Alain Peters - Rest' La Maloya LP

Alain Peters - Rest' La Maloya LP (Bongo Joe/Switerzland)

Listening Notes: You almost need to hear it to believe this one; lo-fi creole blues meets outernational tropical folk. African instruments intersect with Indian mysticism and each becomes a tragic poem. He died at the age of 43 in the mid '90s, but luckily we have these songs collected here as a testament to his immense talent which flowed out of him a naturally as a breathing. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Mood: A sun being sucked into a blackhole of despair.

They Say:

Alain Péters is one of the best-kept secrets in the music scene of the Indian Ocean and beyond. His music is unique: a blend of Creole blues, maloya and international folk, it discretely takes hold of you and never leaves you. Péters travelled through the 70s and the 80s like a shooting star, alone or with a band, with his Sahelian lute, his reel-to-reel tape recorder, firewater and ill-fated genius. He died in 1995, aged 43. Poet, musician, singer and melody-maker, he left behind a handful of sublime songs which are gathered here for the first time on vinyl. Full of dazzling beauty and sparkling darkness, his songs express the yearning homesickness of the Creoles’ highly sensitive wandering soul, at the crossroads of African, Indian and European cultures. Réunion (literally “the gathering”) is aptly named and over the course of his uncertain career, Péters continuously embodied the soul of this culturally hybrid land with a fusion of African instruments, Indian mysticism and European poetry.