Nonesounds
Of the Uyghurs, the Western world mainly knows the violence suffered by the Chinese regime and the forced labor camps denounced by the UN investigations. There has been less interest in artists from the diaspora. Two young musicians, Aishan and Erpan, fled the Xinjiang region to land in Barcelona and founded Nonesounds, conceived as a political and artistic mouthpiece, in 2016. Their techno is radical and scholarly, rooted out of modular synthesizers and a furious desire to send European audiences soaring. They alternate more ambient titles and pachydermic and unbridled rhythms, cut out for large venues like the Hall 9 balèze of the Transmusicales. Chinese propaganda likes to present Uyghur music as cheerful, upbeat and, in fact, healthy. Here is the dark and determined side.
FifteenFifteen
In French Polynesia, the oral tradition is transmitted by the oreros, these declamations elevated to the rank of art guaranteeing the legends and the history of the local peoples to subsist. Today they inspire the group QuinzeQuinze, two of whose members are from the archipelago. Founded in Paris, the group links this heritage to deep, beautifully disarticulated and visual electronic music. Despite their obvious dexterity, none of the five musicians comes from music: first there was the attraction for graphics, and for design, later transformed into sounds and atmospheres. Their latest album, Spirit, is therefore a mixture of Polynesian influences, candombe rhythms from Uruguay and mixed Cuban sounds, abused in poetry and alternating currents. The images sent on stage, the traditional instruments… Everything forms a music that they describe as “climatic”, quite unique.
DJ Travella
No, it’s not the speaker that bugs or the computer that rows. It’s DJ Travella having fun. Coming from the Fruity Loops generation, named after this music composition software that is as instinctive as possible and super popular among musicians who don’t give a damn about established musical orders, the 19-year-old Tanzanian producer plays scruffy and frontal music. All the great electronic codes are accelerated and pushed to their limits to form a genre that is a hit in Tanzania: the singeli. At DJ Travella, the most syrupy melodies become aggressive, hazardous sounds become percussive, just like glitches, silences, percussion descents, sirens… To the ear, it’s disconcerting. But very quickly, consistency takes precedence and reveals a formidable mastery of tools and a completely hallucinated inventiveness. Ode to resourcefulness, the album Mr Mixondo is an incendiary nugget whose live version is eagerly awaited.