The maloya music style flows through the veins of Jean-Didier Hoareau, a metropolitan Reunion Island native raised on the fonnkèr (poetic, musical and loving state of soul) of the elderly and of his uncle Danyèl Waro, who he often accompanies on stage. In their footsteps, he leaps forth, propelling old slave songs to the feverish trance heights that speak to him, while also – with Trans Kabar – setting rock riffs to the haunting pulse of roulèr percussion. Where Alain Péters, René Lacaille and Loy Ehrlich electrified a surviving maloya in the 70s, Trans Kabar applies an even more profound electrolysis to the rehab of these psyche-poetic fragments.
In Creole, Malagasy and Comorian, Trans Kabar celebrates Reunion Island’s multi ethnicity, honoring its roots and offering a reinterpretation of the traditional repertoire of the kabaré service. This ceremony, which also acts as a communion with ancestors, gives rise to goosebumps as well as to the spirits of great musicians in the image of, for instance, the famous Gramoun Bébé, to whom the quartet pays homage on Maligasé. With vocal flexibility and ardent choruses, Trans Kabar sings to cultivate a common good and guides the roots of trance towards rock, dextrously wielding the kayamb idiophone, the contrasts and double bass. Ote Kabare!
Trans Kabar – Maligasé (Discobole records)
In concert on April 9, 2019 at the Studio de l’Ermitage in Paris.
