Longoz

Idioma disponible: inglés

In 2018, this Réunionese singer explosively arrived on the scene with an enraged and deeply moving debut album. With her Maloya-rooted style (the traditional style of Réunion), the young woman unloads her troubles by singing of a traumatic childhood of incest, abuse and the suicide of her father. Her brutal confessions have had the bittersweet effect of kickstarting an artistic career in music and dance. Ann O’Aro has not turned a page on her past but simply written a new chapter in her discography. With a different musical formula that was first shown on stage, she is joined by a percussionist and trombonist as she distances herself from the traditional Maloya form. Nevertheless, Maloya is embraced in substance with her creole poetry which sings about the human soul, alcohol addiction and sexual constraint, in terms of both incest and, simply, love. Musical accompaniments are stripped down and the tone is rather sombre but not overbearing. What saves Ann O’Aro’s music is her dense, dancing voice which owes as much to blues as it does to Maloya while also embracing some flamenco influences. It’s the voice of a sorceress who looks to entrance her listener. There is something liturgic in Ann O’Aro’s Maloya, a supernatural strength that lifts itself up above ternary rhythms and choirs. The trombone sometimes brings the songs close to New Orelans voodoo rituals, yet another Creole world whose secrets Ann O’Aro has by no means finished seeking out. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz