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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.

Maher Beauroy will unveil his new album « Insula » on its digital release April 29, 2022 and physical release May 13, 2022 on Tropiques Atrium / Baco Distrib. This new work will be presented live on stage on Thursday June 16, 2022 at Café de la Danse (Paris).   INSULA With INSULA, the Martinican composer and pianist Maher Beauroy takes us on a musical journey between the Maghreb and the West Indies, drawing inspiration from Frantz Fanon, who marked several generations of anti-colonialist thought. Insula was started as a trio in 2016 at the initiative of Maher Beauroy and Redha Benabdallah, the oud player and Franco-Algerian musicologist. Maher Beauroy here brings together on stage an orchestra full of young musicians to take part in a second phase, one rich in new compositions featuring vocals, texts by Frantz Fanon and traditional Afro-Caribbean instruments.   MAHER BEAUROY Pianist, author, composer, performer from Martinique, he turned to jazz and contemporary music after finishing a solid classical training. Trained at SERMAC, a training center created by Aimé Césaire, in Martinique and at the University of Paris Sorbonne, he earned his Diploma in Musical Studies at the Maurice Ravel Conservatory. In 2014 he enrolled in the prestigious Berklee College Of Music (Boston, USA) from which he graduated in 2017. Following the EP Nèg’Zagonal, he released his debut album WASHA to great critical acclaim.

Les Fils Canouche will unveil their new album « Nagori » on its digital release April 29 and physical release May 20, 2022 on Vlad Productions / InOuïe Distribution. This new work will be presented live on stage on Thursday June 16, 2022 at Studio de L’Ermitage (Paris).   An original, obsessing and grandiose approach of world music. Both familiar and baffling : Les Fils Canouche break the codes. These exceptional musicians bring their different universe and avant-gardist talent in an atypical mix not to mention their outstanding composition. Striving to explore acoustic energies the band concentrates on World Music, Gypsy Jazz or Latin Music. With very special guests, Minimo Garay & Javier Estrella with the percussion instruments, Mohamed Abozerky & Hussam Aliwat with the oud, Les Fils Canouche open now the gates of world music and naturally change the Oriental, Gypsies or Latin sonorities. Everything is meant to reach out to people’s heart, a sweet reflection of Hyang-Hi Kim’s painting used as the main cover of their album. Mixing up various styles and breaking the codes of World Music is a sheer goal upon this 6th album. Entirely recorded in Paris during a situation of health crisis, it did not prevent the band from creating to give every song a taste of magic and merge of styles. Creativity and great talent explain how Les Fils Canouche are able to give a whole artistic universe that knows no limitations and that pushes to passion and curiosity.

Soadan will unveil their new album « Pieds nus » on its digital release April 29 and physical release May 20, 2022 on Tinker Label / Foudrage / Socadisc. This new work will be presented live on stage on Wednesday June 8, 2022 at Studio de L’Ermitage (Paris).   In this new album "Pieds Nus", Soadan invite us to listen to their music, impregnated with their travel memories and encounters they made in West Africa over the last four years. Band of 3 multi-instrumentalists and singers, Soadan offers us a sound that navigates between traditional Afro culture and modern music fusion. You will find here, as in their previous albums, their love for Creole Blues, Maloya Fusion, Afro-Mandingue, Afrobeat and Gnawa music, dedicated to committed lyrics. These text songs written in French send us images and metaphors such as sea and islands, trees, nature beauty and themes such as knowledge transmission, values sharing and immigration. Soadan draws its inspiration from the 1970s music of African groups (funk, Congolese rumba, high life, Mandingue...). The Maloya of Alain Peters and Danyèl Waro are an incredible source of inspiration for the membres. This is what makes Soadan so unique.

