What kind of turning-point does this new album represent for Malavoi ?
"Fléch Kann" is something, which comes back every year. In fact, it's a flower, it's what we call the flower of the sugar cane plant in Martinique. For us, this album is a means of going back to our roots, a means of preserving elements of our island's culture, like the biguine, the mazurka… All the dances and rhythms of Martinique from the quadrille to the haute taille… Malavoi is all about combining our 'local' music with modern arrangements and lots of strings, which gives you the most fantastic harmonies. You can do so many things with a mix like this.

So, basically, the new album marks the return of the old Malavoi we know and love…
This new album is a way of showing people we're still here - Malavoi still exists! And the big surprise for music fans is that Mano Césaire, the man who created Malavoi, is back. Mano hasn't been working with the group for a while for professional reasons although, having said that, he never really 'left' Malavoi in the first place. Mano's our patriarch, our kingpin, as they say. Anyway, this album is a way of showing Malavoi still exists. It's to remind everyone that Malavoi is all about scents and flavours, that we're still open to musical influences from the rest of the world and the Caribbean, that Malavoi are still about bringing a ray of light into people's lives. Faced with the concrete jungle invading our lives right now, we're trying to show there are still certain values worth fighting for. And one of these is the importance of the relationship between individuals. That's what we place a lot of value on - and that's one of the things we're talking about on our new album.

Compared to your last album - which was a very topical album brought out to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery - do you feel that "Fléch Kann" is a return to the essence of Malavoi?
The new album is pure Malavoi! "Maronnages", the album you're referring to, was a concept album on which we invited singers and musicians from all over the Caribbean, including La Réunion. You know, it was like Malavoi goes to the DOM TOM (Ed: the collective name for France's overseas territories) … But this album is about the pure, authentic Malavoi sound - it's all about focusing on our own music again. This is our way of looking at things before we move into the year 2000.

Does this album have a particular message?
Does an album always have a message? Well, yes, I guess it generally does. I think our message this time round is about continuing to remain open to influences from the rest of the Caribbean, but at the same time preserving our own cultural heritage. You know, each country's got its own specificity. The thing is, Martinique is such a major musical crossroads that we have to defend our own cultural identity as well as that of our neighbours. This new album is about showing young people in Martinique that we've got roots we should be proud of!

One of the criticisms which is often made about music from the French Antilles is that it's too light-hearted and gay. People often expect the music to be more committed and deal with more social issues. When you think about it, Jamaica and reggae are not so far away…
Our music will always be light-hearted and gay because that's the kind of atmosphere we live in. But Malavoi are also involved in developing a different kind of movement, you know. We're interested in looking at the country's history and the social phenomena which are present today - and which will still be there in the year 2000, because you have to look at the continuity of these things.
Let me use a track from the new album as an example. "Lavi agrikiltéa" was written by a young man by the name of Bruno Lopez, whose parents are farmers. What we did was organise a songwriting contest to encourage young people to get involved in the music we're making, and thus get involved in preserving their cultural heritage. The song Lopez wrote takes a look at history, at the period during World War Two when Admiral Robert, a governor from Vichy, was put in charge of the island. People in Martinique had a very hard time of it during the war. They really had to struggle to get by. Farmers had to cross the island on mules to sell their produce, because the boats weren't getting through. The Germans in the harbour at Fort de France were sinking all the boats coming in from abroad. The war was a very difficult time for people in Martinique you know.
Malavoi are interested in drawing on this collective history, these dramatic events which marked the lives of our parents, our grandparents and our great-grandparents. And through looking at the reality of the past we also ask questions about the future. What does the future hold in store for us? Could this type of situation happen again? People do live in a certain state of fear and apprehension about the future - and that’s the state of mind we're working in. However, having said that, there is a bit of a problem with music in Martinique addressing serious issues. Maybe it's because the island gets everything from France. Martinique's actually a recipient of aid from abroad. So people are generally comfortably off - and that's why the music tends to be gay and upbeat!

You talk a lot about being open to other influences, other cultures - is 'open' an important word in the Malavoi vocabulary?
The world is like one giant space ship and we're all just passengers here on earth! I think it's important in life to get to know your fellow human beings. It's important on a musical level, on a social level, but also on a human level. You have to open yourself up to the world. It's the only way of developing the music, which belongs to us.

You said that Mano Césaire stopped working with the group for a while for 'professional reasons'. Is Malavoi still functioning as it did in the early days - that's to say as a totally "amateur" group … Are you still a group of talented musicians who get together every now and then for a musical adventure then go back to the obligations of your day jobs?
That's a choice we made about our way of working - and it's a choice we've continued for a certain number of years now. I think, in a way, our songwriting is better because of if, because we've got the time to devote ourselves to it properly. Everyone in the group is either a civil servant, a shopkeeper or works in medicine. I'm the only member of the group who's professional - that's to say, involved in music on a full-time basis. It can get a bit frustrating at times, because we can't ever spend a lot of time touring and travelling to increase our profile on the international music scene. That's a great shame! But on the other hand, this choice is what Malavoi's all about. You know, when you go professional, you can end up just making musical 'soup', just doing really commercial stuff. That's what happens in the Antilles sometimes. Because you've got to sell, sell, sell to make a living! We've made a certain choice - and it's a wise choice, in a way, because it gives us a lot more freedom.

*"Fléch Kann" was released on Globe Music/Sony on 1999. Following their tour of the Caribbean in December '99, Malavoi are due to perform a major European tour between February and May 2000. The group's European tour will include a series of concerts in France.