Monmon by Danyèl Waro

Danyèl Waro has always stayed faithful to the acoustic tradition of Maloya, the blues of the island of Réunion, and he is recognized as its "hero". As a musician and poet, he sings Creole with unparalleled emotion: “Maloya, for me, is first and foremost about the word," he says. "I'm looking for the cadence, the image, the rhythm in the word. Maloya has put me in touch with Réunion, with its people, with our language.”

As Richard Robert wrote in Les InRocKuptibles: "The sudden rage and the sharp wisdom of his texts combine in a form of trance that is experienced not as an escape, a deliberate and controlled loss of mind and senses, but on the contrary as the search for a higher consciousness, uniting thought, word and gesture into a single impulse.”

Danyèl Waro hadn’t set foot in the studio since the release in 2010 of Aou Amwin (Grand Prix of the Académie Charles Cros), the year of his WOMEX Artist Award (following Staff Benda Bilili, Andy Palacio, Toto la Monposina or Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) and his new album, monmon (the lower-case “m” is deliberate as it is not only for his own mother but for all "monmons”), resonates with all the spirituality and commitment of this outstanding artist.

Poet and composer Danyel Waro is one of the living heroes of La Réunion and is the foremost voice of Maloya, the rebel blues music of the Indian Ocean

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