If you haven’t noticed by now, Corey Ledet is on a mission to burrow deeper and deeper into his Creole culture. On his 2021 album Corey Ledet Zydeco, the zydeco accordionist revealed his passion for Kouri-Vini, a French-lexified Creole language and the native tongue of his father CJ and other family members. On that pivotal 2021 recording, Ledet sang five songs in the language and vowed every song would be in Kouri-Vini from then on. With Médikamen, he holds true to that promise. All songs were recorded in his cultural idiom.

Besides pushing himself in Kouri-Vini, Ledet accomplishes other milestones as well. Of Ledet’s 15 albums, this is the first on which he’s collaborated with New Orleans musicians to partake in the festivities. The title track features trumpeter Kermit Ruffins soaring across the friendly skies; the hypnotic “Kofè t’fé çą” showcases guitarist Anders Osborne’s growling riffs that become increasingly incendiary between Ledet’s chanky single-row shuffle and Cecil Green’s organ surfing. It’s a track you hate to see end, especially since it teeters on being mind-numbingly abstract.

While those tracks would be the marquee moments of any album, Ledet ensures that the rest isn’t meaningless filler. There’s a high level of performance and captivating arrangements throughout the proceedings. “Swiv-mò” and “Alon kouri laba,” brim with crazy energy. “Mo gin in ta lamou” blazes fiercely with Julian Primeaux’s guitar and Grant Dermody’s harmonica playing.

Just having that loose, uninhibited feeling of everyone playing together and feeding off each other’s energy was Ledet’s design, rather than duct-taping parts together through studio wizardry. He was inspired by the tales Clifton Chenier’s guitarist  Lil’ Buck Sinegal shared—how Chenier usually recorded unscripted and spontaneously live with his group, guided by feeling and mood. Except for Ruffins and Osborne, whose schedule prevented them from recording live with the group, Ledet estimates 90 percent of Médikamen was captured live.

While Ledet often channels Chenier through his eloquent piano-note accordion playing, there are also plenty of nods and hooks to Creole culture. The bluesy “Gònn lamézon démin” is a translated adaptation of “Goin’ Home” by Fats Domino, a native Kouri-Vini speaker. “M’apé gònn a Dauphine” references a forgotten Creole club in Parks, Louisiana that Chenier, Rockin’ Dopsie, Sr., and Chitlin’ Circuit touring acts like Ray Charles and BB King played back in its glory days.

For the first time ever on a recording, Ledet recites a poem, “Pendan Koronaj” (“During the Corona Virus”), in Kouri-Vini over a scintillating bed of peppy, old-time zydeco. The poem was written by Baton Rouge poet laureate Jonathan Mayers, who labors tirelessly in the expansion of Kouri-Vini and currently is the president of Chinbo, a nonprofit “devoted to the reclamation of Kouri-Vini, Louisiana’s endangered Creole language.” Mayers assisted in Médikamen’s development by consulting and co-writing originals with Ledet.

There’s even a folkloric aspect to this recording. On greyhound-sprinting “Two-Step a Ben Guiné” (‘Benjamin’), Ledet included sound bites of the Parks’ raconteur spinning a yarn. Safe to say, Ledet didn’t leave many stones unturned on this milestone recording, where once again he raises the bar just a little higher.