Michael Lampe, an island musician, producer, songwriter is a cultural icon, though too young to be one, still, he is.
We met this week as he informally presented snippets of his new album to friends.
He was on the island for a short while recording with local musicians, he explained. The album will be cooked in the Netherlands, lyrics written, half-baked musical thoughts resolved and recorded. It will be released at the end of the year, on Aruba.
Michael hails from a musical/artistic family and has successfully linked our cultural heritage, and traditional instruments, to electronic music in many of his previous hits, under the Datapanic brand. This album will have less technology, and more raw sound of real instruments.
What is the album about?
I did not even bother to ask, because I already know that it will be a love song to Aruba, paying homage to family way of life and old sounds.
What we heard at our small gathering was very catchy, I think people will be dancing, and singing, in Papiamento, connecting to the music on a DNA level, because Michael digs deep to reveal the origins of the Aruban sound, and stays away from the general Caribbean trend of Reggaeton, from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. He trades the aggressive beat in favor of Kompa, for example, from the French Caribbean, a sweeter more melodic sound, and explores Aruba’s own Dutch-European musical roots.
In 2019 Michael joined a political party representing the Orange Economy, the creative industry. He garnered 120 votes and tried to be a good parliamentarian, studying the materials, and making changes from within. That did not sit well with his inner artist, he was disillusioned, and it manifested in the real world with a bucket of challenges.
Leaving politics he had to start from the start, this time as father of two. It took him a while to recover, but the muses are singing again, and an album is in the making.
Since his kids are in the Netherlands, Michael now lives on a river boat in Amsterdam, producing a lot of music for others, enjoying gigs under his Fellow stage name spinning live electro, house, Reggaeton, at parties in Europe, [email protected], and occasionally popping back on the scene here to play with as full band, at private events or at HI-Winds.
Michael’s sister is a musical super-power as well, Juffrouw Raquel Lampe is an educator and the island’s Reina di Dande, she will be contributing to the album along with many other talented musicians.
Take a listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-EpNBWK5Cg