David Aubaile and Julien Tekeyan will unveil their new album « HiMA » on its digital release April 15, 2022 and physical release on May 20, 2022 on Profile-on-air / UVM Distribution / Idol. This new work will be presented live on stage on Wednesday April 13, 2022 at Le Hasard Ludique (Paris). HiMA is music with "organic" entirely live looping between two instruments, between two accomplices, in this case David Aubaile, a magnificent virtuoso of the piano and the flute (here on the piano / keyboards / FX) and Julien Tekeyan (on the drums / percussions / looping). I would be happy to send you a copy of the album and any other additional information (visuals, press kit) for announcements and/or interviews. HiMA is their escape, a method of expression and improvising together, of attaching themselves to the sole constraint of being curious and improvising as known people on unknown paths. They start from a word to make a sentence, from a sound to compose a piece, from one rhythm to build more; they distort, loop and loop again, like a living exploration of sound. So much so that HiMA is rooted here to overflow there, and that jazz improvisation meets energy that is sometimes electro, sometimes contemporary or even pop. Naming their duo HiMA, from the Armenian "now", David Aubaile and Julien Tekeyan perform with musical expression and the vitality, risk and commitment of necessary in improvisation. HiMA brings to life the concept of immediacy within improvised instrumental music. The idea of this duo is a musical expression with a very open approach. Where improvisation and virtuosity are often synonymous with jazz, David and Julien wish to share their music in a universal way. One of their Tracks, for example, is called 'the Avengers', a reference to Sydney Newman and Leonard White’s TV Serie 'The Avengers' (« Chapeau Melon et bottes de cuir » in French). Unlike projects that present pre-produced elements on stage, HiMA is a real-time creative experience that becomes a show in and of itself. It is a joyful and trusting experience for an audience tired of inert performances and ready to receive the emotional exposure of the two musicians.A declaration of love of freedom, space, plasticity and pleasure, a true musical epicureanism, HiMA can also mix its keyboards, percussions and loops with other disciplines, and shape a common scenic gesture with dance, image morphing, painting, sculpture or poetry.The guest artists on the album (Sandra Nkake, Yan Péchin, Kaabi Kouyate) also committed themselves to the art of creative, constructive improvisation of coherent and conceptual tracks.

Dettmar Quartet will unveil their new album « Escales » on its release May 6, 2022 on Musique et Équilibre / InOuïe Distribution. This new work will be presented live on stage on Thursday May 3, 2022 at Le Studio de L’Ermitage (Paris). In this new adventure, Guillaume Dettmar's music is influenced by the aesthetics of Avishai Cohen, Ibrahim Maalouf, Dhafer Youssef, Anouar Brahem and even Orner Klein and Chai Maestro, among others. It is dynamic instrumental music with harmonies enriched by jazz, drifting through improvised music and dreamlike vocals, one that encourages travel and uses different Mediterranean languages (Arabic and Hebrew). "Escales is a creative project, a journey through the different influences that have shaped me since I started dedicating myself to music. Viscerally, I carve out a part of Mediterranean culture associated with my work as a classical and contemporary musician and fill it with an overture to jazz and improvised music.” Guillaume Dettmar Having formed bands with klezmer and Mediterranean influences (Manguina, Paris Klezmer Band, United Colors of Méditerranée), Guillaume Dettmar has incorporated jazz into his compositions for this new quartet. The "Escales" project has grown out of the composer and violinist playing together in rhythmic improvisations and melodies. They are accompanied by three artists from the world of jazz and improvised music: Alexandre Jouravsky on piano, François Laizeau on drums and Bernard Cochin on double bass. Guillaume creates original compositions halfway between Mediterranean music (Spain, Maghreb, Greece, Middle East) and jazz. He has integrated two types of song into his repertoire - a medieval one (in the Muwashshah tradition), which dates back to between the 8th and 13th century, in Arabic: “Lamma bada yatathana” and to continue in this Muwashshah tradition, he has added a self composed song in Hebrew: “Hasahmaïm bakhou bishvili” featuring the same themes, also in this tradition of poetry. The techniques employed on the "Escales" project are based on series, rhythms, suites and ornamentation. Also inspired by Middle Eastern maqām (quarter tone mode), this music is based on poly-rhythms, irregularly composed measures. Beyond the groove, influenced by the music of North Africa (Algerian Chaabi) and the Middle East, the style of play uses opposition, confrontation, overlapping and contrasts. Improvisation lies at the core of these musical pieces. Structured around a highly crafted, chamber music style of songwriting and backed up by a singular beat, the themes let themselves drift along more or less slowly in the ever-evolving improvisation or simply in the interaction between the musicians, and then circles back to a theme or an expansion on the theme. "Escales" combines music that speaks to the body (dance, song, celebration) and music that encourages travel (melancholy, nostalgia, appeasement). In this new adventure, Guillaume Dettmar's music is influenced by the aesthetics of Avishai Cohen, Ibrahim Maalouf, Dhafer Youssef, Anouar Brahem and even Orner Klein and Chai Maestro, among others. It is dynamic instrumental music with harmonies enriched by jazz, drifting through improvised music and dreamlike vocals, one that encourages travel and uses different Mediterranean languages (Arabic and Hebrew).

