In celebration of iconic feminist and freedom fighter, Queen Marie-Louise Christophe of Haiti who took holiday residence in Hastings in 1822, we present an alternative Haitian carnival brass procession. It features twelve strangely-tuned original silver carnival horns imported from Haiti, merging with a deconstruction of the East Sussex’s celebrated brass band sound, playing a Haïti-inspired melody.
A spontaneous group of disparate horn and wind players, gathered from as many participants in the festival as possible, process along Hastings’ Bottle Alley from each end, meeting in the middle in a cacophonic splash of sound colour, linked by a simple unison melody, calling and celebrating life through the percussive, hypnotic two-note carnival rhythm of the ancient horns.
As the sun goes down, the music stops and Tola Dabiri recites the story of Queen Marie-Louise and Haïti’s women revolutionaries. As the story ends, with the sun going down over Eastbourne, the procession resumes onto the beach down to the water’s edge.

Jo Hutton is a sound designer, recording engineer and electroacoustic music writer. Jude Montague is an artist, musician and broadcaster. They come together to create this sound-based procession with Haïtian history from Tola Dabiri.
Jo Hutton

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