New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Haitian singer Beken has released "Kote'w Te Ye", offering a first glimpse of his upcoming album Troubadour. The song, whose title translates as "
Where Have You Been", was premiered on The Utne Reader. Troubadour will be released via Thirty Tigers on May 4th.
Listen: Beken - "Kote'w Te Ye"
https://soundcloud.com/chrisdonohue/01-kotew-te-ye/s-eYDAs
Beken was discovered (though not for the first time) in 2010, on the streets of earthquake-wracked Port-au-Prince. Journalist
Simon Romero heard one of his songs through the window and (without understanding the Kreyol in which Beken sings) thought its artful melancholy captured the post-catastrophe mood. Eventually
Romero found the singer himself in a camp of displaced persons—suffering, like most of the capital's population, from grief, shock, and dire deprivation. Still, Beken's spirit was strong, and so was his voice. When Thirty Tigers president
David Macias and album producer Chris Donohue heard his singing as a result of Romero's coverage, they were inspired to find a way to bring Beken's music to the world.
Beken's impassioned voice has earned him a few cycles of success in the past, especially in the 1980s when he was able to tour the United States. But wider acclaim remained elusive, especially in the Haitian music world where popularity and prosperity are not the same thing. Despite his struggles, Beken remains committed to expressing himself through music. "I don't need anything—nothing!" he has said. "Just a guitar, a bottle, and some old pen, and I am going to sing a lot. Beken has a lot of things in his head that he has not yet sung."
Troubadour was made according to two well-known Haitian principles of action, mete têt ansamn (putting heads together in cooperation) and ti pa (extremely small steps). Basic guitar tracks and some vocals were laid down in a Port-au-Prince studio, mostly by Beken's son. Beken himself was somewhat wary of the process at first, but gradually began to trust that the production would enhance his sound but not alter it—despite a complicated overdubbing situation in which some tracks (notably the work of accordionist Allen Juste) were added in Haiti, and others in the United States.
Producer Chris Donohue's subtle contribution to Troubadour is to make Beken sound more like himself than any previous recording has done - to tease his very particular musical flavor out of the universality of Haitian folk-singing. Donohue is currently available for interviews to discuss Beken and Troubadour's creation.
https://bekenmusic.com