Marcela will unveil her new album « O’Roma » on his release April 1, 2022 on Jamalafak / Music Box Publishing / Socadisc. This new work will be presented live on stage on Thursday April 7, 2022 at Studio de L’Ermitage (Paris). Woman, artist, mother and « pack » leader. As a Slovak mad against her country, fighting traditions and bored, she left it. As a trapped black Gypsy, she decided to believe that elsewhere will be freedom. Marcela kept on composing from this new « home » that France became. The place where she finds her true self is on stage. Marcela expresses there her own History: the expression of an anger from time to time, the story of an orphan, a girl who decided to forgive her mom when she sings to her own kids this lullaby: Ando Suno. Her « pack » is formed by Benny her guitar player, by Charles her soulmate composer, by Loran the experienced violinist and by Yoann the fearless double bassist. Marcela, happier than ever, shout her love on stage. Down with traditions and her own contradictions, free to make her very own choices, she carries inside her the insolence of those who knew pain, publicly fighting to transmit her will, strength and freedom values making the note resonate and crying without shame. More intimate, this album dives deep into the band’s musical identity and brings to light Marcela’s very own universe: her rich soundscapes and History, between joy and pain, anger and traditions. Mixing original compositions, traditional songs and both Romany and French lyrics, this album is an invitation to follow this journey all together. The journey of self-discovering as well as discovering others and the world enlighten by an audacious and festive orchestration. This album is the perfect occasion for Marcela to invite several musicians such as Nedjim Bouizzoul, leader of Labess, with whom she co-wrote the song « Yallah Mon Frère » mixing Kabyle and Gypsy cultures. In - O’ROMA - there are also Emilio Castiello from Aalma Dili at Mandolin, Thibault Duquesnay and Mihai Pirvan at Saxophone and Percussions from Ersoy Kazimov, Marwan Slimani or Bilal Chenni.

