Switzerland - The West & the Rest

Moving onto the French speaking part of Switzerland we cover a music style you may not be expecting from this part of the world: Reggae.  Junior Tshaka was born in Neuchâtel in 1978 and has been playing Reggae ever since winning the European Reggae Contest in 2000.  He sings in French and here is a song from his 2010 album Il Est Temps called Dis-moi qui:

Next stop is Geneva, where I visited a friend a few years ago.

Duo Hyperculte were formed in Geneva in 2014 and describe their style as minimalist transpop prekraut postdisco.  Playing drums and double bass with electronic sounds they are inspired by the likes of Kraftwerk.  Here is a track from their 2019 album Massif Occidental called Temps Mort:

Moving on to Lausanne we meet El Mizan, a band combining the sounds of the Maghreb with punk rock.  Algerian mandole player Anouar Kaddour Chérif and his Swiss band describe their work as "a North African Occidental dish served in Darija".  Here's a track from their only release to date, their 2019 album Nirani, called Hakmet Lakdar:

11-piece Afrobeat band Professor Wouassa were founded in 2003 in Lausanne with mostly Swiss musicians.  It's a long way from yodelling, but shows the metropolitan side of Switzerland.  Here's a track from their 2017 album Grow Yes Yes! called We Thit:

Moving on to the town of Monthey in the mountains of the Canton of Valais, where the Swiss/Malian duo Kala Jula are based consisting of Swiss multi-instrumatalist Vincent Zanetti (guitar, kora, djembe drums) and Malian griot Samba Diabaté on acoustic guitar.  Diabaté is from the western Malian town of Kita and belongs to the Mandinka people and therefore the music very much is inspired by Manding tradition, but with a modern twist, sometimes hinting at jazz.   For their 2017 album Mande Kulu they are joined on double bass by Hélène Labarrière and violonist Jackie Molard to form almost a chamber music ensemble.  Here is a piece from the album called Les Bouffons recorded live:

And just to finish off our virtual tour of Switzerland we stop off in Lugano in the Italian speaking Ticino region, where Switzerland's most successful music act comes from, the hard rock band Gotthard.  They've been going since 1992 and their last 11 albums all went to the top of the Swiss album charts.  In 2010 founding member and lead singer Steve Lee died in a motorcycle accident and was replaced by Nic Maeder.  Shortly after they released a single in memory of their departed singer called Remember It's Me:

Finally on our way east and out of Switzerland we go back to the German speaking Central Switzerland to the Muotathal for something more traditional again.  This is where balfolk trio Ambäck hail from consisting of Markus Flückiger (Schwyzerörgeli), Andreas Gabriel (fiddle) and Pirmin Huber (double bass).  They give a contemporary twist to the traditional dance tunes of their little valley.  Here is a tune from their latest EP Chreiselheuer, which came out earlier this year called Verändler:

This is it from our virtual trip around Switzerland.  Todays tour felt more like a world tour than a tour through this Alpine nation, but at least there was no yodelling in sight this time.  Next stop Liechtenstein (perhaps not...) and Austria.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.