Ven En Levé

Mixing up genres, singing in Créole and fusing bélè and gwoka rhythms, while adding a decidedly more European feel, Gratien Midonet’s first album from 1979.

You can hear this fusion of styles on the mystical ‘Mari Rhont Ouve La Pot’, a song for which he credits his collaborator, pianist and arranger Eric Randon for the visionary ideas that perfectly matched Midonet’s sketches of the track. Gratien was all ears and all too happy to bounce off Randon’s suggestions, which led to this unique symbiosis between an acoustic folk sensibility, organic rhythms, cosmic synths, and spiritual, soulful lyrics which you can hear throughout the album. Interestingly he was unaware of other artists and bands (Roland Brival, Marius Cultier, Edmony Krater, etc) also working on a similar path of fusing traditional Caribbean rhythms with western styles like jazz, funk and soul.

Midonet had written the song ‘Ven En Lévé’ (‘A Rising Wind’) two years before resigning from his day job, and it became an instant hit upon its release in 1979. It was massive in Martinique and amongst the French Caribbean diaspora, and an anthem for the then popular independence movement. It was used as such during the trial of one of their activists at the time and subsequently banned for two years from the French airwaves, which consequently made the song even more popular, as it would be covered in 1981 by Les Vikings de la Guadeloupe (later to become Kassav) and still is to this day by the likes of Akiyo (a popular pro-independence carnival drum band from Guadeloupe). ‘Ven En Levé’ and some of his texts are still being studied in schools in Martinique and Guadeloupe today.

Tracklist:

Ven En Levé
La Line Ka Plere
Manman
En Ti Sapotiye
Ti Bolom
Zandoli Leve Doubout
Lan Me Gro
Georgina
Mari Rhont Ouve La Pot
Pa Rache Zheb A Vie Moun