Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with Carlton Rara

Carlton Rara - Universed

The album Universed is the beginning of a new cycle in the career of Carlton Rara. 12 tracks over 52 minutes that express both the original energy of the musician composer and producer and all that is new to be discovered. Diversity and amplitude of musical colors, rhythms and tempos, the melody of the bass lines... to which everyone is free to give references or not, an instinctive mixing of Haitian Creole and English, are all weaves that compose this new album.

From the first title Poze Zam, we are invited, to enter the dance, to lay down our weapons, a necessary stripping to make ourselves capable of a communication closer to reality which would lead to a profound peace. A peace that we could live in our inner being, just as much as joy, as the second title All Inside suggests.

Joy is clearly present in the song This Morning, which reminds us that, after trials, life is also made of rebirths, as well as in Judgment Day which invites us to express more what we feel rather than multiplying judgments and evaluations in our ways of speaking; these two titles are carried by rhythms inherited from Ska.

Lespri Kolonial la expresses the wish that the light will come to enlighten the consciousness of human beings sufficiently so that they stop exploiting what surrounds them and Down the Valley is a small observatory of human suffering and unconsciousness in relation to technology. A human suffering more organically expressed on the reggae track Sa Ma fe which evokes the socio-political situation of Haiti.

Carlton is at ease sharing more intimacy and spirituality with us in the songs Today, full of percussion, I am Being, ode to slowness and the present moment, as well as in Se Konsa Latè a ye, little secret box and the song I quit where a man confides to us that he was an alcoholic but that he quit drinking thanks to the forces of life.

Life precisely, celebrated in the song Lavi a which comes to close this album on a tempo and a rhythm inspired by the Haitian rara just as danceable as the introductory title. The palette of the album Universed is as much expressed in its music as in its visuals made by the young artists Louh-Ann Alexandrenne and Paula Ambrosio.

Last but not least, this record which looks like a second first album is marked by the participation of Miguel Castro on guitar and Christian Duperray on bass who have taken to heart to interpret Carlton's compositions with their talents.

"Beyond all intentions, may, even a single note from this album, find a way to the soul that will know how to receive it". (Carlton Rara)

Singer, songwriter and actor, Carlton Rara was born in France to a Haitian mother and a French father. He has been influenced by artists of all genres since his early childhood spent in concert halls. There, jazzmen, choreographers, singers, directors showed him the way to become a stage artist. He learned music as an autodidact and eventually created a style of his own, mixed with various influences such as reggae, blues, pop music and traditional Haitian music. Primarily a percussionist, he approaches the music compositions by pulsations and rhythms.

Interview with Carlton Rara

(1)> Universed blends Haitian Creole and English, how do you decide which language fits each song or lyric?

I don't decide with my mind which language I'm going to use, it's part of the intuitive aspect of the creation process.

It is also for this reason that the two languages are often used in the same song.

(2)> Many tracks explore social, political, and spiritual themes; which of these messages feels most urgent for you to communicate through this album?

It seems to me that spirituality is today the most able to help us to develop practices in order to access the consciousness to which we, human beings, are invited

(3)> Can you describe the creative process behind mixing traditional Haitian rhythms like rara with reggae, ska, and other styles?

Rhythms, pulsations and the various musics that I have fed on, I use them freely as creative tools, as vibrations that are in harmony with my being.

(4)> How did collaborating with musicians like Miguel Castro and Christian Duperray influence the final sound of Universed?

Miguel (guitar) and Christian (bass) have fueled the music of Universed with their own energies, their musical skills, their own perceptions of my compositions with a

very physical implication.

(5)> You handled much of the production and mixing yourself, how does that hands-on approach shape the intimacy and energy of the album?

By doing the directing and the mixing myself, I really could shape the album throughout all its creation process by keeping a lot of options possible and I could remain open

to the inspiration of the different phases I went through from the first to the last second. It was a way to deal with the present moment at each step.

(6)> The album opens with “Poze Zam” and closes with “Lavi a,” both danceable yet thematically profound—how did you structure the journey of the album?

Again, I appealed to intuition by letting one song call for another. When I manage to bring enough clarity to the compositions,

they come out with a consistency that I don't need to think about. That said, I think that the introduction must be catchy and the conclusion brings the idea that the end

of one cycle corresponds to the beginning of another. In summary there is no beginning or end but an infinite frame.

(7)> How do the visuals by Louh-Ann Alexandrenne and Paula Ambrosio complement the musical themes of Universed?

Louh-Ann and Paola have talents as artists and graphic designers who seemed to me to be able to translate the visions I had for the visual of this album.

In addition they brought their own ideas and creative expressions. More than a complement, the cover is the gateway to the sound of the album.

(8)> Many songs convey personal and universal transformation, how do your own life experiences inform the album’s lyrical content?

My personal evolution has allowed me to transmit both my perceptions and my feelings in a more direct way, closer to the realities I am going trough in my life.

I feel more capable of presence today, so, less in the reflective demonstration and less like the toy of emotions.

The poetic approach of this album consisted in staying as close to the real as possible.

(9)> As a multi-disciplinary artist, how do your experiences in acting, voice-over work, and performance influence your songwriting and musical arrangements?

Some songs are like stories and my ability to interpret roles allows me to embody certain characters vocally and also to produce images that help me clarify

the writing. My experience as a voice-over actor pushes me to continue working on the use of my voice to make it gain mastery and balance.

Making my own backing vocals as well makes me work on the accuracy of my singing and it is for me an essential arrangement.

(10)> Looking forward, how do you hope Universed will connect with listeners on both an emotional and spiritual level?

I would like listeners to receive the album with their bodies, their heart and their souls in order to be able to make a real listening of it.

Listening to a whole album makes it possible for the listeners to approach the diversity of those who compose and doing so to approach their own diversities, by observing what

they like and also what they like less and how they feel about it, because basically that's what matters, the observatory of consciousness that everyone can set up for their own evolution.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out Carlton Rara on the Pigeon Spins Playlist