来自西南民间深处与牙买加灵魂乐的完美交融

古老佤族文化越过丛林与全球化时代奇妙碰撞

Kawa乐队主要成员均来自云南边陲——西盟，这是一个与牙买加几乎在同一纬度的城市，数千年来，佤族人聚集于此，创造出热情，奔放，和平的地域个性和独特的民间音乐，音乐人老黑与他的音乐伙伴（贝斯艾勇，主唱老憨，鼓手小雄，键盘与管乐凃，机器手（效果）德龙，作为西盟音乐的新一代，走出大山，将来自西方的雷鬼乐带回家乡，他们经过无数次的实验与探索，终于破译了西南民间音乐（特别是佤族）与雷鬼完美融合的密码，全新的“云南雷鬼”将古老奔放的佤族灵魂与自由不羁的牙买加之声交汇共融, 创造出极具东方地域特色的音乐美学。

当青年老黑从桂林当兵退伍回到家乡孟连，在县文化馆开始一份公务员职业生涯时，这个从西方摇滚乐一路追随到牙买加雷鬼乐的音乐人开始意识到，自己处在一个民间音乐最为丰富的边境城市，他在文化馆寻找了大量的民间田野录音，并试图将这些古老的民间之声与电气盎然的迷幻DUB连接，最初的融合（首个demo作品：云南雷鬼）便让他亢奋不已，随后在这个毗邻缅甸的小城——孟连，老黑创造了“云南雷鬼”，那张普洱茶饼为封面的《西南民间回响》在豆瓣虾米等音乐人网站上被很多乐迷分享，很多行业人士也纷纷口碑相传，云南雷鬼成为一个传奇的存在。

从2015年老黑与前山人bass手艾勇相遇开始筹措组建乐队到Kawa乐队正式发声，这群散落的云南音乐家终于凝聚成一个音乐团队，有了bass艾勇，键盘&小号凃，鼓手小雄，效果德龙这批技术纯熟、音乐理念相近的音乐家加入，Kawa在技术上获得了更加自由的表达空间，他们一方面继续在雷鬼，DUB，电子，摇滚的领域中不断前行，寻找更国际化的音乐理念，另一面却深扎云南本土尤其是昆洛线一带的民间音乐，他们向岩聪等民间艺术家虚心求教，田野采集，融合实验，乐队用Kawa这个佤族的发音命名也标示着他们珍视自己民族丰富的音乐养分。有着标准雷鬼风范的主唱老憨醉心于佤族的民歌，他在佤族简练有力的旋律与律动中累积最核心的创作能量，佤族民间音乐与自然的契合，对世间万物的敬畏之心，佤族人欢乐自由的天性，都在Kawa的作品中沉淀爆发。Kawa乐队的音乐主题大多与生活，自然相关，表达他们对田园生活的深度认同与热爱，对深邃自然的理解与敬畏，对当代城市生活的贬谪，他们的音乐传达着一种当下城市音乐普遍匮乏的自然之美，就像云南的天空、泥土、风、人情，Kawa的音乐给人简单直接的音乐性格，所有现场听过Kawa的人都知道，他们的音乐一起来，谁也没办法呆在那听，你会跟着他们舞蹈起来，Kawa的音乐有一种解放人天性的魔力。

经历一年的录音打磨制作，拿到英国后期制作完成的母带，主唱老憨说，我们专辑就叫《出云南记》吧，一方面向我们的偶像鲍勃马利致敬，另一方面，作为佤族后人，我们要走出云南深处，把自己民族的文化传播到全世界去。

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, control manipulator (sound effects) 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, sound effect Xiaoxiong, 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.”