As the first impulse for foundation of the multi-cultural band called United Flavour can be considered the arrival of two founder members – singer Carmen and bass player Djei – to the Czech Republic. They were so excited by the atmosphere in Prague during their first visit here that they both decided to move to Prague in the second half of the 90..s. Both Djei and Carmen have been obsessed by music since their earliest childhood. The lively Spanish lady Carmen performed in vocal groups already as a little girl and studied piano at a conservatoire for eight years. Later on she studied journalism and completed her studies by getting a Diploma. Journalism became also Carmen..s profession. Djei, born in Ivory Coast, was absorbing the magic of African music all his childhood. In his teens Djei moved to Paris where he devoted himself to reggae and r..n..b - sang and played guitar & percussions.
After a short adaptation period, both Carmen and Djei joined the Czech cultural scene and started to collaborate with local and foreign musicians. They first met in the project called Hermakuti that by its quality amazed the Czech reggae scene. After Hermakuti fell apart, Carmen and Djei continued their co-operation and in spring 2004 decided to found United Flavour.
Different cultural influences of Spain, Africa and Central Europe in the UF music have been moulded into an energetic mix of several musical styles - reggae, latino, soul, hiphop, r’n’b and dancehall. Through their performances, the band wants to convey that people of different nationalities, origins, faiths and beliefs can work together without problems, conflicts or violence. Moreover, they can mutually enrich each other. The UF lyrics reflect the same idea.
The first studio recording, an eight-song demo EP, was issued in June 2005 and gained a great reception from both general public and critics. The single Revolution became a hit in the charts on a number of radio channels. It was successful enough to deserve its own compilation called Revolution Project which contains remixes by various Czech and foreign artists. Between fall 2006 and spring 2007 the band were hard at work writing and recording their debut CD. The long-awaited album was named UNITY and released under the SubPub Records label. Many interesting local and foreign guests accepted the invitation to feature on the album. Amongst these were King Kalabash & Baron Black aka Big Famili from the Caribean island of Martinique, the Slovak singer Tina, rapper Henry D or latino deejay El Condorsito from Chile. Together with Big Famili also half of the excellent vocal quartet Yellow Sisters participated on the background vocals. The band was recording in the Flavour studio, Svárov and Elements studios under the supervision of Djei – the band..s producer and bass guitarist. The final mixing took place in the Black House Music studio in Paris and also in Biotech and Chris Cag..s studio in Prague. Alexandre Patino from the renowned Real Master studio in Paris (where he also the most known African reggae singer Alpha Blondy mastered his album) took charge of the final mastering. Out of the total number of 21 songs, 18 appear on the UNITY album and the remaining three are distributed under the title United Flavour Extras in digital form on music servers and band..s web pages www.unitedflavour.com. There is a unique code in the booklet of each CD. With this code the owner gets access to exclusive bonus materials (free download of songs from United Flavour Extras, videos etc). A DVD called Live at Lucerna Music Bar was released on the same day as the UNITY album. It is a concert recording from May 2006 when United Flavour opened the concert of the German reggae star Gentleman.
Since the band was formed, United Flavour have been busily giving concerts both in the Czech Republic and abroad. During three years they got the opportunity to open concerts to international stars such as Kelis, Gentleman or Manu Chao. Within the last year..s successful concert season the band played in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Slovakia. Not surprisingly, they also contributed, with their colourful concert show, to the success of the majority of the Czech festivals.
