ERIK
Sartrouville, Île-de-France, France
Music
Press
Erik : Karayib’!
His voice has already moved the French West Indies. Yet, it is here, in France, that Erik’s talent is now grounding. He has managed not to get trapped in those ready-made radio and TV fuzzy-wuzzy products. He has crossed the Atlantic ocean and made his mark in the Parisian jungle.
While in the underground, he accidentally meets Siam. The music that lives in him has found a home to express its talent. They are both moved by the same passion and the same determination; they are both giving birth to a musical language that can voice present time.
In Creole, in French, in English, Erik writes heartbreaking lyrics. Siam, who can play many instruments, is an expert in arrangement. Siam gives space to Erik’s deep voice. Like a creative cameraman, he colours and shapes the settings.
An artist’s imagination gets riche when managed by a firm yet open hand. Manuel, heir to the Bèlè tradition, a guitarist and a composer, as well as an experienced producer, contributes to give balance to the project. Erik is 22, his friends are just a few years older. Together, moved by the energy of their passion, they find means to live and to share with us this exceptional adventure.
Just when the “Villes des Musiques du Monde” festival opens, Erik and his team will release their first album, Chayé Kow, a true masterpiece for its pioneering character. Chayé Kow presents a whole range of today’s Caribbean sounds and styles through a unique and multidimensional creativity. A show of talent that flashes like lightning.
François Bensignor - MONDOMIX
Discography
LP Chayé Kow, 2009
LP Chayé Kow, collector, 2010
Photos
Bio
Erik, he is first a presence, a look. His body expresses the telluric force hidden beneath a volcano. His dance is not that of ballet and tap dancing. It is a magnetic storm, raised by the Ka of the ancestors. His warm voice rides the sophisticated purity of subtle music, enticing beautiful women to smile in its wake. Their eyes follow his every move and his lyrics are read on their lips.
Broken dreams, lost illusions, the wrench of exile, Erik’s poetry, fed on tears and suffering has the strength of a revolution. Let it be known that youth only gets lost when allowed to be lost. Confronted to an oppressive town, with blind or scornful walls, nothing helps to stand upright but the irrepressible will to go forwards. Painting the tragedy of the world in order to better exorcise it: Erik possesses this magic.
Backed up by the combined talents of Siam Lee and Manuel Mondésir, unparalleled musicians of their generation, Erik turns his back on Caribbean clichés. Their work in osmosis and complete mastery of the development of their arrangements are the best guarantee of original music. The solid groove constitutes a rewarding ground for inventive, never colloquial soloists. As for mid-tempo phrases, melancholy is given the care of caressing the jazz mood.
A phenomenon at 20 years old, Erik is burning through the levels. Two years have been sufficient to defeat all challenges. Revealed to the Parisian public at the ‘Ville des Musiques du Monde’ 2008 festival, he is in 2009 on the stage of the New Morning, at Olympia with Tanya Saint-Val, at the the Francofolies in La Rochelle, as the winner of the DomTom Folies for Guadeloupe, and at the Chatelet Theatre for the awarding ceremony of the ‘Artiste Revelation’ Trophy for Afro-Caribbean art.
The concert of Erik and his musicians at La Cigale on the 4th of June, will undoubtedly demonstrate the full measure and the freshness of their talent.
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