This project is part of ‘Indian Ocean Historical Sound Archive: collecting, safeguarding and sharing musical heritage’. It is co-financed by the Interreg VI Indian Ocean 2021-2027 programme, the French Embassy in the Seychelles, the Regional Council of Reunion, the Directorate of Cultural Affairs, and the Departmental Council of Reunion. It follows on from organological studies conducted in Mayotte in 2022 and Reunion in 2023. Building on this work, the PHOI team carried out a collection mission in the Seychelles during October and November 2025.

These accounts, gathered mainly from musicians and instrument makers, aim to celebrate Seychellois musical practices as well as raise awareness of them, ensuring their transmission and longevity for future generations. They offer the general public a chance to rediscover — or indeed discover — traditions, both past and present, as well as the instruments that enrich the region’s varied and diverse identity.

In these podcast episodes, the musicians also share insights into their professional journeys and the day-to-day realities of their work. They provide an overview of cultural life across the Seychelles, touching on ongoing dynamics as well as the difficulties and challenges they face. These testimonies thus shed valuable light on the current state of the music sector in the Seychelles.

In this episode we hear from Marie-Madelaine Elvire Matombé born in 1932, who tells us about her life in music. She is the mother of multi-instrumentalist and instrument maker Brian Matombé, and gifted her passion for traditional romans ballads to him. She has been singing this repertoire of European origin since she was 12, meticulously writing the lyrics down in a notebook. She first discovered these songs with her cousin Raymonde at wedding dances. These melodies have now been passed down through three generations of her family. From a very early age she was in demand at marriage celebrations to sing after the parents’ speeches, as is traditional in the Seychelles. Today, she continues to keep this repertoire alive, performing as a duo with her son Brian and thus combining the family legacy with a shared love for a specific facet of traditional Seychellois music.

Fanie Précourt