Lynn Adib and Marc Buronfosse will unveil their new album « Nearness » on its digital release May 6 and physical (vinyl) release October 2022 on Arts Culture Europe / InOuïe Distribution. This new work will be presented live on stage on Wednesday June 15, 2022 at Studio de L’Ermitage (Paris).

 

The duo was born through the summer of 2020 during an improvised and last minute gig on the island of Paros, like a window that suddenly opened in the middle of the pandemic, crystallising the desire to make music for an audience eager for sounds and vibrations. This concert was a memorable moment for the duo, as well as for the audience. The magic worked immediately and convinced them to continue this duo, and later consider this project of a common album. In order to enrich this duo on a few tracks of the record, Lynn and Marc invited other musicians: Jasser Haj Youssef on viola d’amore, Rishab Prasanna on the bansuri flute and Mosin Kawa on tabla, as well as the male choir Antifoniko Melos, one of the most renowned Byzantine choirs in Greece.

Lynn and Marc decided to record their duo during the winter of 2021 at the peak of the pandemic. From the start, they wanted to name the album “Nearness“, in this climate of confinement and isolation that we were experiencing at the time, where we had the feeling that we were gradually moving away from each other. They started to meet very regularly to build the repertoire of the album: song proposals, tests of compositions, which musicians to invite on the album…

From week to week the album took shape thanks to these very intense exchanges. Having no scheduled concerts and tours, they were totally focused on this creation. They decided to record part of the album with an Orthodox choir, as Lynn had learned to sing in the choir of the Orthodox Church in Damascus. It was a dream for her!

They contacted the Antifoniko Melos choir from Athens, one of the best Byzantine choirs in Greece, and went to record in June 2021 in a church in Athens, a Byzantine church where the choir sings regularly.

Lynn and Marc then asked viola d’amore player Jasser Haj Youssef to be part of the trip. Four tracks were recorded with the choir as well as two trio improvisations that appear on the album. Then in December 2021, we completed the recording of the duo in a studio, in the Paris region, where they recorded eight tracks including one with two Indian master musicians: Rishab Prasanna on the bansuri flute and Mosin Kawa on tabla.

Lynn and Marc had set several objectives with the sound of this album: to be close to the other, to touch the soul, to enlarge the space… The voice and the bass combine, the Orient and jazz speak to each other.

Here, melody, rhythm and strings, those of the voice, those of the bass, those of the viola d’amore, the bansouri and the tabla.

This album will take you on an initiatory journey from the Middle East, particularly Syria, to the West through Greece. From personal compositions sung in Arabic, Syriac and Greek with the Byzantine choir Antifoniko Melos, to two covers of Joni Mitchell and Radiohead, and two jazz standards sung in Arabic and English, the journey ends with a composition by Lynn Adib sung in French.