From Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, the “potent, indefatigable contralto” (The New York Times) Christine Salem is the greatest living champion of maloya, a nearly-extinct musical tradition rooted in the work songs and chants of the island’s African slaves. The hypnotic, percussion-driven music is based on rhythms played during ceremonies dedicated to ancestors, and is layered with rousing call-and-response vocals. A force of nature on stage, Salem delivers socially-conscious lyrics in Creole, Malagasy, Comorian and Swahili, while shaking out the tempo on a traditional rectangular reed rattle, the kayamn. A channel to another time and place, she seems to fall into a trance while inducing the audience to do the same.
Courtesy of Rock, Paper, Scissors –
La Réunion is an island where the dead speak to the living. Where the
barrier between this world and the next is very thin. And that’s the
space Christine Salem’s music inhabits, “where I can talk to the
ancestors,” she explains. To listen to her new album, Salem Tradition,
is to understand: it is music from another place, hypnotic and
transcendent, yet still grounded. It doesn’t just move the audience – in
concert the spirit of a piece can take her over in the middle of a
song. But until 1981 the music Christine Salem sings was illegal in her
homeland. Read More…
“This is music informed by the past and fiery in the here and now. ” — The New York Times