Elina Duni, trait d’union rêvé entre l’Albanie et la Suisse

2277_Duni_PF2Pour la soirée d’ouverture du Cully Jazz Festival, on ne pouvait rêver mieux que de voir Elina Duni et son formidable quartet. En ce vendredi  5 avril,  Elina est vêtue d’une longue robe en voile rouge. Elle semble impressionnée par la nombreux public qui s’étale à perte de vue à ses pieds. Normal, son répertoire, son approche est plutôt intimiste : Elina Duni revisite à sa manière une sélection de chansons albanaises qui lui sont chères. C’est parfois dans une nouvelle terre qu’une culture parvient le mieux à s’enraciner et à grandir. Elina Duni est Albanaise. Elle vit en Suisse depuis l’âge de 10 ans. Sur scène, l’on sent que les chansons qu’elle interprète l’habitent, ainsi ce chant de résistance chanté régulièrement par son grand-père anti-fasciste, ainsi ce poème de Ismaël Kadaré, ou ce chant de mariage qui finit sur des cadences endiablées. Mais Elina Duni n’est pas « simplement » nostalgique ; elle parvient à créer un nouvelle idiome à partir de ce matériau musical. Son magnifique dernier opus « Matanaé Malit » (ECM, 2012) en faisait déjà la démonstration. Ce parti pris est encore plus manifeste sur scène, où elle se produit entouré de ces trois complices suisses d’exception : Colin Vallon (au piano), Patrice Moret (à la contrebasse) et Norbert Pfammatter (à la batterie). Ensemble, ces quatre-là construisent une musique nouvelle : Colin Vallon fait parfois glisser un balle sur les cordes à l’intérieur de son piano pour obtenir le son précis dont il a besoin. Patrice Moret penché sur ces cordes travaille son isntrument au corps. Et Norbert Pfammatter manie ses baguettes avec autant de subtilité que d’efficacité, se glissant dans les interstices pour contstruire et reconstruire les rythmes dans des combinaisaons qui semblent infinies. Il ne s’agit pas pourtant ici d’improvisation : les mélodies sont bien là, la voix est précise, juste, magnifique.  Il ne s’agit pas non plus de jazz vocal avec un d’illustres accompagnateurs. Il s’agit de quelque chose de neuf, dont l’ouverture d’esprit laisse présager de beaux développements futurs.

Si vous n’avez pas pu voir le concert, sachez qu’il sera rediffusé sur la RTS1 jeudi 11 avril à 22 h 45 (émission “La Puce à l’Oreille”)

A découvrir également ci-dessous la dernière vidéo de Elina Duni:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mLSa2LpVKZE#!]

OY@Electron Festival Geneva

Oy_press2_Andi_ZantWelcome to the OY experience – another intoxicatingly, left-of-centre, musical adventure dispelling all myths that life is unexotic in Switzerland.

This highly creative duo is made up of Joy Frempong: Swiss/Ghanaian vocalist, composer, story teller, sound sampler – and Lleluja-Ha: drummer, writer, producer. Their on stage appearance already communicates that you’re in for an outlandish and unique evening. Joy is like an elegant gazelle, all height and hair, dressed in colourful childlike patterns exuding both innocence and depth; Lleluja-Ha, possibly a lost member of Sun Ra’s arkestra, is shrouded within engulfing high priest regalia and remains the enigmatic driving force behind the entire show.

Here, on the 30th of March 2013, to promote their newly-released 2nd album – Kokokyinaka – on Creaked Records, their sound is a refreshing, improvised breeze of African-influenced electronica based on a road trip that absorbed sounds and experiences from Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso and South Africa. Tales, proverbs and folklore were gathered along the way to be retold in an experimental, kaleidoscopic style, at times dark and mercurial, other times as joyful as walking through an African market place.

Graced with ambidextrous talents, Joy is busy at the controls of her many synths and sound machines, often sampling her voice and playing it back as haunting accompaniment or backing vocals. An impressive wall of sound is often created between herself and partner as in ‘Chicken Beer’, where dark voice effects and heavy synth rhythms clash with swirling drum beats as menacing as a locust storm. Contrast this with a playful singing voice that combines rare soothing sweetness and reassuring confidence, (I imagined Joy singing me the last rites and how delightful it would sound). Songs about bizarre name choices ‘My name is happy’ and the sexual politics of hair ‘Halleluja Hair’ are pure poetry in motion full of observational delight and personal fire. Her seductive speaking voice entertains us with tales of how you should “never run to a funeral if you’re late” or how Ghanaians believe that “every mistake is a new style”.

