Erol Josue Regelman CD

When an album is described as a "musical mirror" of Haitian voodoo ceremonies, what you might expect is something like a field recording, featuring strange liturgical singing and chanting with minimal and probably fairly rudimentary accompaniment. What voodoo priest Erol Josue offers on this album, however, is something quite different: sophisticated and multi-layered arrangements of songs that draw on voodoo ceremonies for their lyrical themes and melodies, but that are recorded professionally and feature a wide variety of musical influences and elements, from the electric kalimba sounds of Congo to American R&B, Haitian folk and pop music, soca, and West African high life. It's a rich and heady musical mixture, one that works best to the degree that its ingredients are wrestled into something resembling song format. When Josue contents himself with trance-inducing repetition (as on "Madam Legan" and "Yege Dahomen"), the surface attractions of the music wear thin fairly quickly. But when he takes a more disciplined approach, as on the gorgeous "La Souvenance," the slow and funky "Ochan Lavi" and the subtle but cathartic "Atompa," the results are ravishing. Whatever one may think about Josue's missionary approach to voodoo tradition, there's no denying the excitement and beauty of his music. ~ Rick Anderson

Personnel: Valerie Louis, Rozena Zila, Majorie Beaubrun (vocals); John Lucas, PJ Bianco, Bill Man, Guilherme, Chad F. Elliott, Juancho Herrera (guitars); Jojo Kuo (drums); Markus Schwarts, Joel Augustin (percussion).