Gwakasonné – Vwayajé 2LP
Créole protest folk, electronics, ambient atmospheres, music from the African diaspora, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and spiritual jazz come together on this classic from Séance Centre. Check the immensely beautiful space-age gwo-ka on C1 “Nirvacina.”
Gwakasonné is the ecstatic articulation of Robert Oumaou’s artistic and political vision, a unified expression of his interests in American jazz, pre-colonial rhythms, Guadeloupian independence, and Créole poetics. Over the course of three albums, all released in the 80s, Robert piloted a revolving cast of musicians, a venerable who’s-who of Point-a-Pitre avant-jazz pioneers, to deftly intone his creative communal concepts. The songs on Vwayajé are compiled from these three releases, Gwakasonné, Temwen, and Moun, along with an electronic mantra taken from his 2007 solo album Sang Comment Taire.