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Reunion Island

Far away from ephemeral vogues and publicity stunts, the kaleidoscope of world music focuses regularly on a song icon of a little-known region. This spring, Reunion Island is in the limelight thanks to one of its most prolific artists : Davy Sicard. He is a follower of a modern and entrancing maloya style in which are mirrored the various components of a population with various origins : India, Madagascar, Africa and Europe.

In his early thirties, this composer and songwriter has brought out his new album, « Ker Maron », son nouveau disque, à la manière d’un parcours initiatique qui n’est rien d’autre que sa propre quête identitaire. En créole ou en français, les chansons s’enchaînent et l’auditeur partage alors l’histoire véridique de ce troubadour qui part à la recherche de ses racines.

in the style of an initiatory voyage which is in fact his own search of an identity. Through his songs both in French and Creole, this artist shares his life as a troubadour who is looking for his roots.

Through evocative songs such as « Granpèr té sï mon
zépol», « Juste Un Écho » ou « Tango Souk Inn De », Davy Sicard brings us into his universe by giving us the most beautiful of sounds from his cosmopolitan country.

Veiled in sincerity and honesty, his songs elude no taboos. Full of sensuality and lightened up by a positive spirit, they speak of colonisation, slavery, the spirit of Reunion Island and its of creole culture and forge strong links between a bygone era and today’s modernity.

This common thread between old and new can be found in the songs that speak of family spirit, friendship and love as well as music, danse and freedom. Another thread is that which links the artist with metropolitan France: he lives in his realm of Bras-Panon, an agricultural town on the island, known for its sugar can cultivations, but his album was recorded in Paris, the capital of « world music » and his second home.

It is Davy Sicard’s voice that initially catches one’s attention. Incredibly pure and enhanced with vocal harmonies and aerial notes, his voice flirts with the art of a cappella which is the prerogative of the most intense of world musics, that which have a soul and come from the same ancestral and age old roots as those at the origin of gospel and soul music.

Several traditional instruments, mainly percussion ones such as the « rouleur » (a big drum) and the « kayanm » (a kind of maracas), are united with the more familiar tones of the guitare and the bass. All these elements give birth to an original and quite melodic music with a certain softness. This métissé neo-blues has the magic of insular musics thanks to its immediate intensity given by a constant oscillation between the festive side and the intimate side.

One gradually manages to make sense of the « maloya kabosé » style put on by the singer. It becomes obvious that Davy Sicard shares the same wisdom and vision as Ben Harper or the late Ali Farka Touré.

Initiates would have heard about Davy Sicard some time ago thanks to a first selfproduced album and several noticeable opening acts as a guest artist during Souad Massi, Cesaria Evora, Tété or James Brown’concerts. With his album « Ker Maron »  , the Indian Ocean griot becomes a key element in today’s world musics.