Playlist #0

Playlists 26.08.2021

Travelling through 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, melancholic, posthumous or alive, their eclectic and adventurous choices and tastes weave and rustle in our attentive ears.

Michèle Tosi's musical meetings

Sarabande from the Partia n°2 BWV 1004 on the ondes Martenot by Cécile Lartigau, heard at the Messiaen Festival in the Pays de la Meije where the performer was in concert on July 27.
A violinist by training, Cécile Lartigau also attended Nathalie Forget's ondes Martenot class at the CNSMD in Paris, of which she is a laureate. The ondes Martenot is one of the first electronic instruments in the history of violin making (1920). She plays the existing repertoire and is an expert in improvisation and transcription.

Pandorasbox for bandoneon by the Argentinian Mauricio Kagel is a musical theatre piece that calls on the gesture, the voice and the muscles of the performer, with humour and virtuosity, as the instrumentalist has to turn on his stool while playing and struggle with a sometimes "recalcitrant" bandoneon. The piece was performed outdoors during an Aubade concert on 28 July in the Jardins du Lautaret at an altitude of 1400 metres by the 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, a.k.a. Floating Points, 80-year-old saxophone giant Pharoah Sandeers and the London Symphony Orchestra enchants and transports. Promises is a timeless and 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), delivers on all its promises.

Jon Hassell: Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics(1980)
In barely a week, the summer of 2021 will have seen the passing of three immense musicians: the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, born in 1939 and who died on 1 July; the iconoclastic American pianist and composer Frederic Rzewski, born in 1938 and who died on 26 June; and finally, on the same day, his compatriot, the trumpeter Jon Hassell (born in 1937). After working with La Monte Young and Terry Riley, Pandit Prân Nath, together with Brian Eno, set out to explore a 'fourth world' in the studio, with no boundaries, whose breath continues to permeate our own. His trumpet, with its unmistakable sound, 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 spent part of the summer in the company of the music of Jean-Louis Florentz, rediscovered by listening to the remarkable series of programmes 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 died too soon, in love with Africa and its cultures, continues to vibrate with an uncommon strength. No doubt because behind the sumptuousness of its colours 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 and mischievous spirit, which does not prevent this composer-pianist-improviser from using the most sophisticated technology!
This is what happens in Music of Choices, created at the manifesto festival on 16 June, a performance presented as a musical happening with interactive games, in which the musician takes part at the keyboards. The idea is that of an instant dialogue between the pianist, the machine and the audience. It's a nice challenge: the audience is so rarely solicited during a concert!

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! This album, born of her meeting with the poet Abdellatif Laâbi, was recorded at night under the vaults of the Saint-Denis Basilica and at the Arab World Institute. Words and sounds dance around the tombs of the kings and queens of France and behind the moucharabiehs of the Arab World Institute. Unclassifiable music, at the crossroads of paths and cultures...

The Greek composer's records are rare! Georgia Spiropoulos are rare! The album " Fonotopia" has just been released on the Eole label. "This album includes the splendid piece " Roll...n'Roll...n'Roll ", premiered in its short version on France Musique in 2015 (Alla Breve programme), then in its long version shortly afterwards at the IRCAM Manifesto Festival on the occasion of a portrait of the composer. The piece is dedicated to Hélène Breschand, a key figure in contemporary harp music. At the heart of this bewitching piece, a harp with two faces, on one side the acoustic sounds of the instrument, on the other the sounds of electronic preparations...

Ecuadorian and Peruvian discoveries with Suzanne Gervais

Albazo by Leonardo Cardenes Palacios (1968).
An 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 mixed the academic and the popular. He is currently the musical director of the Ensemble In Tempore and the young trio Tritono.

Beto Kelefrom the album Planetario, by the group Novalima.
In Lima, the four musicians of Novalima and their numerous guests all share a common passion for traditional Afro-Peruvian music and DJ culture and electronic sounds. They are known worldwide for their willingness to break down boundaries and unite seemingly irreconcilable genres, communities and generations.

Visiones de la realidad by Hamann, Peru
Sound experimentation, with cosmic and ritual resonances, is a tradition of Lima's experimental underground scene. It is deeply rooted there and is part of an ancestral culture. Hamann is one of the great sonic explorers of these cosmic visions. On the exploratory label Buhrecords, by Luis Alvarado, one of the pioneers of the Lima underground scene.

Photo Cécile Le Talec / ©adagp

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