If she fancied reading out the local Chinese take-away menu I think most of the audience would have happily listened. There was a lot of love in the room for this band. OY exude compassionate observation of humanity and wrap it up in multi-textured, exhuberant electronic soundscapes. The slightly drunken man standing next to me kept muttering “I’m in love with the singer, she makes me feel love, she makes me feel things I’ve never felt before”. He wasn’t wrong.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/62645660]

Joy Frempong – vocals, sampler, synths, sound machines. Leluja-Ha – drums, production
Oy, Kokokyinaka (Creaked Record)

La scène suisse électro se porte bien!

Electron - PosterEn dix ans, le festival Electron s’est imposé comme une référence en matière de musique électronique. Avec ses expos, ses conférences, ses projections, ses spectacles de danse, il s’impose pendant trois jours et dans dix lieux genevois comme le QG des musiques électroniques actuelles. Toutes les tendances sont représentées, des pionniers aux derniers arrivés. Et les Suisses ne sont pas en reste dans ce grand panorama. Comme le manifeste d’emblée le spectacle d’ouverture : une création entre le chorégraphe Guilherme Botelho (de la compagnie Alias) et Murcof, artiste mexicain qui s’était déjà compromis avec notre trompettiste national Erik Truffaz il y a quelques années.

Jeudi, il ne faudra pas rater la prestation de Mimetic, projet solo du batteur et compositeur prolifique Jérôme Soudan (également l’un des deux programmateurs de la manifestation) qui a entre autres officié au sein de Von Magnet. De formation classique, rompu à l’exercice de la bande son, Jerôme Soudan est passé maître dans l’art de créer une musique électro aux résonances et aux pulsations essentielles.

Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde version house et électro ne sont autre que les Bernois de Round Table Knights auteur des singles « Deadfish » et « Cut To the Top » (en collaboration avec le Reverend Beat-Man). Leur premier album les a déjà consacrés comme un groupe avec lequel il fallait désormais compter sur la scène internationale.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/75032056″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Quant à Oy, elle viendra présenter sur la scène genevoise son second opus nourri de ses séjours en Afrique. Nous y reviendrons.

Evidemment, une bonne partie de la scène électro-techno-indu genevoise est dignement représentée. Parmi celle-ci Dachshund. Après s’être illustré en faisant de la drum’n’bass, ce DJ et producteur, amoureux du bon vieux dub jamaïcain, s’est reconverti à la techno.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/80757852″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Un des ses compagnons de fortune, le Dj et producteur Quenum, co-fondateur avec Luciano du label Cadenza Records, présente en avant-première à Electron son premier album sur la scène du Zoo.

Pour clore le festival, place à l’inénarrable et provocateur artiste de rap vaudois, Rocco Roccobelly qui aime à se présenter comme « le plus grand artiste de rap doté du plus petit appareil génital. »

En un mot comme en cent: dirigez vos pas dès ce soir du côté de Genève; vous ne serez pas décus!

Festival Electron, Genève, divers lieux, du 28 au 31 mars.

Erika Stucky Bubbles and Bands’ tour @Pully City Club, 15th of March 2013

Erika Stucky_2Erika Stucky has been nicely described as “a Swiss post-modern jazz singer and yodeller”. My version would be “an anarchic Heidi sight & sound experimentalist with a spunky, punky, funky performance art ethic”. Truly a national treasure who sticks out like a welcome sore thumb in a country only too well-known for quiet, order, efficiency, occasional dullness and no toilet flushing after 10pm. I left the concert last Friday night joyfully dazed and confused and wishing she were my next-door neighbour. Give Erika the chance for referendum and dullness would be effectively banned from the Swiss idiom.

Accompanied by great talent on the drums (Lucas Niggli) and tuba (Marc Unternährer) and a bit of fiddling on the lights, Erika turned the comfy Pully City Club into a mad powerhouse of sound, sights, textures and sensations. The musical content was made up of of random songs heard whilst on the road touring, a kind of musical diary that got played around with on the tour bus and dressing rooms. But do not mistake this as night of karaoke standards.

It’s a loose and baggy monster of interpretation where Donovan (“Sunshine Superman”), The Beatles (“Helter Skelter”) and The Stones (“Gimme Shelter”) give way to Stucky’s vocal range, musical styles and provocational ways. Her delivery varies from minimal to positively orchestral, gentle to deranged, soulful, bluesy hoochie-coochie to African chanting, Japanese scatting, or was it Swiss German?…. lordy, there were so many languages… She has able pipes and she knows how to use them, skillfully creating a constantly fluctuating sense of light and shade, one minute lulling you into a safe muscial comfort zone to then have you climbing out of your skin. Never has the occasionally annoying been so engaging.

