BONBON VODOU

‘Épopée métèque’ is the third album from Bonbon Vodou (Oriane Lacaille and JereM Boucris) and celebrates the duo’s 10^th anniversary. Featuring a rich orchestration, set to lyrics in French, Creole, and Gascon, it follows the path of exile.

The “bonbon piment ” (a kind of chili bun from Reunion Island) is deceptively innocent. Beneath the harmless appearance of a doughnut, this appetizer hides spices that are sure to knock you off your feet. It’s the same with Bonbon Vodou. While the duo’s influences sway between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, a spicy edge pierces through the tenderness of their delicate songs, often lulled by the rhythm of maloya. This contrast gives depth to their third album, ‘Épopée métèque’, which takes us on the paths of exile, whether by land or sea.

Oriane Lacaille is the daughter of accordionist René Lacaille, a key figure in the revival of Reunionese music in the 1970s, who has lived in mainland France for five decades; while JereM Boucris’s father, from a Tunisian Jewish family, was 14 years old when he moved to France at the end of the protectorate. Their lives are interwoven with these paternal exiles, whose intimate entanglements they never cease to unravel, and with other, universal exiles: those of migrants fleeing poverty, persecution, and war.

The duo is now joined by a lively trio, Piment Piment (Juliette Minvielle, Roland Seilhes, Yann-Lou Bertrand), rounding out a rich arrangement featuring guitars, flutes, brass, roulèr, kayamb, and jaw harp… All set to lyrics in French, Creole, and Gascon, featuring the voices of numerous guests,
including Mouss & Hakim, Rosemary Standley, and Bernard Lavilliers. A playful album
that explores life and death, luminous yet thoughtful, seeming to paraphrase Camus:
“There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night.”

Oriane Lacaille (vocals, drums, kayamb, roulèr), Jérémie Boucris (vocals, guitar, cigar box, ukulele), Yann-Lou Bertrand (bass, flute, trumpet), Roland Seilhes (saxophone, clarinet, flute), Juliette Minvielle (string drum, jaw harp, pandeiro).