Abolition of slavery in Guadeloupe
A major milestone after many years of turmoil and suffering
Unicum Music, a French music label with longstanding expertise in the digital field, has spearheaded the release of a connected vinyl with museum Mémorial ACTe in Guadeloupe, to honour the victims of slavery by creating an interactive experience at the crossroads of various artistic forms, technology and an institution.
The project’s starting point is « L’Histoire en Marche » (‘History Marching’), one of plastic artist from Guadeloupe Shuck One’s works exposed in the Mémorial ACTe since its inauguration by French President François Hollande in 2015. His work is part of the museum’s permanent collection, as well as its very own sound illustration « Mémorial ACTe I & II », composed by composer Maxime Lenik and performed by violonist Yorrick Troman.
Mémorial ACTe in Guadeloupe is a site dedicated to the collective memory of slavery and the slave trade, as well as a research center trying to bring together all the components of the French population around its shared history and past, to focus on their quest to understanding what freemdom, all freedoms, and living together as a functional society mean.
Shuck One’s installation « L’Histoire en Marche » specifically addresses a long hidden episode of French History : the battle of Joseph Ignace, Louis Delgrès, Solitude and their fellow fighters against the napoleonic troups that came to reinstate slavery on the island in 1801 and from which came out the cry that still resonates to this day : « Live Free or Die ! ».
1848
A major milestone after many years of turmoil and suffering
2008
The building is dedicated to Caribean art forms studying the collective memory of slavery and the slave trade
2017
The musical composition by Maxime Lenik illustrating Shuck One’s “L’Histoire en Marche” installation is finally available to all online
2018
The connected vinyl is released. It is the 2nd project in the world ever.
1801
Louis Delgrès, Joseph Ignace and their compagnons rise against General Richepance and his troops, sent by Napoleon to reinstate slavery in Guadeloupe
2017
The website dedicated to the highlighting what happened 116 years before (French version)
2019
Event planned in Guadeloupe to commemorate Louis Delgres and his men’s sacrifice
The vinyl is like any other vinyl that you play on a standard turntable, except you can scan it with a smartphone (even through the album cover) and the NFC technology will open an app (Revive) with exclusive content.
Thanks to the vinyl, anyone will now be able to remotely explore the work exposed whichever country they live in. The connected vinyl is a technological innovation that was developed and patented by Yes It Is, a French start-up, in partnership with MPO, the historic vinyl manufacturer in France.
His first visual memories of graffiti can be traced to the freedom fighters in the Antilles. Upon his arrival to Paris, this initially visually shocking experience caused him to reflect on graffiti’s Parisian modus operandi. Why did it appear in Paris, and how was it being used? In terms of his graffiti involvement, from that moment on, things happened quickly.
An Activist at the forefront of the Hip-Hop movement, he claimed its ideology as a continuity of his own experiences, past and present. Shuck, a Parisian underground writer of the Eighties with a powerful and aggressive tag, has been, for a long time, a powerful pulse that dominated the subway arteries, either alone or with his crew DCM.
He left behind mural prints in a city boiling with the emergence of Hip-Hop. During this period of dynamic creativity, he founded Basalt, a collective of authentic graffiti artists, a group who wanted to ensure that their work would be done across borders. In 1995, Basalt was dissolved and the relationship between Shuck and the movement Hip-Hop shifted directions.
Shuck acquired an increasingly militant philosophy nourished by his mixed background, that evolved into a progressive view about the role of graffiti in effecting emancipation. He invented the “graffic artism”, developing his work on canvas with what he called a graffic resonance, which expressed the soul of graffiti. He created abstractions–suspended bodies and objects not clearly defined– that never lost the sensibility of the street.
He has been aggressive with color, with stimulating the sensibilities, and with painting and writing themes and events that cause him alarm, including natural disaster and economic injustice. In his work emerges spontaneity, the spirit of vindication, and rhythmic vibrations that arise from contemporary African American music.