Label Bleu and Table Pounding Records is thrilled to announce the release of clarinetist, composer and bandleader David Krakauer’s first album under his own name in eight years: Mazel Tov Cocktail Party. Always searching to expand his aesthetic boundaries and find new sounds, Krakauer has teamed up with producer Kathleen Tagg to create a cathartic expression of joy and affirmation. In response to rising bigotry and intolerance world-wide, Krakauer and Tagg have assembled a crew of artists from a wide variety of genres and cultural backgrounds to convey a counter-message of positivity that celebrates our shared humanity. The album will be released on Feb 25th, 2022 on streaming platforms as well as in CD and vinyl formats. The album and touring project Mazel Tov Cocktail Party were conceived and created by Krakauer and producer Kathleen Tagg as a “good vibes explosion” in response to the current climate of incredible polarization and negativity that pervades our daily lives. Along with Krakauer and Tagg, the album showcases a brand new line-up consisting of an incredibly high-octane group of world class musicians: Clarinet wizard Krakauer is the Godfather to Tagg’s quirky keys and production, Iranian dynamo and multi-talent Martin Shamanpoor’s drumming, jazz guru Jerome Harris’ virtuosic bass, sultry soul singer/rapper Sarah MK’s voice and words & oud/guitar-meister Yoshie Fruchter’s lines. Together this group brings their enormous musical and cultural diversity to the project, and collaborate to create both original material as well as unique re-imaginings of material from around the world. The album takes traditional, old dance forms and completely recasts them to bring an overt message of tolerance and inclusion. Polka, Square Dance and the Hora never sounded this way before, with electro beats, acoustic middle Eastern hand drums, deep grooves and lyrics that call for space for all. Krakauer’s wailing clarinet cries out for us to join together, celebrate and feel the power in our aliveness. A Square Dance? Polka? Hornpipe, Hora and Calypso? Urban beats mixing with acoustic instruments and thought provoking rap? What is this music? In the heavily polarized months of 2020, Krakauer and Tagg began to deeply reflect on what we all share as humans as a counter to the constant barrage of stories of how different we are. It disturbed them profoundly that the conversation is so divided, blind bigotry is rampant and tensions between different groups of people are at an all-time high: Urban vs rural. Red vs blue. Conservative vs liberal etc. What’s the common place where we have the potential to come together as humans and don’t need to know the beliefs of the person next to us to have a good time? It’s with music and dance. So Krakauer and Tagg went to the old dance forms. The ones designed for communities to come together and move. Dances that are instantly recognizable. And from there they dove into the realities of our America with all its amazing diversity and added those sounds in: eg. a Square Dance with words partly in Quebecois French, drumming on an Iranian daf and a beat by Moroccan-born, NYC-based beat maker. Music with the form and pulse of a traditional Square Dance but the beat of a Brooklyn nightclub. A musical meeting place where each member showed up as they were with their entire history and skill sets, to create a new sound where the individual strands create the whole. It’s a Mazel Tov Cocktail Party and everyone’s invited!! In these uncertain times, it’s a chance for performers and audience alike to come together, celebrate all that we have in common and throw a metaphorical “Mazel Tov Cocktail” up in the air to light up the world! For the past 25 years, David Krakauer has spearheaded projects that bring together multicultural strands in unexpected ways. He is considered one of the leading forces in terms of redefining and re-imagining the music of his Eastern European Jewish cultural heritage. In 2008 he founded Table Pounding Records as a hub for genre-crossing projects. Then in 2015 Kathleen Tagg joined Krakauer to create the production and creation wing of Table Pounding Records: Table Pounding Music. Mazel Tov Cocktail Party features: David Krakauer, Clarinet and Vocals Kathleen Tagg, Keyboards, Cello, Accordion, Electronics/Samples Sarah MK, MC, Vocals and Rap Vox Martin Shamoonpour, Daf (Iranian Frame drum), jaw harp and mouth percussion Yoshie Fruchter, Electric Guitar, Oud and Mandolin Jerome Harris, Bass and Vocals Also featured are electronic tracks from acclaimed beat makers Bergsonist (Morocco/NYC), Socalled (Montreal Canada), Jeremy Flower (aka Keepalive) (Boston) and Kathleen Tagg (South Africa/NYC).

Samuel Maingaud will unveil his new album « Odayin » on his release March 25, 2022 on L’Aéronote / InOuïe Distribution. This new work will be presented live on stage on Thursday April 14, 2022 at Studio de L’Ermitage (Paris). A bold marriage between jazz and world music where Samuel Maingaud’s saxophones and duduks skillfully entwine, Odayin opens a portal to a musical fusion revealing soundscapes that are, at the same time, blended and contrasted. Powerful original compositions ring throughout this work, the fruit of artistic collaborations with Frank Herrgott, Alexis Maingaud, and Christophe Violland : masterminds whose sonic brilliance resonates within compelling melodies imbued with beauty and freedom. Odayin brings together an explosive and surprising combination of musicians: Nenad Gajin on guitar, Fred Dupont on Hammond B3 organ and keyboards, Yoann Schmidt on drums, Adriano DD Tenorio on percussion, Nicho Vella on keyboards and Samuel Maingaud on duduks and saxophones. A truly original modern work that evokes the earliest roots of humanity, this project, led by Samuel Maingaud, fuses ancient sounds to today’s familiar tones with elegance and sensitivity.

