Bopol Mansiamina
Deception Motema

Reissue of rare Afro-Synth Funana LP from Cabo Verde, originally released in 1983. Second release by Mar & Sol label -first was Pedrinho's LP.

Stima Records est fier de rendre à nouveau disponible l’une des curiosités les plus rares de la scène gwoka fusion parisienne, avec la permission de Jimmy Blanche lui-même.Jimmy a su mélanger avec brio le gwoka traditionnel de Guadeloupe avec d’autres influences pour créer son propre son, dansant, spirituel et indéniablement 80’s.Dou Van Jou est de ces disques mystérieux et rares qui méritent d’être (re)découverts, image d’une époque où modernité et tradition se mêlaient dans l’esprit bouillonnant d’un artiste multifacette d’origine guadeloupéenne.Enregistré en 1987, il fait entendre une fusion originale entre gwoka, musiques du monde, jazz et usage enthousiaste de synthétiseurs. Bien que diffusés de façon intimiste, certains morceaux ont acquis le statut d’oeuvre culte : “Misik A Moun A Kaz”, avec son rythme gwoka mendé, ses pianos salsa et sa basse disco a été joué par Emil Omar ou encore Air Baer dans son Boiler Room. “Tambou La & Ti Bois La”, dans la pure tradition gwoka, est devenu un tube souvent chanté dans les léwoz d’Ile-de-France, ces rencontres musicales et dansantes de la tradition guadeloupéenne, héritées des Neg Marrons.Véritable activiste culturel et insatiable voyageur, Jimmy Blanche a organisé de nombreux concerts en assurant notamment durant plusieurs années la programmation de la Chapelle des Lombards, puis plus récemment au New Morning ; il a travaillé avec la légende gwoka Guy Konket, l’immense Manu Dibango, ou encore Eric Serra. Il joue d’ailleurs avec ce dernier dans le cultissime Subway de Luc Besson.

Tibor Szemző is not only a skillful and experienced Hungarian musician but also a media artist with a vast imagination. His last LP, ARBO X – Csoma Grooves, refers to his full-length film A Guest of Life released in 2006, for which he not only directed but also composed all the music. The film is inspired by the life of Alexander Csoma de Körös, a remarkable polyglot from the 19th century who set out from his native Transylvania to central Asia on foot to look for the roots of the Hungarian language. He reached Tibet, dedicated the rest of his life to study of Tibetan manuscripts and finally became the founder of tibetology. After 14 years Tibor Szemző decided to explore the theme further and composed the cinematic performance, Silverbird and the Cyclist, where he as narrator presented the story of Csoma from a different perspective.ARBO X is the music from this performance and it is based on the soundtrack of the original movie but the material has been restructured and enhanced by new layers. There are fourteen relatively short tracks on the album and each of them has a very specific character, sometimes mysterious as the titles of the tracks themselves. Their arrangement is ingeniously composed. Szemző’s typical bass flute and voice with percussion accompaniment on the first track Axis is a very impressive introduction to the whole album. The following tracks build up a series of colorful sound parables, which are in no way descriptive. Every element, whether it’s a double bass, viola, soprano voice, vocal trio or electronics, fits perfectly within the overall sound fabric with effective timing. Listening to ARBO X one unwittingly concentrates on interweaving details without loosing the sense of the whole. It’s certainly a great benefit, as in previous recordings, that most of the musicians participating in the recording of ARBO X are very familiar with Szemző’s music and his collaboration with some of them goes back to Group 180, a new music ensemble he founded in 1978 and soon earned international acclaim. This most recent album belongs among a long line of recordings that Tibor Szemző has released during his musical career and displays great compositional complexity and a keen sense of a perfectly balanced sound spectrum.Alexandr Krestovský