Maher Beauroy is a pianist, author and composer from Martinique who turned to jazz and contemporary music after finishing a solid classical training. After earning his Diploma in Musical Studies at the Maurice Ravel Conservatory, he attended and graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Ma. in 2017. Following the EP Nèg’Zagonal, he released his debut album WASHA to great critical acclaim.

With INSULA, Beauroy takes us on a musical journey between the Maghreb and the West Indies, drawing inspiration from Frantz Fanon, the French West Indian psychiatrist and political philosopher who marked several generations of anti-colonialist thought.  Fanon’s works have become influential in the fields of post-colonial studies, critical theory and Marxism. As well as being an intellectual, Fanon was a political radical, Pan-Africanist, and Marxist humanist concerned with the psychopathology of colonization and the human, social, and cultural consequences of decolonization. In the course of his work as a physician and psychiatrist, Fanon supported Algeria's War of independence from France and was a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front. Fanon has been described as "the most influential anticolonial thinker of his time." For more than five decades, the life and works of Fanon have inspired national-liberation movements and other radical political organizations in Palestine, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the United States.

Insula was started as a trio in 2016 at the initiative of Maher Beauroy and Redha Benabdallah, oud player and Franco-Algerian musicologist who co-penned three tracks on this project, “Ki Moun Ou Ye,” “Insula” and “Salam Malecon.”  On this album, Benabdallah plays mandola. In fact, Maher Beauroy brings an orchestra full of young musicians for this second phase of his career, one rich in new compositions featuring vocals, texts by Frantz Fanon and traditional Afro-Caribbean instruments. “Border Free” is a nice showpiece for bassist Selene Saint-Aime, and “Algerie” features oud player Qais Saadi.  (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)