Zonbi

Founded in 2024 by Dimitri Milbrun, Shion Iwata, Achille Bof and joined by Simon Harel, ZONBI was born of the desire to fuse the urgency of punk/post-punk, the freedom of free-jazz and the raw energy of Haitian roots music. At the heart of the band, the saxophone spits out dissonant incantations in dialogue with the powerful, frenetic rhythms of the bass/ drums duo. Dimitri Milbrun’s lyrics, sung in Creole, invoke the ancestors, denounce oblivion and summon history through searing images. In Haitian culture, a zonbi is a being deprived of his soul, condemned to wander between two worlds. ZONBI screams its insubordination. Their music doesn’t seek to please, but to shake, awaken and haunt. Each concert is a ceremony: a sonic trance, a cry of insubordination. A tribute to the Bois des Caïmans ceremony, a ceremony that would forever seal Haiti’s fate.