EDMONY KRATER

Much appreciated bymusic diggers the world over, and rediscovered thanks to the 2015 Heavenly Sweetness reissue of his Ti Jan Pou Velo project, Guadeloupian author, composer, singer and trumpet player Edmony Krater now unveils his new project,which remains true to his musical vision: using gwoka rhythms to trace a new, universal and contemporary musical map. For lovers of Caribbean music, his name has long resounded as loudly as a sea of hands beating on drums. And for good reason: since the end of the 1970s when he formed his band Gwakasonné, Edmony Krater has been the undisputed master of gwoka, a Guadeloupian sound heavy with ka drum and percussion, that retraces the island’s historic relationship to slavery. Avant-garde musician, percussionist, singer, trumpet player, Edmony has for decades done his utmost to make gwoka music evolve, enhancing it with his influences and concerns and with the zeitgeist. Despite working with Bernard Lubat and Claude Nougaro, and despite releasing a large number of recordings and authoring prize-winning children’s books, Edmony Krater did not become well-known until the reissue of Ti Jan Pou Velo, his 1988 album with the group Zepiss—a record collector’s dream owned and known by only a happy few. Among them, Julien from Digger’s Digest. With the help of Heavenly Sweetness he brought it back out in 2015 to great acclaim, where upon it immediately sold out.

Today Heavenly Sweetness is proud to present an entirely new album produced in collaboration with Edmony Krater. Along with pianist Franck Souriant, Edmony puts improvisation—one of the founding pillars of gwoka—front and centre. An Ka Sonjé features songs whose conventional structures—verse/refrain—avoid predictability with solos that baskin the sun. Guided solely by a desire to create and enjoy the moment, and with the great ear of his long-time accomplice Tcharly Guillou capturing musical notes and percussive vibrations, Edmony and his group (Pascal Bilongue, Kulusé Souriant and JulianBabou) renew the sound of insurgency. Thus the group expresses powerfully its Guadeloupian identity through the past as well as the present, with jazzy colours embroidered with keyboard riffs, electric pianos, trumpets, and funky bass lines.The beating ka drum is the motor that sets the other elements in motion. The rhythm gets loose and the party starts, but then stiffens when it’s time to scrap; though Edmony wants his tree to grow more branches, he is careful to preserve its Caribbean roots.