We were happy to welcome the artists Blu Samu and Xinobi (live), who have joined the programme of the Ocean Tour, check our event page!
Blu Samu (PT/BE)
Originally from Portugal and based in Antwerp, Blu Samu – real name Salomé Dos Santos – released her first two singles in 2017, and she made her an increasingly present figure in the Brussels’ hip hop scene. Now back with a new EP (“7”, due out on May 27), her voice takes a more frontal and rap-like approach. But then, it becomes more slippery and moist, taking inspiration from the morna, a Cape Verde music style, or the fado, with whom she grew up with. Blu Samu always delivers a vocal intensity that links her seven songs together, switching from English to French and Portuguese.
Xinobi (PT)
Xinobi (aka Bruno Cardoso) started his musical journey through punk rock, spending his time listening to cassettes by The Ramones and Bad Religion. But electronic music was always a part of his life, too. In the late 80’s, he installed rudimental software on his bedroom computer to start playing with digital sounds, which Resident Advisor describes as “the soundtrack to a day chilling with the Miami palm trees or wandering the cold streets of Berlin at night”. In his third album, ‘Balsame’, released on April 8th, he travels through new paths, exploring Latin grooves with ‘La Tormenta’ and also fado, traditional Portuguese music, in ‘Amor Cego’.
*For health reasons, the artist Pongo has been forced to cancel her concerts scheduled for May, including those on 25, 26 and 28 May, respectively in Brest, La Rochelle and Bordeaux, as part of the Ocean Tour. We wish her a speedy recovery.
At a crossroads between Ocean and Music, the Tour also welcomed associations whose mission is to defend the Ocean, the blue lungs of the Earth :
- Surf Rider – A team of volunteers mindful of passing on their knowledge and raising awareness on several major issues: aquatic trash, coastal development, climate change, water quality and user health.
- Echo Mer – An association that aims to limit the impact of man-made pollution on nature. It is involved in a wide range of projects related to the marine environment, environmental and coastal protection, and sustainable development.
- Lords of the Ocean – Four shark-loving friends fight to prove that sharks are not the great human eaters they are made out to be.
- A.P.E.C.S : The Association for the Study and Conservation of Sharks is a national scientific and educational organization that works to preserve and promote sharks, rays, and the ecosystems in which they live.
- Iodysseus – An awareness programme that aims to put forward the incredible planktonic world through the collection and observation of plankton under a microscope.
- Surf Insertion – An association that implements action for the promotion of wave sports practice and eco-citizenship on the French coastline – for young people from housing estates and rural areas – in order to raise an awareness of the importance of protecting the environment around them.
The unique moments of this tour are immortalised in the Ocean Tour digital diary, available on The Ocean Tour. Designed by an editorial committee of French and Portuguese journalists, guests from a wide range of backgrounds have been interviewed : artists, sportsmen and women, scientists, young project leaders, association representatives and politicians. On land or at sea, in Portugal or in France, the guests have shared their ideas and visions for the preservation of the Ocean and the role of culture in their daily lives.
The three key themes were :
– FUTURE: how can we best understand the upheavals in our society and use this understanding to build a better future together?
–CONNECTION: How can we reinvent and explore the connections that bind us together, in Europe and beyond?
– The final stopover is, like that of any self-respecting sailor, that of PARTY: how do we find joy in music, in the ocean and among friends?