Shuck reconciles in his material this spirit and color, in the hopes of escaping the oppressions and indifferent systems that exist in contemporary society.
-Enrick Weissman.
This French musician of Asian and Slav roots wrote and performed his first original compositions at age 10 before taking up drums and percussion studies when he was 14 years old. Maxime graduated from the prestigious Paris and Versailles music conservatories under the tutelage of esteemed musicians such as Lionel Postollec and Sylvio Gualda (Paris Opera Orchestra) and Frederic Macarez (Paris Orchestra timpani soloist).
In 2002, he recorded the world première of the modern rendition of Nicole Philba's “Nuées Ardentes” (1937) for bassoon, strings and percussion with Trio Joachim from Paris Opera Orchestra, directed by Jean-François Verdier. At the same time, he studied music analysis and composition studies under Solange Ancona and in 2004 performed his composition "Ia-V" for vibraphone and tape at the International Percussion Festival (Journees de la Percussion) at the Paris Superior Conservatory.
Maxime joined the French Air Force Brass Band in 2004 as a percussionist, performing in the great halls of Europe, including at the Theatre du Chatelet and the Palais du Congres in Paris, the Kremlin in Moscow and the Budapest Opera. Outside the Brass Band, he has many performances to his credit, including engagements with Pasdeloup Orchestra (Mogador Theater), the Paris Symphonieta, and the Ostinato Orchestra for the Festival Classique au Vert.
In between tour dates, Maxime continued to broaden his repertoire with studies in jazz composition and arrangement alongside Marc Bercowitz and Frank Tortiller. He played with jazz musicians such as saxophonist Eric Prost and pop/world singer Sapho (EMI). He then progressed to studio recordings and collaborations with OxmoPuccino, Nuttea, DJ Sek and DJ Michael Canitrot. In 2005, he decided to further broaden his musical horizon and headed to Shanghai to perform on drums and live electronic music in the city’s throbbing club scene. He has since played alongside local artists such as Coco Zhao and Ben Huang.
Sought out by Universal Music China in 2008, he toured with Sa Dingding (BBC World Music Award winner) in Europe playing at the ICA (London), KKL (Luzern), WOMAD Festival (Canary Islands) and at Babylon Mitte (Berlin). Following a meeting with Shanghai guitar hero Hassan and bass player Jeremi Lasri, Maxime founded folk rock band Weghur in 2006. In 2009, Weghur represented Shanghai in the Chinese final of the Global Battle Of Bands, an international rock band competition, in Hong Kong. After the tour they recorded their 1st EP "Wild Ride", toured across China and released their first EP. In 2012, Maxime moved to Singapore and focused on music production and composition. He collaborated with Danish pop star Sanne Gottlieb/Sunny (Warner). He also scouts and produces emerging local talents such as Fiona Fussi.
As a composer, Xeum has written music for TV commercials in France (Weight Watchers), China (Castel Wines and the city of Hangzhou) and Singapore (Men's Fashion Week). He has also produced music for fashion shows and events for global brands like Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels, Trussardi, Shanghai Tang, Ermenegildo Zegna, Piombo, Nike, and Leviʼs. In 2015 Maxime Lenik is back to Paris, besides his commercial work for well-known brands such as Cartier or Vichy, he focuses his work on new forms of collaboration.
Following the meeting with Shuck One in 2013, Maxime composed a violin concerto (Memorial Acte I & II) which is part of the permanent installation by Shuck One commissioned by the Memorial ACTe Museum in Guadaloupe. In 2018, for the release of the ‘Vivre Libre ou Mourir’ connected vinyl project on Unicum Music, the concerto was performed live for the first time ever, featuring Yorrick Troman on the violin at the UNECO in Paris.
