Le studio d’enregistrement comme lieu d’expérimentation, outil créatif et vecteur d’internationalisation : Stonetree Records et la paranda garifuna en Amérique centrale
Born from a critical encounter (imposed in exile) between Garifuna people and Spanish-speaking Central American populations, Paranda is currently experiencing a resurgence of interest among stakeholders of the garifuna record production. Since its arrival in the recording studios, it has evolved into a modernized form, using electric instruments and sound treatment techniques taken from popular music. In 2000 (with the release of Paranda; Africa in Central America, produced by Ivan Duran and distributed by Warner/Elektra), Paranda became a world music, thus experiencing a substantial success in world music charts – popularity that unfolds afterwards in Garifuna communities, rediscovering a musical genre that had virtually disappeared in the village. From the example of a “recuperation”, for commercial purposes, of a traditional musical genre by an independent Central American label, this dissertation shows how a world music producer has been able to use the recording studio as a creative tool that opened the doors of internationalization. Using the studio as an experimental lab, Ivan Duran succeeded in making records that, while reaching an international critical success, would also allow him to establish his own label, Stonetree Records, as a standard within the whole regional music industry. To understand which mechanisms are activated (and how) within the spatio-temporal framework defined by the recording studio, this doctoral research will focus on the production of Laru Beya – parandero Aurelio Martinez’s latest album, produced by Ivan Duran and internationally distributed. The three central chapters are devoted to the semiotic analysis of this record, with a study of 1) creative strategies developed in the studio (through an ethnography of recording sessions, which took place on a beach in Honduras), then 2) the musical object as it was marketed (the "work" itself) and finally 3) different listeners’ (Garifuna or not) reactions. While the first chapter of this dissertation provides a contextualization of our research object (from "the studio to the village"), the fifth and final chapter – after extending the results of our case study to other phenomena – focuses on assessing the impact of Paranda’s internationalization on local music production (going back from “the studio to the village”).
Garifuna Stonetree Records Paranda Ethnomusicology Studio recording World music Central America