where even the blackness is lit up, where those I loved who are now gone shine as stars, shining as brightly as all the others. Each time I think I’m not going to make it; I recall the star of my mother. Then the path becomes clear.
Pandemic, visa problems, cultural clashes, bank transfers that didn’t go through, a fractured foot - this project sometimes felt like a series of accumulated challenges. The only thing linking us, a shared love for the music, each of us invoking our personal star and all that we have overcome.
In this way, the music is born as a call to our stars.
•••
Artwork by MAMBO
Animation by Adrien Guessaïmi
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