Stranjah Miller rolls out European-built roots LP Awake from France

For more than five decades, European listeners have backed roots-reggae talent, and Stranjah Miller now treats the region as his main commercial base. He staged his first shows there in 2016 and is back on the continent—this time in France—to spotlight Awake, a 15-track third studio album that True Move International, a Colombian imprint, issued on 25 April. Miller said the bulk of the record’s producers are based in Europe.

“I go to Europe every year. My first tour there was with Inna Di Road Sound System in France. I would say my strongest market is France, then The Netherlands and the United Kingdom,” said Stranjah Miller.

The project foregrounds Afro-conscious writing, including Repatriation. The cut that shares the LP’s name carries a Nyahbinghi tone, while Coconut Chalice and Herbalist see the St Ann-born vocalist nod to ganja. Move Mountain, his second long-player, reached shelves in 2022 through KDM Family out of the Reunion Islands. Bad Slave, the opening LP, appeared in 2019 on France’s Strategy Record. Extended player Lawless followed in 2020, again via True Move International.

“Awake is quite different compared to the others I have done. It is a more polished and uplifting project, a conscious reggae roots album with a sense of spirituality,” he said.

He cites Capleton, Sizzla, Anthony B, and Richie Spice among the “new roots” voices that shaped him and has logged studio time since 2008. By 2016 he was playing live in Europe—the same corridor that, for half a century and more, has welcomed Rastafarian and world-beat performers from Jamaica and Africa.