Artybonito

The Azueï Movement is a collective of artists spanning the shared island of Hispaniola, home to Haïti and the Dominican Republic. Their first album, Artybonito, takes its name from the river Artibonite, which flows through both countries – a fitting metaphor for a group trying to promote a collective identity between the two divided nations.

Musically, this album is a real mixed bag; genre-hopping from one track to the next, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were listening to a compilation record. Composed in Spanish, Creole and English, Artybonito is underpinned by a fusion of Afro-Caribbean styles. ‘Cacibajagua’ pairs driving percussion and saturated guitar with heady vocals not dissimilar in style to Haïti’s Moonlight Benjamin. ‘No Discrimination’ drops straight into a reggae groove, while ‘4 Elementos’ has a deceivingly mellow, almost Alicia Keys-like intro that leaves you unprepared for the dynamic body of the track that follows. ‘Kiskeyan Feeling’, with its uplifting tones, could’ve been plucked straight out of the closing credits to any one of those inspiring underdog films of the 2000s. And really, that is the message running clear and strong throughout the album – a call for people to pull together, even when the odds are stacked against them.