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Radyo Siwèl

Mélissa Laveaux

NØF.40 — 2018

Tracks Credits Bio Links
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Lyrics
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Mwen m konnen yon kote nan fon bwa

Yon kote si w ale

w ap renmen

Mwen m konnen yon kote jouk nan bwa

Yon kote si w ale

w ap rete

Genyen dlo

Genyen rivyè koule

Genyen flè

Genyen bèl moun

Genyen danse Yanvalou

ak tanbou

I know of a place deep into the woods

If you go, it’s a place you’re sure to love

I know of a place at the edge of the woods

If you go, it’s a place you’re sure to stay

There is water, there’s a running river

There are flowers

There are beautiful people

There’s Yanvalou dancing and drums

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Lasirèn labalèn, chapo m tonbe nan lanmè

Lasirèn labalèn, chapo m tonbe nan lanmè

The mermaid, the whale, my hat falls to the sea

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Yaya oumbe, Yaya oumbe Simalo,

Yaya oumbe, Yaya oumbe Simalo,

Yaya oumbe, Yaya oumbe Simalo,

Yaya oumbe Simalo s’am vle mwen fè pou yo

Yaya oumbe Simalo, what do you want me to do for them


I gave you love, I gave you gifts

You turned your back don’t come begging for more

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Vin danse o vin chante o vin danse o

Bann a Nibo

Vin danse o vin chante o vin danse o

Bann a Nibo

Si ou vin chante

Si ou vin danse

Si ou vin danse

Danse ak Nibo

Guede Nibo li mache ak panyal

Guede Nibo se yon nèg Miragwan

Rele li rive

Rele li rive

Guede Nibo

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Mwen soti lavil Jakmèl

Mwen pral Lavale

Arivan kafou Benin

Panama mwen tombe


Panama mwen tombe

Panama mwen tombe

Panama mwen tombe

Sa ki dèyè ramase li pou mwen

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Avan yè mwen wè loulou

Wi oswa mwen fè yon rèv

Tout lannwit Tolalito

Siye Siye m ap banboche

Siye Siye m ap banboche

Kiling Tolalito kiling tolalito

Kiling Tolalito kiling tolalito

Last night I had a dream

You were a bicycle

You were a bicycle

Last night I had a dream

And I rode you

Yes I rode you

Siye siye m a p banboche…


Translation:

The night before left I saw my sweetheart
Yes that night I had a dream
All night tolalito x 2
Mister, mister, I'm so tired
Mister, mister, I'm nodding my head in exhaustion
Kiling, tolalito (just onomotopeas)

I added (borrowed/adapted from Martha Jean Claude's Popurri)

Last night, I had a dream, you were a bicycle, you were a bicycle
Last night, I had a dream, and I rode you, yes I rode you
Siye, siye...

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Kouzen pa prann kouzin la, kouzen
Kouzen pa prann kouzin la, kouzen
W ap bamn ti moso manba kouzen
W ap bam ti moso joumou kouzen
W ap bam ti moso militon kouzen

Come feed me some kassava bread kouzen

Deux goud don’t keep a belly fed kouzen

Fill my mouth with kimanga kouzen


Pa prann la kouzin prann la kouzin o

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Dambala Wedo c’est bon, c’est bon

Ayida Wedo c’est bon, c’est bon

Lè ma monte chwal mwen gen moun la criye

Lè ma monte chwal mwen gen moun la criye

Dambala Wedo feels good, tastes better

Ayida Wedo feels good, tastes better

Traduction du refrain:
When I ride my horse, someone is bound to yell

Quand je monte mon cheval, il y a quelqu’un qui va crier

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Twa Fèy twa rasin o

Jete bliye ramase sonje

Twa Fèy twa rasin o

Jete bliye ramase sonje

Mwen gyen yon basin dlo

Twa fèy na tombe la dan

Jete bliye ramase sonje

Mwen gyen yon basin dlo

Twa fèy na tombe la dan

Jete bliye ramase sonje

Zila moyo

twa fèy na tonbe nan basin mwen

langaj o

twa fèy tonbe nan basin

Salye Boumba

twa fèy na tonbe nan basin mwen

langaj o

twa fèy tonbe nan basin

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Medam m ap ba ou yon konsey

Se lete koute Medam m ap ba ou yon pawol

Se rete tande Medam m ap ba ou youn kichoy

Se rete koute

Anjeli-ko Anjeli-ko

Chita kay manmanw


Chita kay manmanw

Chita kay manmanw

Chita kay manmanw Anjeli-ko

Pa ban mwen desagreman

Chita kay manmanw

Chita kay manmanw

Chita kay manmanw Anjeli-ko Anjeli-ko

Tifi ki pa kon bon salèz

chita kay manmanw

Tifi ki pa kon bon sos pwa

chita kay manmanw

Tifi ki pa kon lave pase

chita kay manmanw

Anjeli-ko Anjeli-ko

Chita kay manmanw


Translation:

