Karl Grundmann
The music of the Cabo Verde diaspora as played by a band hailing from the Lusophone underground of Luxembourg, recorded in Portugal, reissued by a New York label. This well-travelled sound has been enriched by its journeys. It's an upbeat, synth-infused fast-paced homage to Funaná.
Favorite track: Liberdadi.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Digital download includes a PDF booklet, exclusively available on Bandcamp.
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
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Includes unlimited streaming of Grupo Pilon: Leite Quente Funaná de Cabo Verde
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
LP stock is SOLD OUT in the United States and only available from Germany. All orders containing this item will ship from Germany, subject to Deutsche Post shipping prices and COVID-19 tariffs. Please see our Shipping and Returns page for more info.
Shipping is inclusive of packaging.
Product Photography by Janto Djassi / Picture Me Different
Includes unlimited streaming of Grupo Pilon: Leite Quente Funaná de Cabo Verde
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
At home, in the islands of Cabo Verde, there was grog, or grogu, a strong sugarcane moonshine not dissimilar to Colombian aguardiente, copiously consumed at Funaná parties.
In the diaspora, in Europe, there was leite quente (hot milk).
“I can still remember the taste of the first leite quente I drank in Lisbon,” says Antonino Furtado Gomes, Pilon’s drummer and current band leader.
Synthesize the Soul, Ostinato Records’ second compilation, revealed chapter one of the Cabo Verde cultural story in Europe, zooming in on visionaries like Paulino Vieira who made Lisbon the headquarters spearheading the musical revolution taking place within Cape Verdean emigre communities across Europe in the 1980s. Musicians from across the diaspora would eagerly travel to the Portuguese capital to record.
Grupo Pilon represents the second chapter of the Krioulu diaspora story. In smaller pockets, second generation musicians were independently contributing to one of the most lush periods of cultural innovation by immigrants in Europe. In Luxembourg, in 1986, a group of teenagers formed the largely unknown (outside of Cape Verdean circles) but consistently brilliant band named after the blunt instrument used in the islands to pound corn for Cabo Verde's national dish, cachupa.
With only five members, Pilon combined searing estilo Krioulu drumming and the hybrid ColaZouk style with blissful synth work and rugged guitar licks, creating a stripped-down, addictive sound that masterfully straddled two worlds, a seductive electro-Funaná carnival born from the first few sips of hot milk.
The band drew from the inspiring political changes of the day: the release of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The right to democracy became a constant theme in Pilon’s songs.
With access to better opportunities than their parents’ generation, Pilon’s roster were part time musicians. Music was not part of their academic upbringing nor a full-time gig. Their rhythm and style were wonderfully imperfect, made out of rawer skills and inexperience. Pilon did not follow the templates established by revered Cabo Verde bands. Keyboard player Emilio Borges played off beat and the band preferred arranging their songs to start from the beat normally heard in the middle of a composition rather than the beginning. These two elements made Pilon’s music simple, unique, and inimitable.
From 1997 to 2015, a lack of concerts and professional musicians proved near fatal. Today, Antonino and what remain of the original quintet are slowly piecing back together the puzzle of their once mighty outfit from an unlikely pocket of Europe. In its heyday in the 90s, Pilon serenaded audiences in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Lisbon, Rotterdam and Frankfurt, securing their reputation as a respected and unifying cultural force.
This LP, drawing from the six most powerful songs from Pilon’s three-album catalog, is the serving of still fresh leite quente to spice the summer and maybe even fuel the next generation of musicians in the Krioulu corners of Europe.
Pilon are back in the studio refining their sound to revive their journey that looked all but lost to the world's ears two decades ago.
credits
released June 14, 2019
Produced by Ostinato Records
Mastering & Lacquer by The Carvery
Design by Pete 'Piwi' White
Licensing courtesy of Antonino Furtado Gomes
Interview translations & transcriptions by Alexandre Tondina
supported by 136 fans who also own “Grupo Pilon: Leite Quente Funaná de Cabo Verde”
I have to say that this one is one of the finest compilation I've ever seen. The story, the cover, the pictures, the booklet and of course the music! Just magic, like a time machine. fabmeyer
Utterly joyous music from Cape Verde in 1984, “Já Bô Corre D’Mim” combines highlife guitars with giddy tropical rhythms. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 8, 2021