Live with the Irish group Ye Vagabonds with the Mc Gloinn brothers and a poetic escape with the trio Le Cri du Caire, whose DNA pecks Egypt, England and Germany.
Our first guests are Irish, they are the Gloinn brothers of Ye Wanderers. They are back with a new album Nine Waves released by Rough Trade records, in May 2022. Winner of prestigious awards across the Channel, Ye Wanderers signs the revival of Irish folk with luminous and contemporary harmonies.
Ye Wanderers is composed of two brothers: Brian and Diarmuid MacGloinn. Irish, they share their vision of the traditional music of their country.
Spearheading the folk revival, Ye Vagabonds delicately combines the old and the contemporary. Each note is suspended, each chord hits the mark, each line of voice carries, like the wind on the undulating meadows of the green Érin, the heart towards mysterious horizons. History pulses through the austere arrangements of the duo, worthy heirs of Sweeney’s Men or Planxty, but in a modern and exhilarating breath.
Performed titles at the big studio
– Blue Is The Eye Live RFI see the clip
– Go Away and Come back Hitherfrom the album Nine Waves see the clip made by Le Cargo
– The Lowlands of Holland (traditional) Live RFI see the clip.
Line-up: Brian Cormac Gloinnguitar voice; Diarmuid Gloinnguitar voice; Alain McFaddenharmonium.
Sean Sheahan – Interpreter.
Sound: Mathias Taylor, Jérémie Besset.
► scrapbook Nine Waves (Rough Trade 2022)
Then we receive The Cry of Cairoa trio born in Cairo and embellished with the trumpet by Erik Truffaz.
Cairo, at the end of 2013. In a city in turmoil where the curfew has just been lifted after a second coup d’etat, where dreams and revolt are displayed in large letters on the walls, where slogans hostile to the Islamists and the army resonate even in the clubs of the city center, I find myself seized by the voice ofAbdullah Miniawy at Studio 100 Copies, a stone’s throw from Place Tahrir. Singer, writer, poet, slammer and student from the oasis town of El-Fayoum, Abdullah shakes up the stage and social networks with his hypnotic voice, his unique blend of electro, jazz and Sufism, both punk, psychedelic, secular and avant-garde. Three months later, first encounters and first stage shocks hatched by the La Voix est Libre festival in Cairo and Alexandria with the “Jimi Hendrix of the oud”, Mehdi Haddaband with the composer and saxophonist peter corser at the D-CAF festival (Downtown Contemporary Art Festival), created in the aftermath of the revolution by the theater man Ahmed El-Attar. After three years of administrative battles, while censorship is making a comeback in Egyptian artistic circles, Abdullah finally arrives in Paris where he records with Peter Corser a first version of Purple Feathers streamed on Soundcloud. In 2017, seized from the first seconds by these vocal and instrumental flights, Erik Truffaz accepts our invitation to climb on the hypnotic loops of Peter and the electric songs of Abdullah, soon joined by the incarnated strings of the cellist Karsten Hochapfel. Five years later, the Cri du Caire continues to turn heads, in front of an audience often moved to tears. Both free and spiritual, sensitive and elusive, their music touches the vertigo of the soul, flying towards what could well be one of the shortest paths between zero and infinity. Blaise Merlin.
All lyrics are written and performed by Abdullah Miniawy. Peter Corser is on tenor saxophone on all tracks except The Poet’s Cry. Karsten Hochapfel is on cello on all tracks except The Poet’s Cry & The Walker. Erik Truffaz is on trumpet on Jarda Al Wadi, Pearls For Orphans, The Poet’s Cry, Sadiya (Purple Feathers), Kon Kama Kano. (Replay)
Titles performed at the Grand studio
– Jarda Al Wadi Live RFI
– Pearls for Orphansfrom the album see the clip
– Splendid Tales Live RFI.
Line-up: Abdullah Miniawy, singing; Peter Corser, tenor sax ; Karsten Hochapfel, cello.
Marc Chonier, translation.
Sound: Mathias Taylor, Jérémie Besset.
Translation of songs
Jarda Al Wadi
The aridity of the wadi lends itself to the flow
She only supported my desire
And the wishes
Aggregate my being
She adorned herself, on me
Thrown the abaya,
Hatching the seeds of my evil.
She twirled on me, alas
In her hat, a hidden finery
My soul keeps blushing
From one kingdom to another
She left, insisting that I stay
In a flood of proofs and evidences
She left me and passed out
In a pool of plenitude
Pearls for Orphans
You, the obstinate,
Strangely constituted, buffoon
She offers you a pearl taken from the lion’s mouth
Broken, I walk without shame
The bottom of the eyes of the hair covered by the expanse
Splendid Tales
Gigantic rock and secrets contained
Comforted me in my pain
There’s always someone to nod
gain after pain
Mother, unroll me
The line of secrets
Take me back, into your matrix
Taya – Taha
► scrapbook The Cry of Cairo (Permanent Festival Discs / Airfono / Big Wax 2023).