Visually too, it’s more than a cosy, quirky circus act. The backdrop aided by clever lighting tricks creates multiple Erikas: little, looming, friendly, scary. Snippets of Scorsese-style home movies accompany the music; we were spared the famous baby-tossing sequence that caused outrage in Italy, but were subjected to the blood-curdling cup of coffee which cutesy Madame overfloods with sugar and proceeds to sip cautiously, tortuously as if being held at gunpoint.

Interaction with the audience is warm and delightful, (oh the joy tales of hanging out with Japanese bonadage ladies in Norway), it showcases her polyglotism – though never a show off – and informs us that Erika is over 50 and a recent mum. Information which, to my mind, adds to her general boundary-expanding charismatic ways. Here’s a woman who can weave one song out of two (The Beatles’ “Revolver” and Dylan’s “It’s Alright Ma”), kick ass into Eminem’s Lose Yourself, create crazy soundscapes out of playing the accordion, banging a shovel and sampling herself yodelling live AND be totally sexy with it.

“When you come to see me live, you pay to be surprised” she modestly quips near the end of her show. Damn right in bold, italics and underlined. Stucky tells us that the gig has to finish bang on 10pm because of strict anti-noise laws, “eh, oui, c’est bien la Suisse” shouts out a member of the audience. But no-one left the auditorium unhappy with Swiss rules and regulations, clearly one and a half hours of Bubbles and Bangs had filled us with enough anarchic musical vibes to start our own personal revolution.

Erika Stucky (vocals, accordion, sampler, light show and anything else she could get her hands on), Lucas Niggli (drums), Marc Unternährer (tuba).

Les clips de deux artistes Swiss Vibes récompensés M4Music

Rusconi et La Fanfare Kadebostany, deux artistes qui figurent sur la compilation Swiss Vibes 2, ont remporté respectivement le prix du jury et celui du public du “Best Swiss Video Clip”. Tous deux ont été projetés ce soir aux Docks de Lausanne, lors de l’ouverture du M4Music Festival.

Le concours était organisé en collaboration avec les Journées de Soleure, le jury était présidé par le réalisateur parisien Tony T.Datis, auteur de clips pour Skrillex, Modeselektor et Katy Perrry. Les autres membres du jury étaient le réalisateur lausannois Laurent Fauchère et la productrice et rédactrice musicale zurichoise Eliane Laubscher.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDdzOFYnLuo]

Les réalisateurs du clip “Alice in The Sky”de Rusconi sont Jonas Meier et Mike Raths. Ils ont été salué pour leur inventivité, savoir-faire et visions poétique.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQDK6x1i8jY]

Les réalisateurs du clip “Walking With A ghost” de la Fanfare Kadebostany sont David Houncheringer, Steven Blatter, Mirko Eremita. Ce prix du public a été décerné au moyen d’un vote en ligne de 3500 personnes sur la plateforme mx3. Les deux lauréats empochent chacun 5000.-

Le festival M4Music  lieu ce soir à Lausanne et vendredi et samedi à Zurich. Défileront entre autres dans les clubs de la capitale économique de la Suisse, Oy, La Gale, Velvet Two Stripes, Domi Chansorn et Evelinn Trouble.

Disque du mois: Lucien Dubuis, le New-Yorkais

Lucien Dubuis Trio coverLucien Dubuis pourrait être né dans le Lower East Side et avoir grandi au Stone de John Zorn où on l’aurait biberonné au son des Beastie Boys. Au lieu de quoi, il a vu le jour à Porrentruy en 1974 et son trio est basé à Bienne. Musicalement, disons que le saxophoniste est New-Yorkais d’adoption. Après y avoir enregistré son précédent album en compagnie de Marc Ribot (Ultime Cosmos, Enja Records, 2009), une résidence new-yorkaise de six mois, en 2011, a accouché du cinquième album de son trio que complètent Roman Nowka (basse et guitare électrique) et Lionel Friedli (batterie). En choisissant un titre, Future Rock, qui sonne comme une déclaration d’intention, Lucien Dubuis continue de creuser le sillon d’un jazz contemporain sur une assise binaire. Si le fond est ambitieux, la forme sait aussi être sexy voire ludique : clins d’oeil exotiques (« Lançang »), surf music (« 4 Wände »), solo de guitare digne de Michael Hampton (« Yiwu Shan »), rap nerveux (« En descendant de la montagne » qui évoque la collaboration Saul Williams-Trent Reznor). Brillant à la clarinette basse, Lucien Dubuis signe un album qui fourmille d’idées. New York n’a qu’à bien se tenir.