Ladies, I’m going to give you a piece of advice

you better stay and listen

Ladies, I’m going to give you a good talking to

you should hear me out

Ladies, I’m going to give you a piece of gossip

you better stay and listen

Angelina, Angelina

Go back to your momma’s house

Chorus:

Go back to your momma’s house

Go back to your momma’s house

Go back to your momma’s house

Quit pissing me off (x2)

Little girl, you don’t know how to make a salad

Go back to your momma’s house

Little girl, you don’t know how to make proper bean sauce

Go back to your momma’s house

Little girls who don’t know how to do the washing and cleaning

should really go back to their momma’s house

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Legba na konsole
Legba we console ourselves

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wai! jolibwa x 3

wai!

lese ti gou pou mwen

lese ti gou pou mwen

dim kote pou m lage ko m

jolibwa nan prizon jolibwa nan prizon

wai! jolibwa x 3 wai!

lese ti bout pou mwen

lese ti bout pou mwen

ba m kote pou m lage ko m

jolibwa nan prizon

behind bars again

jolibwa don’t belong

put me in jail instead

jolibwa nan prizon


Translation of parts in Kreyol

Jolibwa

leave a little taste for me

leave a little taste for me

Tell me where to lay my body


jolibwa’s in jail jolibwa’s in jail 

jolibwa

leave a little spot for me

leave a little spot for me

give me a spot to lay my body

Executive production and A&R - Laurent Bizot 

Artwork - Tessa Mars 

Design - Element(s) 


All songs arranged by Mélissa Laveaux and A.L.B.E.R.T.  

Lè Ma Monte Chwal Mwen - Traditional/Mélissa Laveaux 

Nan Fon Bwa (Frantz Casseus) 

Angeli-ko - Auguste L’Instant de Pradines/Mélissa Laveaux

Kouzen - Traditional/Mélissa Laveaux

Simalo - Traditional/Mélissa Laveaux 

Jolibwa - Mélissa Laveaux

Tolalito - Traditional/Mélissa Laveaux

Twa Fey - Traditional/Mélissa Laveaux

Legba Na Konsole - Traditional/Mélissa Laveaux

Lasirèn la balèn - Traditional/Mélissa Laveaux

Nibo - Ludovic Lamothe/Mélissa Laveaux 

Panama Mwen Tombe - Traditional/Mélissa Laveaux


Published by Nø Førmat! and Twanet


Produced by A.L.B.E.R.T. - Ludovic Bruni, Vincent Taeger, Vincent Taurelle

Recorded by Vincent Taurelle at Studio La Marquise, Pantin, FR 

from April 14th to 22nd, 2017, assisted by Etienne Meunier and Paul Mora.
Mixed by Bertrand Fresel at Studio Juno, Yerres, FR in August 2017 

Mastered by Chab at Chab Mastering Studio, Paris 



Mélissa Laveaux     
Lead and background vocals - all songs

Electric guitar - all songs


Drew Gonsalves      
Electric guitar - 1, 2, 5, 12

Acoustic guitar - 6

12 strings guitar - 3  

Cuatro - 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8

Background vocals - 4, 7, 9, 10, 12

Percussion - 11


Ludovic Bruni      
Bass (all songs except 9) 

Acoustic guitar (9) 

Bongos (12) 


Vincent Taurelle     
Keyboards - 1, 2, 3, 4, 8,12

Congas - 12

Background vocals - 12


Vincent Taeger     
Drums (all songs except 9) 

Percussion (6, 8, 11, 12) 

Background vocals (12) 

Balafon (6) 


With the kind participation of Emilio di Virgilio, the italian speaker - 12 

April 2016. Singer, songwriter and guitarist, Mélissa Laveaux heads to Haiti in search of her roots and on a mission to honour her ancestors. Two decades have gone by since she last set foot on the island when she was 12 years old. She feels like a stranger and yet, at the same time, she experiences the thrill of an exile returning home, for Haiti is an intrinsic part of her identity. 


