COMBO DAGUERRE RELEASE PARTY + BARBES 20th ANNIVERSARY. JUNE 28th
FRANCE ROCKS RECOMMENDS
Barbès Records presents:
COMBO DAGUERRE
Franco-Latin Psychedelic Chanson
Debut album, Fracassines out June 28th
Barbès Records 20th anniversary
The combo is named after Daguerre, usually credited as one of the inventors of photography, but Daguerre also refers to a street in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, steps away from where Conan grew up – a street lovingly documented by Nouvelle Vague filmmaker Agnès Varda.
Combo Daguerre started as francophone offshoot of Chicha Libre, a cumbia and chicha band that spent close to a decade touring around the world – and like its predecessor, the project owes much to New York city where cultural and linguistic borders are fluid and Pan-Latin influences can be found in every possible musical genre. Its music is filled with joy and darkness, deep grooves and dirges, nostalgia, and futurism and deals with exile, misplaced nostalgia, and a language adulterated by distance.
After dealing in mostly Latin tropical styles for over a decade, with the psychedelic cumbia of his band Chicha Libre in particular, Brooklyn-based Olivier Conan now leads Combo Daguerre, a group that performs original French tunes with a psychedelic edge and a mostly Latin crew. Its hybrid style is informed by boleros, cumbia, 60’s rock, French chanson, Gainsbourg and 1930s surrealism.
Fracassines is Combo Daguerre’s debut album. While its repertoire is somewhat moodier and more downtempo than Chicha Libre’s, the album remains mostly upbeat. Much of the lyrics deal with the ghosts of the past and the toxicity of nostalgia, with touches of surrealistic humor that ensures than none of it be taken too seriously. All songs are written in a French battered by decades of expatriation and peppered with semi-conscious references to France’s pop and literary past.
Fracassines coincides with the 20th anniversary of Barbès records.
Bandleader Olivier Conan grew up in Paris, moved to New York in his 20’s and has since been working as a musician, producer, and curator. He owns and curates the small Brooklyn club Barbès. As a producer, he is responsible for the compilation The Roots of Chicha, albums by Los Wembler’s de Iquitos and Las Rubias del Norte and his own band, Chicha Libre.
Band members are all active on New York’s rich indie Latin scene (Tipa, Tipo, Banda Chuska, Locobeach) and come from Peru, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Venezuela – and Cajun country. All share a transplant’s vision of the world and its culture, giving the French language compositions a deeply cosmopolitan flavor.
Combo Daguerre is: Adele Fournet – keyboards; Felipe Wurst – guitar; Andres Fonseca – drums; Neil Ochoa – percussion; Dan Martinez – bass and Olivier Conan – cuatro and vocals.
Combo Daguerre’s debut album will be released on June 28 of 2024, with a show at Brooklyn’s Sultan Room on June 29th in celebration of Barbès Records’ 20th anniversary.