Born in Paris in a family of Baroque musicians, Yorrick Troman started playing the violin aged 4. He studied in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon with prof. Boris Garlitzky, graduated in 2002 with the highest award ( Mention Très Bien ), then studied with prof. Itzhak Shuldman in the Norgemusikhøgskole, Oslo, Norway. Later on, he studied at the Academie de Saintes (Philippe Herreweghe) and followed clases with Emile Cantor ( Orfeus Quartet ) and Joseph Swensen.
Always attracted by the musical diversity, he stepped many times on stage with pop, rock and folkmusic bands, among others as guitarist of the trio Nomad Lib’ (2nd Prize in the Fnapec Chamber Music Competition, Paris 2003, and 1rst Prize in the Torneo Internazionale de Musica, Roma 2004), and in 2015 with flamenco artists Fuensanta La Moneta and Luis Mariano.
In 2004 Yorrick has been teaching the violin in the conservatoire du VIe arrondissement de Paris, but turned his interest to the orchestra world. He started in 2005 with the chair of Second violin Leader in the Copenhagen Philharmonic, Denmark. From there on he moved to 2nd Concertmaster of Århus Symfoniorkester (Denmark), Leader of Second violins of the Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra (Belgium), from 2010 Concertmaster of the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada (Spain).
With the OCG he has developed his function playing as a soloist, conductor, and teaching in the chamber music academy of the orchestra. Since 2015 he became First Concertmaster of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Navarra (Spain) Yorrick Troman has played in various festivals and projects, with partners and friends like Yann Dubost, Olivier Marron, Roland Pidoux, Pierre Fouchenneret, Elissa Cassini, and of course his brother Daniel with the eclectic trio Les Tromano, and take part regularly in the sessions with Les Dissonances (David Grimal) or Le Concert Olympique (Jan Caeyers).
In 2014 he has been invited as assistant teacher of Joseph Swensen in his summer academy in Vermont (United States). In 2017 he is invited to teach the orchestral repertoire to the Orquesta Joven de Andalucia, and since 2016 the Spanish Association of Violinists (ASESVI) made him Honorary Member. He has been teaching violin orchestra repertoire at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain) since 2018.
French-British Emily Gonneau graduated from SciencesPo Paris after earning a BA in History at the Sorbonne.
She started her music industry career at EMI (London then Paris) and left to start Unicum Music, her own label, artist management and publishing company.
She is also the co-founder and Director of Nüagency, a music-centric digital strategy agency, and an expert for JUMP, the European Music Market Accelerator Programme.
She recently launched La Nouvelle Onde, a MaMA-partenered programme aimed at identifying and promoting the next generation of the music business professionals.
Emily Gonneau is also an Associate Professor at Paris Sorbonne University, where she has been teaching a variety of Music Business courses since 2013, and the author of « L’Artiste le Numérique et la Musique » (Surviving the Internet Jungle as an Artist), IRMA (2nd edition, 2019).
Shuck One is interviewed about the importance of what happened in 1801.
Chantal Ahounou was Yasmine Chouaki's guest on her "En Sol Majeur" show.
Shuck One was Yasmine Chouaki's guest on her "En Sol Majeur" show.
British webzine Afroculture was at our UNESCO event on June 8th and reports.
The connected vinyl was recommended by TV presenter Elizabeth Tchoungui in her "Culture Selection".
Shuck One was interviewed by Claudy Siar on his "Couleurs Tropicales" show.
Shuck One was invited to present the "Live Free or Die" project on BET Buzz.
Carmen Lunsmann interviewed Emily Gonneau about the meaning of the project & the connected vinyl.
Shuck One & Maxime Lenik were Aïssa Thiam's guests ("Ambiance Africa" show).
Shuck One is interviewed by Nofi : on the intersection of street art and activism.
June 8, 2018
-- PAST EVENT --
LIVE FREE OR DIE" OFFICIAL LAUNCH & CONNECTED VINYL RELEASE
"Vivre Libre ou Mourir" : Testimonials, remembrance and transmission of artists on the topic of slavery
UNESCO, Paris (FR)