History
I first met Chouk Bwa Libète in Gonaives in April 2012.
Their music was a huge shock for me. From that moment until today, this initial sound still rings in my memory. A growing wave was rising from their powerful drums, with their voices vibrating through it transparent-like, or riding it wildly. The drummers didn’t hit the drums they caressed them, made them resonate. Each of them had their own way to play. Tiayè like a rock, playing mostly a drum called Manman tanbou, Riscot with the spirit of a wisp. Mazaka never speaks with words but with the drum. He knows how to hit the drum in a particularly flexible and round way. The style of Jean Rigaud reflects all his humanity without any demonstration.
So I am standing in front of the band playing. My own background is being a classical violin player used to play experimental music in different bands in Brussels. Arrived in Haiti by chance, what I hear is so rich, so homogeneous, and the music so complex, so diverse. I can’t resist and the words out of my mouth suggest we should work together. Time for me to become a producer and a manager.
My first intuition is to record the first album on that very land, in the sun and in the air of Haïti, in harmony with the complex rough and mystical life of the band. Certainly not in a cold and anonymous recording studio.
One year later, in April 2014, we meet again in the remote village of Petite Rivière Bayonnais, where lives the drum maker Charles Simé. In the meantime the band had travelled to Belgium a first time (January 2014) for their first concerts abroad. First time for most of band members: first flights, first trains, first escalators, first subway ... And first huge success in Brussels.
Petite Rivière Bayonnais has no electricity and no water. Every day girls walk to the river and bring water in huge buckets miraculously balanced on their heads.
We choose a beautiful ajoupa that will become our recording studio. Around us and then on the CD itself, all kinds of actors come and go freely. Using a classic stereo couple, sound engineer Xavier Yerlès places each sound in the right place within the ajoupa and the sound spectrum.
On the pathways, we catch gems like Véronèse singing while washing dishes, Charles Simé hewing the future drum, the welcoming acoustics of an august mapou - a sacred tree (Neg Ayisien), or the irresistible atmosphere of a holy week rara. For each song we choose a specific moment of the day, from sunrise (Makout Lemba) to sunset (La Priyè, Olicha). For night recordings we use 1000 candles (that Haitians call « balen » aka « whale » because of the fat I guess). Wind is the master, snuffing our balen according to his desire or bringing the breath of the lwa (Je m La).
Before travelling to Haiti to record the album, I had met Peter Hvalkof, director of Roskilde Festival, at Babel Med Marseille. Showing him a one one minute video of the band has a direct effect: « Michael it is the gods of vodou that made us meet! », he says. From this moment he really wants to book the band at Roskilde Festival.
So when I come back from Haiti I have wonderful rough recordings and the beautiful story of the recording sessions. I also have a first strong track for a gig in Europe. Thanks to this I manage to convince Gilles Fruchaux, director of the famous French label BUDA MUSIQUE, to join the party.
Few months later it is time for WOMEX in Santiago de Compostella. At that moment, not only Peter Hvalkof, but also Jan Goossens from Amsterdam Roots and Rob Lokin from Afrikafestival Hertme are ready to go with us. This will be our first European tour, in July 2015, following the official album release in April. Press is very positive about the album. Charles de Ledesma writes in Songlines that the album is « hardcore ».
In May 2015 we learn that we are officially selected by WOMEX for a showcase at their next edition in Budapest. This is an outstanding achievement. Last bands from Haiti selected at WOMEX played in 1997 and 1998… And such a rooted band, coming not from the capital city but from a remote area, maybe never ever.
WOMEX is a huge success. Following the show we can build a 89 days tour, travelling in 9 different European countries and also the famous Rainforest World Music Festival in Borneo. Among the festivals, Forde in Norway, Earagail Arts Festival in Ireland, Cross Culture Festival in Warsaw. In UK we have Southbank Centre (28/07), Port Eliot Festival (29/07) and WOMAD Charlton Park (30/07). In September we also have a mini tour in Sweden and Denmark. Thanks to WOMEX we also could start working with Earthbeat, a booking agency based in the Netherlands. We are also currently negotiating with a big agency in the USA. Concerts in the USA are already confirmed for March 2017.
In parallel to this, supported by Wallonie Bruxelles International, the band develops a social and cultural activity in their residency place in Gonaives. They intend to promote the culture of vodou, rhythms, songs and dances, but also visual arts.
Strangely the band first developed at an international level, and almost nobody knew them in Haiti. This is now changing. First concerts in Port-au-Prince this year showed that the band will soon be a highlight of Haiti’s cultural environment. We are happy to see that their rough style is successful in Haiti too.
About Gonaives and the vodou triangle Badjo Soukri Souvenance
You will find Gonaives when you leave Port-au-Prince and take the road to Cap Haitien, in the North of Haiti.
You will drive for about 2 to 3 hours on a battered road and bordered by thousands of Chinese motorbikes and merchant ladies, selling anything you could need and also by street food shops, providing plantain bananas and different kinds of meat, systematically fried.
It is almost impossible to stay alone in Haiti. So many people everywhere!
Gonaives looks like what I imagine Far West could have been. A very dry, dusty and flat town, killed by an oppressive sun. Every year between August and November, Gonaives is crossed by destructive hurricanes.
Not far from the town, the famous vodou triangle delimited by the lakou of Soukri, Badio and Souvenance is one of the main places of vodou in Haiti. Even if Christian religions and sects, most of them imported from the USA, do their best to conquer souls, these places remain strong and vodou devoted let us know that their religion will not die soon. Our dancer Edele says that vodou is her life. Her reason for living. She is fully dedicated to it. And especially she insists that vodou is not a folklore. My experience of the band and other people that I could meet during the ceremonies is that she is fully right, without any doubt. That’s why we don’t want to formalize choreographies in our shows. We avoid demonstration.
All members of Chouk Bwa Libète are involved in ceremonies. Since they were kids, our drummers have been taking an active part in ceremonies, and thanks to their abilities and encyclopedic knowledge of vodou rhythms, they became « admirals » in the ceremony.
It is interesting to notice that the different lakou of the vodou triangle are linked to specific rites of vodou, linked to different African origins.
Soukri for instance is a typical Kongo lakou. Badjo is dedicated to Nago, whose origins are the Yoruba. Each rite has its specific instruments and rhythms.
The musicians of Chouk Bwa Libète, taking part in each of these ceremonies, are able to play more than 100 different rhythms and dances. Their shows are encyclopedic.
When I met the musicians, they played for me and the film maker who was travelling with me, and it was a shock. I fell in love with their music, without knowing anything about it.
Riscot tells us that when he starts playing the drums it is the Lwa that come and possess him. He says it is mystical. The same happens for the two dancers, Edele and Maloune. The Lwa come through the drums and possess them, even if we never experienced a trance on stage.
How is our musicians’ daily life ?
Most of them are peasants. They grow vegetables sold by women at the market place.
The market is a very intense place. There is a place where pigs are slaughtered, in the middle of the market. Women are very numerous. Each of them sells a small amount of fruits and vegetables: leeks, tomatoes, mangoes, onions ... Some sell crabs to be used in a dish called "vegetable". Goats are slaughtered. There is also a wide variety of peas. The rice form Artibonite hardly resists to the invasion of American subsidized rice.
The band started working on the project of a cultural and community centre last year. This is still a work in progress.