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Album review
Les Nubians
Echos: Chapter One
Paris
11/01/2006 -
RFI Musique: Your ‘Afro-futurist’ project Echos was apparently inspired by a trip to Egypt to celebrate New Year’s Eve 1999-2000…
Hélène: We went on a boat trip down the Nile to Nubia and it was as if the pieces of a puzzle just fell into place. I started thinking about a recent tour we’d done of the States where we’d invited local poets to come up and join us on stage in all the different towns we played in. I was really touched by that experience, hearing their poetry and discovering all these very different personalities and the way they used language. That’s why the project ended up being called Echos – it’s bilingual and reflects the interplay between two cultures. Experiencing the sheer force and vitality of the American poetry scene made me discover that you could take a whole different approach to music. It’s not just about writing songs – you can create musical backgrounds to complement voice and words, using them the way a soundtrack carries a film.
Echos was released a long time after your original New Year’s trip to Egypt, wasn’t it?
I actually went out to the States to record the American poets involved in the project in August 2000. When I got back I took the project to our record company, but they were very reticent and hesitant to do anything with it. I don’t think they understood what we were trying to do, in fact. They claimed the album wasn’t commercially viable, but the thing is at the same time over in the States, particularly since the success of Saul Williams, poetry had started to attract a real following. They’d even introduced a "spoken word" category at the Grammy Awards. We forged ahead with our project anyway, going back down to Marseilles on our own to start creating musical backgrounds for the words. We worked with Mounir Belkhir, DJ Wamba and Yogi and spent an entire three months on it.
After that, it was a real uphill battle finding French partners for the project. We thought people would be interested in something that was trying to shake up and experiment with the French language. But, once again, it was the U.S. that opened doors for us, even though slam had taken root in France by then. Between the actual recording of Echos in 2000 and the release of the album now, Célia and I put out another album that paved the way for this one. We also created our own ‘slam opera’ with artists like Grand Corps Malade and Delphine II. The show, which mixed slam with fashion, music and dance, was our attempt to make poetry less academic and elitist.
Echos is linked to the ‘Nouveaux Griots’ collective you set up in Bordeaux ten years ago…
The ‘Nouveaux Griots’ is an organisation that aims to promote multi-ethnic urban cultures via gastronomy, concerts, workshops and encounters with different artists. Recently, we organised a concert with the Vibes Cameleon collective, with Razel, a member of the American rap group The Roots. The show was an absolute knockout. The audience was really receptive to the idea of an interactive performance and we discovered that poetry had a very different vibe live.
Basically, you discovered slam thanks to the Americans, is that right?
I actually prefer to use the term urban poetry rather than slam, which was originally used to describe these sort of verbal jousting matches. I’ve always had a deep affinity for poetry. I’ve always loved words. Even back at junior school, I loved classes where we had to recite stuff. Right now, in France, I have the impression that the scene’s still in the process of construction. It’s starting to find a real public now, though. And maybe one day soon record labels are going to start waking up and realising poetry is profitable!
There are a number of lesser-known artists on Echos, such as the poets Souleyman Diamanka and John Banzaï. But I believe you also thought about trying to get big-name rap stars to guest on the album…
We originally invited Kery James on board, but he was in a period of questioning where he was going with his own work. Saul Williams was going to be involved, too, but then on recording day he became a dad! We worked with some very talented artists on the project and actually ended up recruiting our American collaborators via internet and e-mails. We spent a long while reading and listening to demos before deciding who we could get to come up on stage with us during our tour. Then, as a result of us meeting and befriending different artists, different names imposed themselves on the album.
Oxmo Puccino actually came along and joined us on stage at Le Bataclan (in Paris). He didn’t really know how to position himself, whether he should rap or not. I think the whole experience blew him away in the end! I think he’ll probably be involved on the next Echos album after that.
Would you say this album, which was so long in the making, is different from other Nubian offerings?
No. There’s always a certain vibe and spirituality in our music that comes from the causes we defend. As Souleyman Diamanka says, "Inspiration is an angel who comes and whispers in your ear." In music and poetry there’s always a dynamic working beyond the individual. There’s a freedom of spirit that acts upon the words and music, making them a soothing balm for the soul.
Les Nubians Echos (Naïve) 2005
Elodie Maillot
Translation : Julie Street
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