The duo was formed in 2015 when Marco Grancelli and María Cabral met in Buenos Aires, in the choir Cuerdo Vocales. Soon after, they realized that they both shared the same passion for South American folklore and started to perform together on Buenos Aires stages. In 2017, they recorded their first album, Colocho, and went on a tour around Europe afterward. They threw more than 50 concerts in various countries like Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland. Since they had such an enriching experience with the tour, they decided to settle in southwest France, where they not only felt warmly welcomed but also found a great place to take appreciation of the stimulating cultural European’s scenario. In 2018, they recorded their second album called La campana, which mainly focuses on them as a vocal duo, with guitar, cuatro, and Venezuelan maracas. Also, within the same year, they performed at multiple renowned festivals, such as Río Loco (Toulouse), Les Méridiennes (Tours), Les Suds (Arles), Borgo Sonoro (Italy), and Szolnay (Hungary), and participated in radio broadcasts like Ocora Couleurs du Monde (France Musique). Furthermore, Aguamadera is also keen on collaborating with fellow artists, and one of them is “Las Hermanas Caronni”. Together, they have recorded a co-written composition and shared stages multiple times. In this opportunity, with their new album Las historias que han dejado (the stories they left behind), the duo features compositions inspired by multiple genres, such as the Argentine chacarera, zamba or huayno, Venezuelan joropo, merengue, gaita zuliana, and Peruvian waltz, with the incorporation of the bass and percussion. The album was recorded in Buenos Aires under the artistic direction of Elizabeth Morris (two-times winner of the International Festival of Viña del Mar), and the collaboration of great South-American artists like the singers Raly Barrionuevo and Marta Gómez. Moreover, in their upcoming concerts, Aguamadera will be playing as a quartet, thanks to the participation of Julien Rieu de Pey on electric bass, and Vanesa Garcia on percussion. Las historias que han dejado will be available on digital platforms on January 7th, 2022. Whereas, its physical format will be released on January 21st, with the distribution of Quart de Lune/ UVM Distribution. Additionally, the duo will be hosted at The Parisian festival AU FIL DES VOIX at Paris Music Factory on February 16th, 2022.

Paris - Seoul Three thousand years separate these two instruments. WOOD The first is Korean, made of bamboo: the daegeum. This traditional flute is the emblematic instrument of pansori, one of Korea’s oldest musical styles. Though keyless, over the centuries it acquired a rice-paper membrane to enhance the sound. STEEL The second is a European metal flute, more complex in its Boehm-system construction, which over many years evolved into a tempered, chromatic instrument with a multitude of keys. This is a marvellous Franco-Korean encounter, open to the world, between two flautists with unique personalities. Each of them followed a particular musical path which finally brought them together on the same programme in which their specialities combine perfectly. In Wood & Steel, their first joint project, Aram Lee and Joce Mienniel have invited the shamanic singer and percussionist Minwang Hwang to accompany and bring another dimension to their music. Through the vitality of their compositions and improvisations, through the power of their playing and song, the three of them share experiences and energies that are both primitive and poetic.

Five-piece hybrid jazz outfit Black Flower are set to release new album ‘Magma’ on the 28th January 2022 via the groove-obsessed Belgian label, Sdban Ultra. Piloted by Brussels-based saxophonist/flutist/composer Nathan Daems (Echoes of Zoo, Dijf Sanders), the quintet is a vibrant, hypnotic mix of Ethio jazz, afrobeat, psychedelia and oriental influences, inspired by Mulatu Astatke, Fela Kuti and varied western musical traditions. Black Flower is a band at the peak of their creative powers. Having received glowing praise for the 2019 album ‘Future Flora’ from Mojo, Songlines, BBC Radio 6 Music’s Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 3’s Music Planet, Worldwide FM and Jazz FM among others, forthcoming album ‘Magma’ sees Black Flower embrace new synth and organ sounds from the band’s most recent recruit, Karel Cuelenaere. His influence can be heard from the outset – his keys adding a swirling, mischievousness to album opener and title track ‘Magma’. Elsewhere, the shuffling drum patterns and flighty, flute-propelled ‘O Fogo’ are rich in texture and flow. Driving rhythms and Eastern influenced melodies serve as a rich source of pleasure that, like magma, become real and solid when finding its way to the surface. It’s the perfect metaphor for this album’s creational process. The pulsating, trance-inducing ‘Deep Dive Down’ continues the joyous process while singer-songwriter Meskerem Mees (winner of The Montreux Jazz Talent Award 2021) adds, her clear-as-spring-water vocals to the celestial ‘Morning in the Jungle’. With the much-trusted Frederik Segers on production and London-based visual virtuoso Raimund Wong (Total Refreshment Centre) on artwork duties, it all adds up to the psychedelic and exploratory identity of the band and are key elements that helped ‘Magma’ in its ascension from deep down up to the surface. A creative process solidified into vinyl, just as magma into rock. Fellow musicians and spiritual henchmen are Jon Birdsong (dEUS, Beck, Calexico) on cornet, Simon Segers (Absynthe Minded, De Beren Gieren, MDCIII) at the drums, Filip Vandebril (Lady Linn, The Valerie Solanas) at the bass and Karel Cuelenaere (John Ghost) on keys.