Melt the World Issue #40

With Recreation, Zap Mama goes global

By Laura Marcus
Published: June 1st, 2009 | 12:00pm

Marie Daulne, the founder and front woman of Zap Mama has always been an eager student. Since the early 1990s she has been on a mission to weave a sound so expansive, so imaginative that its origins cannot be extracted. Her newest album, ReCreation, is another testament to her musical and intellectual curiosity — a curiosity that has taken her across the globe. On ReCreation, Grammy-nominated Zap Mama is once again aurally traipsing through the jungles of the Congo, and the beaches of Brazil, through the streets of Europe and into the basements of New York City. But this time is different, not because Zap Mama’s intentions have changed, but maybe because we’re finally ready to listen and take a trip with her.

Born in the Congo, and raised in Belgium, Marie Daulne’s childhood was infused with a vast array of musical influences. At home, she listened to her mother’s music, the sounds of her homeland, but outside those walls she found another world. “At home it was Africa, and outside was Europe. I was always living in between those two worlds, but I realized that it was easy for me to jump from one culture to the other, from one style to another. At home we listened to African music, but then I would listen to the radio, and it was a completely different style, but I appreciated both.” For Daulne, there was no push and pull between her two worlds, instead there was a dynamic relationship that she soon learned to love. “I realized that being able to move between different sounds and cultures was a good thing. So I started to listen to music from different places in Africa, and different areas of Europe, and the United States too. I had felt like I was in limbo between these different worlds, but then I realized that mixing all these different elements was really pleasant! And I thought to myself, I’ll create this kind of music.” With a deep love of tradition and a yearning for untapped melodies, Zap Mama’s musical fate was sealed, and Daulne was at the helm.

Like an explorer who yearns for her newest discovery, Daulne has spent her life trekking the globe in search of new inspiration, and ReCreation was no exception. From Brazil to Boston, Belgium, New York City, and Los Angeles, each track reflects a different destination and a different sound. And with these tracks in tow, Daulne enticed an eclectic crew of collaborators. “I would take a track I recorded in Brazil, and ask someone in New York ‘How do you feel about it?’ Having them react like ‘Wow this is such a fresh new sound’ brought so much inspiration and excitement.” With the help of G. Love, actor Vincent Cassel (La Haine, Eastern Promises), and two members of Zap Mama’s original line up (Sylvie Nawasadio and Sabine Kabongo), Daulne drew inspiration from every corner of the world. “I try to take people on holiday with my music, take them to a different place they’ve never discovered before. You might be sitting in your office all day, you might not be able to travel because it’s too expensive, or you’re scared of flying, but I really hope that some of my tracks will help people travel if only in their minds.”

With so many sources of creativity, one wonders how Daulne can whittle them down to manageable pieces. When asked about her creative process, she uses one of the album’s catchiest tracks, “Drifting,” as an example: “I woke up and the song was in me. I said ‘Okay, this song wants to exist.’ So in the middle of the night, I grabbed my phone and started singing into it. The song was born in the middle of the night; I really had no control over it. I have no idea where it came from or who inspired me, but it just came to me in a dream, and I thought that it sounded good in my head so I had to record it. It would be nice if all my songs came about like that!”

Although Zap Mama’s global sound and multicultural philosophy have been around since the early ‘90s, it seems that their message is more relevant now than ever before. With the recent change in the White House and a real sense of optimism even in the face of adversity, ReCreation speaks volumes about what true transculturalism and openness can achieve. Did Zap Mama hope that this new album would speak to Americans in particular? “I hope it will speak to people over the world! I really want people from all countries to love it and enjoy it. I want to connect people from all over, and have them appreciate the same songs. They may not know where the sounds come from, but I hope it makes them think outside the box and travel to another place. I try to harness the essence of the human connection. Evoking human emotion with my music — that is what I try to do.”