Among the Haitian bands that manage to travel abroad, Chouk Bwa Libète is probably the most closely linked to the roots of vodou inherited from ancestors torn from African lands by the tragedy of the slave trade. The Ångströmers are two representatives of Brussels’ most radical and uncompromising electronic scene. The combination of the two aims to bring an unique tradition into a modernity that honors it.
The two entities have been active together since 2016. They have tirelessly sought a form of symbiosis between their respective vocabularies, so that the electronic part never gets in the way of the freedom of the rhythmic flow. That’s why they’ve never used drum machines or any other process that would padlock the drumming. The Ångströmers use dub principles to give the Haitian trance a new width in the sound spectrum. This is by no means entertainment, but on the contrary a plunge into the reality of a living culture, carried in their souls by the members of Chouk Bwa Libète, with the added desire to inscribe it in the present time, through the respectful action of the Ångströmers.
Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers had their first performances in 2018 and were quickly selected at Trans Musicales de Rennes in 2019. Dusted Magazine described their debut album Vodou Ale, which also marked the start of the collaboration with Bongo Joe in 2020, as: “(…) an astonishingly power sound that reaches right into the gut, but also lifts free of physical boundaries.(…)”.
Two years after Somanti, Live At Cafe Oto arrives as a sort of culmination of the long joint research. In 2022 and 2023, Chouk Bwa & The Ångströmers performed over sixty concerts in Europe. One of those was recorded on 16th October 2023 at Cafe Oto, London. It is undoubtedly a significant example of what the collaboration is able to deliver in concert. The raw percussive trance music with electronic radiations brings a complex, powerful and spiritual experience to audiences. “Live At Cafe Oto” outlines the repertoire previously recorded on Somanti, and released by Bongo Joe in October 2023. In the live setting, it takes on yet another dimension of freedom and wildness.
