Roland Kernen

Caribbean Calypso

The music of the Caribbean is a mixture of styles encompassing traditions that reflect the nature of its many islands and ethnic groups which inherited a multitude of rhythms imported by slaves from West Africa. Europeans brought with them Western-style melodies and harmonies, still used today in Trinidadian calypso, a traditional folk genre which gained worldwide popularity thanks to internationally famous artists such as the American singer Harry Belafonte (Calypso, Island in the Sun, Day-O/Banana Boat Song). Fascinated by this music which embodies the very spirit of exoticism, Roland Kernen composed Caribbean Calypso, a composition with softly swaying rhythms which follow a gentle and subtle melodic line in a rum and cigar-flavoured atmosphere.