Born in Canada to Haitian parents and armed with a patched-together vocabulary of Creole from the metaphor-laden expressions and vibrant catch-phrases she’s heard her mother trade with her aunts over long-distance phone calls, she doesn’t know what will emerge musically from her pilgrimage. But as she dives in and discovers the folk songs that bred and nourished Haitians artists for generations, she is seduced by the depth and opulence of her extraordinary heritage.  

She returned home from Haiti with a head full of sounds, melodies, moods and stories of distant times, as a track-list emerged, rich in the multi-layered allegories and symbolism that are characteristic of Haitian poetry and song, like a coded language of resistance. 

From these she built Radyo Siwèl, a unique album steeped in Haitian history and culture and yet which is also highly personal and intimate. “Radyo Siwèl is very important to me because there’s the whole part about remembering your ancestry and honouring your ancestors and elders,” she explains. “I’m getting reacquainted with parts of my heritage my parents left out when they were raising me.”  

On arrival in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, ringing strongly in her ears was the voice of Martha Jean-Claude, a legendary Haitian singer-songwriter whose records had provided the Caribbean soundtrack to Mélissa’s childhood, spent in crisp Ottawa winters. 

Imprisoned for the militancy of her songs and then forced to leave her native island for Cuba in the 1950s, Martha Jean-Claude spent 34 years longingly singing Haitian songs in exile, keeping alive the folklore and memories of  her beloved home.  

Although there were considerable differences in their experience of expatriation, there was enough in common for Mélissa to feel an affinity and for Martha Jean-Claude to become a constant presence in her dreams of her ancestral home.  


Her initial thought was that Radyo Siwèl might become a covers album of Martha Jean-Claude’s songs. Yet once in Haiti, the project grew in scope and ambition. 


At a cultural centre in Port-au-Prince, she was given access to a treasure trove of recordings and notebooks containing old songs that, like the many pieces of a scattered, yet vivid folk memory, have been regularly reinvented over Haiti’s tortuous history.  

One particular episode of this history caught Mélissa’s attention: the American occupation of the island between 1915 and 1934. Dark days, during which the first Black Republic - which had emancipated itself from slavery and proudly seized its independence from the French - was once more tormented by the oppressive presence of a new and unwanted colonial power.  


Popular songs became weapons of resistance once more, enlivened and reinterpreted by a new generation, making sense of hard times. Inextricably intertwined with the spirit of resistance was the presence of vodou  and its many loas, or divinities, who were summoned to protect the Haitian people and to aid in the fight against their oppressors. It was during these dark years that both Martha Jean-Claude and Emerante de Pradines, another legendary Haitian singer, were born. Both recorded Dodo Titit, a traditional Haitian lullaby, which Mélissa covered on her first album, Camphor & Copper a decade ago. In its way, Dodo Titit was the first bud on the mature tree with its roots deep in Haitian soul that is now Radyo Siwèl. The songs and stories on the album are the mature fruit on that tree, named after the island’s hog plums known in creole as the siwèl.  


Some of the songs are so old, nobody knows who wrote them, as they were spread by itinerant troubadours and the rural orchestras, known as Bann’Siwel, which peddled the songs from village to village. Draping them in an indie rock aesthetic, Mélissa’s reinterprets Haitian heritage, taking traditional tunes, vodou anthems and scraps and phrases discovered in old songbooks, and sewing them together like a patchwork of intersecting identities. 


Recorded over just five days and mixed as the tracks were being laid down, Mélissa’s distinctive voice and sinuous guitar playing are burnished further by the shining presence on guitar and cuatro of Drew Gonsalves, leader of Trinidadian band Kobo Town, and the sound is given a dramatic, live feel by the French production team A.L.B.E.R.T. In exile, the call of Haiti’s cultural heritage had sounded to Mélissa like a veiled voice coming from an out-of-range radio. Once there, she tuned in the receiver, filled in the blanks to honour struggles past and then re-imagined them, to open up a future of new possibilities. 


It’s a fairy-tale still looking for a happy ending. But Radyo Siwèl is where a proud but often tragic past meets the promise of a better future. 




NØF.22 — Dying is a Wild Night


NØF.13 — Camphor & Copper

Radyo Siwèl