Each month, the music critic Sophia Fanen offers 5 novelties that are becoming obsessive. Are nominated for the month of January:
– Laurent Bardainne & Freshwater Tiger, Bird (Feat. Bertrand Belin), from the album Hymn to the Sun (Heavenly Sweetness, 2022)
After Love Is Everywhere, Laurent Bardainne takes his Freshwater Tiger on an exploration dedicated to the star of the day. Arnaud Roulin (Bardainne’s accomplice in Thomas de Pourquery Supersonic and fire Poni Hoax) on Hammond organ, Sylvain Daniel (Camélia Jordana and the ONJ) on bass, Philippe Gleizes on drums, Roger Raspail on percussion: it is with the same quartet of faithful that he wrote these new feline adventures . Bardainne’s dull saxophone lets the great names of spiritual jazz echo in its keys, the musical compass open from hip hop to African rhythms, from Pharoah Sanders to Kruhangbin and Sault, Hymne Au Soleil (a tribute to the composition of the same name by Lili Boulanger) guides the Tiger on a dreamlike and cinematic journey. Towards a futuristic retro soul where synthesizers and female choirs also invite themselves to shine in the sun’s rays.
– Branko Mataja Tamo Daleko, single (Group number, 2021)
– Lady Wray Games People Play, from the album Piece of Me (Big Crown Records, 2022)
– Piero Umiliani, Benvenuti All’Isola, from the album Polynesia (Liuto Edizioni Musicali, 2022)
– Zine, Not even hurt, from the album Cobalt (Low Wood, 2021).
Then the Franco-Algerian artist Nesrina enters the #Live Session to present his new album Nesrina. Label: ACT / Distributor: [PIAS].
In the wake of the success of his trio’s debut album NES, the Franco-Algerian singer and cellist Nesrina emancipates herself in solo on a first eponymous disc of great richness which combines her Mediterranean influences, her career as a classical musician and her openness to today’s pop and jazz.
Taking everyone by surprise, the trio NES, formed around the Franco-Algerian singer and cellist Nesrina, amazed the European music scene. Ahlam, his 2018 debut album received many enthusiastic reactions, with its sheer beauty, unusual line-up (vocals, cello and percussion) and unique blend of influences from across the Mediterranean.
Several tours across Europe followed the release ofAhlam, the trio playing both in high places of classical music (Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam Cello Biennial) as well as in major jazz and world festivals.
Today, Nesrine reveals another facet of her very rich musical personality by reinventing herself as a solo artist and continuing to tell her unique personal story: Nesrine grew up in France of Algerian parents and studied the classical cello, integrating very quickly institutions such as the East-Western Divan Orchestra of Daniel Barenboim and Valencia Opera Orchestra (Spain) led by Lorin Maazel. She also held a leading role in Cirque du Soleil.
Her delicate songs in Arabic, French and English bring out the dazzling artistic personality of Nesrine; a world of music, without borders, entirely contained in his powerful voice and his cello and a fascinating mix of minimalist music, at the crossroads of his classical culture and the rhythmic influences of pop and jazz.
For this new album, Nesrine has secured the services of the producer and guitarist Vincent Minana and sound engineer Fab Dupont. Together, with the contribution of the percussionist of NES David Gadea and bassist Swaeli Mbappe, they have created a complex musical world, between acoustics and electronics, where the warmth and organic sounds ofAhlam and where brand new influences are heard.
Protean and omnipresent, the cello, in the hands of Nesrine, never ceases to amaze with its ability to imitate the voice of a guembri (fantasy, Memories), a guitar (She) or brass instruments (Rissala), it also impresses without pageantry, in an improvised register (Mumkin, Memories).
And then there is his voice… this voice which speaks directly to the listener, whispers in his ear, declaims a call to love as one would call to prayer (Rimitti) see the clip, which surrounds us and envelops us with gentleness or a touch of irony (My Perfect Man), which invites us to a form of duplicity (Night) or the hope of understanding the world around us (Rissala, SilentMood).
Nesrine expresses all this in an album that is both firmly rooted in the earth thanks to a line of dry percussion with tribal accents that delivers a modern version of traditional rhythms (from North Africa to Mumkin and She or Andalusia with the bulería-style cover of Vitamin C de Can) and intensely ethereal due to the skillful work of the guitarist, whose sounds gently surround the voice and carry it with lightness. The sensual sonorities of the bass and the Moog color each of the compositions, inviting to dance.
Titles performed in the Grand studio at RFI
-Rissala, Live RFI
– Mumkin, from the album Nesrina
– Silent Mood, Live RFI.
Musicians
– Nesrine (cello, vocals)
– Swaeli Mbappe (low)
– Vincent Minana (guitar).