Touring

A completely new combination of maqams from the Maghreb and ragas from India
 
Moroccan oudist Driss el Maloumi likes to combine his extraordinary mastery of oriental maqams with other world musics. Debashish Bhattacharya, the gifted inventor of the Calcutta slide guitar, tours with world with his three guitars and his unique adaptations of traditional Hindustani ragas. When they meet in Naghma, which means "musical craze" in both Arabic and Urdu, maqams and ragas draw from the shared origin of their respective musicalities, the spirituality that has shaped the extraordinary musical wealth of these two cultures. 

A blend of jazz, early music and Iranian Kurdish song.

Renaud Garcia-Fons is a world-famous virtuoso of the double bass whose inimitable style is influenced by music from all over the world. With Djânân he enters a new phase in his quest to establish links between different cultures. Struck by the communicative fervour of the music of Razbar, a ensemble of Iranian Kurdish origin, Renaud Garcia-Fons came up with this collaboration, which is open, respectful of tradition and its religious nature, and enriched by elements borrowed from early music and
jazz.

From baroque religious works to improvisation

Taking religious works by Rameau, Couperin, Gesualdo, Purcell and others as its starting point, this project takes the form of a dialogue between two groups of musicians who mirror each other. The virtuoso strings of Les Musiciens du Louvre meet the untethered spontaneity of the musicians of La Forge, adventurers in contemporary jazz. The Sound of the Heavens and the Darkness extends its gaze beyond the horizon, past the "line that appears to separate the Earth from Heaven."

Répertoire
Jean Féry Rebel
Haendel
D. Scarlatti
Monteverdi
Gluck
Rameau
Michelangelo Falvetti
H.v. Bibe

Meditation based on Mass for the Present Time

"Maurice Béjart's ballet written for the 1967 Avignon Festival, on which I collaborated with Michel Colombier to compose the four jerks for Mass of the Present Time, was a liturgical ceremony transcended by dance that connected traditional rites with modern life. Religion is regarded as the bête noire of the modern era, and as a reaction to this I have always tried to express my conviction that liturgy in all its forms has a musicality about it. In contrast to all the dogma I offer internal prayer, which takes the form of a music of sounds. Now, after half a century of both secular and religious works, I wanted to use Mass for the Present Time to return to this idea of a universal liturgy through music, a kind of meditation." Pierre Henry

Ray Lema is a master drummer, pianist, singer, composer and musical adventurer, and for over 30 years, he has been putting his African vision of composition into practice. At present, Ray Lema is thinking, doubting, rebelling, worrying and dreaming. His quest for the structures of African music goes hand in hand with his questioning, his doubts and his commitment to the fight for the tolerance and respect of all peoples.

“Station Congo”, commissioned by the Festival, affords him the opportunity of returning, after 32 years, to his native country: today’s Congo, with its energy and its battles, and to unite traditional artists from Congo, as well as the new generation of urban musicians from Kinshasa, all spurred on by the power of words in the fight against violence, war and inevitability in a country hard hit in its history and culture.

What does democracy sound like?
Music accompanies revolts, and certain melodies and songs are identified as revolutionary symbols. However, these same songs later become pillars of conformism, as often happens with national anthems, which frequently begin their lives as songs of revolt and defiance.

Das Kapital, a dynamic trio on the free jazz scene, veterans of both improvisation and interpretation, invites us to revisit the hymns and songs of revolt, in the company of the rebel singer André Minvielle and with the help of the children’s choir of two classes from Fontaine, led by Brigitte Calvi.

Reflecting the recent global financial crisis, “Greed” is a compelling, original work that takes on its full meaning in the excesses of financial capitalism. The Argentine composer Alejandro Viñao evokes the intense desire for riches and power that characterises people in our contemporary society.

Although the show’s music is mostly inspired by popular dances, from hip-hop to the tango, the relationship to texts (money seen by Quevedo, Molière, Shakespeare and Marx) and to advertising slogans also gives Viñao precious material to create a compelling work for voice and electronics.

Electro-jazz et traditions amérindiennes

Pour cette rencontre musicale inédite, Murcof invite deux musiciens huichols, ce peuple de la Sierra Madre à l’ouest du Mexique, dont le marakamé (shaman) Jose Luis, chanteur et joueur de violon raberi, et Edgar Amor, guitariste de Tijuana, lui-même en contact régulier avec les artistes huichols. La culture musicale huichol ou wixarika - ce peuple de la Sierra Madre, à l’ouest du Mexique, dans l’État de Jalisco - est à la fois vocale et instrumentale.

Utilisant les techniques électroacoustiques, Murcof prolonge et métamorphose des formes instrumentales traditionnelles, leurs richesses mélodiques et rythmiques, pour créer une oeuvre « hybride » dans le respect des identités musicales en présence. Murcof a choisi d’inviter, pour cette aventure, un autre compagnon avec lequel il joue depuis plusieurs années, le trompettiste Erik Truffaz, adepte lui aussi des aventures musicales singulières.

At the age of 73, Archie Shepp is old enough to remember the complete history of jazz, but he also carries with him the entire tradition of Afro-American music, yet at the same time he tears down its borders, and dares to create encounters with other musical worlds.

“Pantsula” is a South African urban dance, and six members of the Via Katlehong Dance Company from East Rand, will join him to perform on stage. This dance, which came into being in South Africa’s townships, is the urban expression of a new generation, like hip-hop in the USA and Europe.

A unique project: the Octurn ensemble immerses itself in the authentic world of ritual chanting, as performed by the monks of Gyuto Monastery. The score written for Octurn’s musicians melts into these hypnotic states.

For this project, the Tibetan chanting monks have agreed to change their traditional way of working, with a view to exploring and experimenting with new techniques. This ritual chanting, introduces Octurn to an extremely sophisticated culture and philosophy which, though several thousand years old, is now threatened with extinction…