Superlatif child of French-style cultural mixing, Supergombo's afrofunk probably also descends from Tout Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo and the Headhunters. Nourished by Senegalese Mbalax, Congolese soukous, US funk and global jazz, the sound played here is therefore inevitably from elsewhere.
Yet, we will not speak with them of "world music". From the world, Supergombo rather keeps the rhythm, frenetic and uncontrolled. Even if this 7-musician group knows that sometimes you have to slow down, stroll, take your time. Supergombo thus calmly does its super-market from Bamako to Ouaga, with an obligatory detour via the Guillotière, a Lyon district known for its diversity.
To make everyone travel and make the crowds dance, that is the double objective Supergombo has set for itself. As the starting point of the journey, Etienne Kermarc chose the sounds of West Africa, those his father brought back from his years spent in Africa and that the bassist was keen to confront with his own jazz culture. His traveling companions - Aurélien Joly and Nacim Brahimi on winds, Romain Nassini and Riad Klai for the harmonies, Réunion-born David Doris and Burkinabé Wendlavim Zabsonré behind the drums and other percussion - each bring their stone to the writing or arrangement of the ideas and sounds. For the production, the label Z Production entrusts the task to Vincent Taurelle, Etienne Meunier and Benoît Bel. In the hands of these accomplices of Tony Allen and Daft Punk, the invitation to dance ends up turning into an imperative injunction.
From bikutsi rhythms (Faraphonium) to mandingue scales (Nâ Kuima), between blazing grooves and iridescent colors, Supergombo orchestrates an African suite that unabashedly looks west as well as east, toward the Antilles or the Far East! And as if to push the journey a little further, the group takes mischievous pleasure in slipping here and there a few nods to cinema: Blaxploitation films, Bruce Lee cinema, blockbuster soundtracks in the style of Lalo Schiffrin... And of course, messy melting pots à la Tarantino as on the emblematic “Marquis Warren”, where the arid imagery of the western brazenly rubs shoulders with the sugary codes of coupé-décalé.
Without a doubt, this music knows how to surprise. But above all to settle in, to take root. In the head, to better win over the whole body. So it is no surprise that Supergombo flourishes in tireless repetition and sometimes comes close in this respect to electronic trances. But at no point does this music forget its roots. Nor the intoxication of storytellers.