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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Neil Spencer

Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra review – a noble oddity

Mark Mulholland, Tony Allen, Olaf Hund and Jean-Phi Dary of the Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra.
Mark Mulholland, Tony Allen, Olaf Hund and Jean-Phi Dary of the Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra.

The eponymous title accurately reflects this 2014 superjam, staged in Port-au-Prince with Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen mixing it with the elite of local groups in what proves an almost seamless fusion. Allen and his core group lay down Afrobeat’s familiar loping grooves, and Haitian musicians weigh in with call-and-response chants and invocations from the vodou tradition. Less expected is the strain of futurism, with France’s Olaf Hund adding sinuous synth lines and Glasgow-born guitarist Mark Mulholland alternating between chattering James Brown riffs and storming psych solos. Assembled from rehearsals rather than the actual concert, it’s something of a field recording but one with arresting power. A noble oddity.

Watch the video for Afro-Haitian Experimental Orchestra’s Bade Zile.
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