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Crisscrossing the festivals and musical landscapes of France, crossing Ecuador and Peru on foot or by bike: Michèle Tosi, Anne Montaron, David Sanson and Suzanne Gervais transport you from one emotion to another; funny, melancholy, posthumous or alive, their eclectic and adventurous choices and tastes weave and rustle in our attentive ears.
Michèle Tosi's musical encounters
Sarabande from Partia n°2 BWV 1004 on ondes Martenot by Cécile Lartigau, heard at the Messiaen Festival in the Pays de la Meije, where the performer gave a concert on July 27.
A violinist by training, Cécile Lartigau also attended Nathalie Forget's ondes Martenot class at the CNSMD in Paris, where she was a prizewinner. The ondes Martenot is one of the first electronic instruments in the history of lutherie (1920), on which she plays the existing repertoire as well as improvisation and transcription.
Pandorasbox for bandoneon by Argentinian musician Mauricio Kagel is a musical-theater scenette involving the performer's gesture, voice and muscles, with humor and virtuosity, as the instrumentalist spins on his stool while playing and struggles with a sometimes "recalcitrant" bandoneon. The piece was performed outdoors at an Aubade concert on July 28, in the Jardins du Lautaret at an altitude of 1400 meters, by accordionist Jean-Étienne Sotty.
Conca Reatina - Ruban de Möbius: a long arabesque with microtonal contours as dizzying as it is finely conducted, written by Philippe Leroux for Claude Delangle, a world-renowned saxophonist and teacher whose dazzling interpretation captivated us (CD BIS 2020). The piece is preceded by Debussy's Syrinx, written for flute and transcribed for soprano saxophone by the performer.
A summer without borders by David Sanson
Floating Points / Pharoah Sanders / London Symphony Orchestra: Promises (2021)
Released on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label, the collaboration between British electronic musician Sam Shepherd, aka Floating Points, 80-year-old saxophone giant Pharoah Sandeers and the London Symphony Orchestra enchants and transports. Promises is a timeless, contemplative record in which the trumpet seems to hover over an interweaving of diaphanous textures: a blend that, for once (we should mention the album Lageos, a collaboration between the brilliant electronic musician Actress and the London Contemporary Orchestra, released in 2018), lives up to all its promises.
Jon Hassell: Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (1980)
In just one week, the summer of 2021 will have seen the passing of three immense musicians: Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, born 1939 and died on July 1; iconoclastic American pianist and composer Frederic Rzewski, born 1938 and died on June 26; and finally, on the same day, his compatriot, trumpeter Jon Hassell (born 1937). After working with the likes of La Monte Young and Terry Riley, Pandit Prân Nath set out with Brian Eno to explore a "4th world" in the studio, with no frontiers, whose breath continues to irrigate our own. His trumpet, with its unmistakable sound somewhere between organ and wind, has inhabited many of the essential albums of the last 40 years, starting with those of David Sylvian.
Jean-Louis Florentz: Qsar Ghilâne Op.18
I, for one, will have spent part of the summer in the company of the music of Jean-Louis Florentz, rediscovered by listening to the remarkable series of programs devoted to him by Renaud Machart in 2014, on France Musique, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his death. Although it comprises barely twenty opuses and a few hours of music, the work of this musician who passed away too soon, in love with Africa and its cultures, continues to vibrate with uncommon force. No doubt because, behind the sumptuousness of its colors and the subtlety of its sound dramaturgy, it carries a humanist message of burning topicality, an affirmation " that a confluence of cultures is more necessary than ever today ", in the words of Fabrice Contri.
At the crossroads by Anne Montaron
Alexandros Markeas will always surprise us with his playful, mischievous spirit, but that doesn't stop this composer-pianist-improviser from using the most sophisticated technology!
This is what happens in Music of Choices, premiered at the manifesto festival on June 16, a performance presented as a musical happening with interactive games, in which the musician takes part at the keyboards. The idea is to create an instant dialogue between the pianist, the machine and the audience. What a gamble: audiences are so rarely solicited at concerts!
Lola Malique is a cellist and an ardent interpreter of the music being written today, but what she reveals in her album Le Meilleur lit is that she also composes and sings! A beautiful object, this album was born of her encounter with the poet Abdellatif Laâbi, recorded at night under the vaults of the Basilique Saint-Denis and at the Institut du Monde Arabe. Words and sounds dance around the tombs of the kings and queens of France and behind the moucharabiehs of the Institut du Monde Arabe. Unclassifiable music, at the crossroads of paths and cultures...
Discs by Greek composer Georgia Spiropoulos are rare! The album " Fonotopia" has just been released on the Eole label. "which includes the splendid piece " Roll...n'Roll...n'Roll ", premiered in its short version on France Musique in 2015 (Alla Breve program), then in its long version shortly afterwards at IRCAM's Festival Manifeste on the occasion of a portrait of the composer. It features a key figure in contemporary harp, Hélène Breschand, to whom the piece is dedicated. At the heart of this spellbinding piece is a harp with two faces, on one side the acoustic sounds of the instrument, on the other the sounds of electronic preparations...
Discovering Ecuador and Peru with Suzanne Gervais
Albazo by Leonardo Cardenes Palacios (1968).
Ecuadorian composer, pianist, conductor and producer Leonardo Cardenes Palacios already has a long and rich career behind him in Quito. Of Lojana origin, he has always blended the academic with the popular. He is currently musical director of the Ensemble In Tempore and the young trio Tritono.
Beto Kelefrom the album Planetario, by the group Novalima.
From Lima, the four musicians of Novalima and their numerous guests all share a common passion for traditional Afro-Peruvian music, DJ culture and electronic sounds. They are world-renowned for their willingness to break down boundaries and unite seemingly irreconcilable genres, communities and generations.
Visiones de la realidad de Hamann, Peru
Sound experimentation, with cosmic and ritual resonances, is a tradition of Lima's underground experimental scene. It's deeply rooted here and part of an ancestral culture. Hamann is one of the great sonic explorers of these cosmic visions. On the exploratory Buhrecords label, run by Luis Alvarado, one of the pioneers of Lima's underground scene.
