[Music] Félix Blume – Death in Haiti: Funeral Brass Bands & Sounds from Port au Prince


French sound artist and engineer Félix Blume produces something voyeuristic and creepy, yet engaging and life-affirming at the same time.  This album is a collection of brass music played at funerals in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

According to the website, there are featured in these ‘performances’ 15 dead, 15 funerals, 16 funeral processions, 1 procession with no dead, 5 churches, 1 cemetery, 1 wake, all recorded, including the wails and sobbing of those who lost their loved ones.  There is a feeling that death has been conquered and mocked, however, in the same way New Orleans funerals tend to be.

This is field recording at its most engaging, at least for me.

[Music] Tanbou Toujou Lou: Meringue, Kompa Kreyol, Vodou Jazz, & Electric Folklore from Haiti 1960 – 1981

It’s not often that I get to post on a release from Haiti, as I’ve never really had reliable contacts who could guide me to what treasures lie underneath that island which suffers so much.  This release from Ostinato Records, a small label out of New York who are doing some incredible reissues from various parts of Africa (think Somalia and Cape Verde for starters), put together this remarkable collection of tracks recorded not only in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, but among the expatriate community residing in Brooklyn, New York.