Exodus（出云南记） by Kawa

The perfect combination from the deep southwest with the soul music of Jamaica
The wonderful collision over the jungle of the age of globalization and ancient Wa culture

The main members of Kawa are from the border of Yunnan -- Ximeng, which almost lying at the same latitude as Jamaica. For thousands of years, the Wa people have gathered here and created passionate, unrestrained, peaceful regional personality and unique folk music. As a new generation of Ximeng music, the musician Laohei with his fellows (bass Aiyong, lead singer Laohan, drummer Xiaoxiong, keyboard and orchestra Tu, DJ Delong) went out of the mountains and brought Western Reggae back home. After numerous experiments and explorations, they finally broke the code about the perfect combination between Southwest folk music (especially Wa) and Reggae. The new "Yunnan Reggae" intersected the ancient and unrestrained soul of Wa with the free sound of Jamaica, creating musical aesthetics with great eastern regional characteristics.

When the young Laohei retired from Guilin and returned hometown Menglian, he started a civil service career in the county cultural center. This musician who has followed western rock music to Jamaica Reggae began to notice that living in a border city where was filled with folk music. He
searched abundant folk field recording in cultural center, and tried to connect this ancient folk sound with electrical and psychedelic DUB. The initial combination (The first demo: Yunnan Reggae) made him excited, and subsequently Laohei created Yunnan Reggae in this small town adjacent to Burma-Menglian. The Southwest folk echo covered by Pu’er tea was shared by lots of fans on different music platform like Douban, Xiami, etc. Many professional people also passed it from mouth to mouth, so Yunnan Reggae became a legend.

The group of scattered musicians in Yunnan finally became a musical team when Laohei and bass Aiyong met and started to form a band and then Kawa band formally established. Kawa achieved more space to express technically with the join of these musicians - bass Aiyong, keyboard & trumpet Tu, drummer Xiaoxiong, DJ Delong, who are highly skilled and sharing similar ideas about music. On the one hand, they continue to move forward in the field of reggae, DUB, electronic and rock, looking for more international music idea; on the other hand, they stick to the folk music in Yunnan especially around Kunluo. They humbly sought advice from folk artists like Yancong and did field collection and fusion experiment. This band was named by Kawa from Wa pronounciation also indicates that they cherish the rich nutrients of their own nation. The lead singer Laohan characterized with standard style of Regae was engaged in folk songs of Wa and accumulated the core creative energy in the simple, forceful melody of the Wa nationality. The connection between Wa folk music and nature, the awe of the world, the joy and freedom of the Wa people all precipitated in the works of Kawa. The music theme of Kawa mostly associated with life and nature, expressing their recognition and love for pastoral life, understanding and awe for profound nature, abase for contemporary city life. Their music conveys a kind of natural beauty that is generally absent from city music. Like the sky, earth, wind and human favor in Yunnan, Kawa's music shows simple and direct musical character. Anyone who has watched the live of Kawa knows that when their music start, nobody can keep quiet, just can't stop dancing with them. Kawa's music has magical power to liberate human nature.

After a year of recording and making, given the final production in England, the lead singer
Laohan said, ”Let’s name our album The Route Out of Yunnan. For one reason, we can pay tribute to our idol Bob Marley; For another, as the descendants of Wa people, we should go out of the depths of Yunnan and spread our own culture to the whole world.”

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