VOUN by ZANMARI BARE

Contemporary Maloya from Réunion from one of the stars of the genre.Widely revered in his homeland of Réunion in the Indian Ocean but little known beyond its borders, Zanmari Baré is at the forefront of the renaissance in Maloya music. Following in the footsteps of (and frequently collaborating with) DanyeÌ€l Waro, Zanmari Baré boils down the 6/8 rhythms of Maloya to their essence: subdued percussion, plaintive vocals, Kayanm (shaker & principal instrument of Maloya) and the “bobre” - a musical arc similar to the Brazilian berimbau. Zanmari’s lyrics deal with the identity and history of Réunion, telling stories from the parts of the island away from the tourists and the beaches - stories from the villages surrounded by dense forest, in the crater of the dormant volcano that makes up the island. Recorded in 2017, Voun (a reference to the humus of the forest floor) has been specially mastered for vinyl by Frank Merritt at the Carvery studios.