Description
Bonbon Vodou embodies Reunion Island's joyful, soulful Creole folk - heirs to Danyel Waro and Alain Peters' spirit of resistance. Their third album ('Epopee meteque'), created by the duo Oriane Lacaille and JereM Boucris, follows the paths of exile with lush orchestration and lyrics in French, Creole, and Gascon. The bonbon piment (a spicy Reunionese fritter) is deceptive. Beneath its harmless appearance lies a fiery kick that can jolt you into clarity. Bonbon Vodou operates the same way. While the duo's musical influences sway between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, a sharp edge cuts through the tenderness of their graceful songs, often carried by the rhythms of maloya. This contrast gives depth to their third album, 'Epopee meteque', which takes us on journeys of exile - both across land and sea.
Oriane Lacaille is the daughter of accordionist Rene Lacaille, a key figure in the revival of Reunionese music in the 1970s, who has lived in mainland France for five decades. JereM Boucris's father, from a Tunisian Jewish family, was 14 when he arrived in France at the end of the colonial protectorate. Their lives are interwoven with these paternal exiles, which they continue to explore and unravel, alongside the broader, universal stories of migrants fleeing poverty, persecution, and war.
The duo is now joined by a vibrant trio - Piment Piment (Juliette Minvielle, Roland Seilhes, and Yann-Lou Bertrand) - bringing a rich orchestration featuring guitars, flutes, brass, rouler, kayamb, jaw harp. Their voices are joined by numerous guests, including Mouss and Hakim, Rosemary Standley, and Bernard Lavilliers. This playful yet poignant album explores themes of life and death - radiant but aware - seemingly echoing French philosopher Albert Camus: "There is no sun without shadow, and one must know the night."
