DAWUNA - HONOUR

Dawuna est un chanteur, auteur-compositeur et producteur né dans le Maryland. Après avoir vécu quelques années au Kenya, il revient aux États-Unis et s’installe en Virginie, où il est frappé de plein fouet par des comportements racistes et se réfugie dans la musique Gospel. Son déménagement à New York en 2019 lui permet de trouver une nouvelle voie. C’est là qu’il commence à enregistrer de la musique. Ses compositions mêlent un R&B intime et intemporel avec style de production à la fois confus et complexe qui lui est propre.

HONOUR

 There's not much we can say about Honour that makes complete sense. They may or may not have grown up in the US, making beats with a cousin who sang in a church band; they might have toured as a roadie with platinum-selling R&B outfit Pretty Ricky before acing regional videogame tournaments and moving to NYC; and signed to Violator management; and maybe they ended up stationed in London, working as a runner on music promos.

But however plausible it is, the breadcrumb trail provides us with a detailed cultural framework of a dense fog of pop and underground references that's as inescapable as it is enticing. It's a rare debut that engulfs even the most cautious listener, sweeping through tongue-in-cheek Wild West bravado and psychedelic, overdriven club rap, bifurcating into crumbly DIY noise and vaporous euphoric soul. Sometimes barbed and cynical, but just as often deliriously warm-hearted, it's a record of contradictions that's as puzzling to unpick as the artist's baffling backstory.