Lucien Dubuis Trio, Future Rock (Unit Records)

Kadebostany/Geneva and back again

It begins like a fairy tale: a newly-formed country, east of Switzerland and west of Turkey, led by a young music-loving president especially keen on electronic music.

President Kadebostan
President Kadebostan

The country’s called Kadebostany and its president Kadebostan. During a diplomatic tour of Belorussia, Kadebostan stumbles across and makes friends with an accoustic orchestra in Minsk, and since his young nation doesn’t yet have a national ensemble of its own, he takes them on.

Better still, he decides that this troupe must be liked by all his people, that includes every generation. With the help of his computers and samplers, he sets to work and begins to compose music around the recorded parts of the brass section and other instruments in the orchestra. Other musicians stop by the studio to record their solos. “Each time, I tried to push them into their corner for them to find their extreme animal instinct. I try to capture these crazy moments that only happen once”. Always open-minded, the President also recruits Corina for a track, a Romanian beggar that he met on in the streets of Geneva whose reality is 10,000 leagues distant from his own.

The Band I (photography by Tom De Peyret) low resFor practical reasons, the fanfare settle in Geneva, the town of their label: Mental Groove. In the record shops today, «Songs From Kadebostany» is a musical UFO that continues to increase the group’s popularity. Kadebostan, with his haughty look and dictatorial moustache explains: “I’ve always been an outsider in electronic music”. Before his concert at Le Romandie in Lausanne he tells me: “I like to describe myself as musically illiterate. I can’t read music at all. I’ve got some vague notions of harmony, but I stopped short when I realised that I was about to acquire the skills that would kill off the magic of the moment”.
Refusing all musical labels (techno, folklore, etc..), the National Fanfare of Kadebostany plays on the curiosity and mystery which surround its name and country. After having met with varied audiences from Holland, Germany and Mexico, the band continues along its virtual path. Their new opus has already gone into the best top ten albums on itunes Japan. Their video have reached more than 700’000 views on Youtube.  It gives you a good idea of the energy that this strange national band gives off. You can make them win the best Swiss Video clip  in a competition organized by M4Music and Mx3. The National Fanfare Kadebostany is playing worlwide, including Athens recently. It will also close the Caprices Festival in Crans-Montana on the 16th of March and will play at the Geneva Electron Festival  on the 31st. Be there!

This article was first published on swissvibes.org in french in May 2011. Translation: Beatrice Venturini

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQDK6x1i8jY]

Samuel Blaser on records

Samuel Blaser "As The Sea"Samuel Blaser released his new CD, “As The Sea”, on HatHut records ont the 26th of February. You can listen to “As The Sea Part One” and download the full album on his bandcamp page.

Samuel Blaser with Paul Motian
Samuel Blaser with Paul Motian

Two years ago at Cully Jazz Festival, he was the opening act for Wayne Shorter. He played his cards magnificently well. With an original concert-concept, he gave a jazz interpretation to Baroque and Renaissance music. It was a première before the launch of his CD in New York. Since he had a plane to catch for New York at the crack of dawn, it’s via mail that he explained to us the why’s and wherefore’s of his project « Consort in Motion » with Paul Motian.

 “I’ve always been influenced by baroque music. My professor at the Conservatory at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Pierre Henry, was an excellent teacher, but at that time I used to only listen with one ear because the only thing I could think about was playing jazz. Today I play jazz and I find myself immersed in classical music. For this record, I reworked a lot of Claudio Monteverdi’s material because he is an innovative person, the inventor of opera. It seemed important to me to set off from someone like him in order to build something new. I’ve also reworked some compositions by Marini and Frescobaldi.

 Each track was approached differently. Sometimes, as with the track that’s on the Swiss Vibes compilation, (« Lamento della Ninfa »), I kept the melody intact. In the original version, the melody is played by a soprano and 3 tenors, whereas in this case it’s played by piano. In other instances, I only took the beginning and end of a composition and played around with it. Each time I try to extract the original material and to simplify it.

Samuel Blaser_cover The record « Consort in Motion» was recorded in 5 hours in New York with Paul Motian. I wanted to work with him because he’s played with everyone and because his very particular cymbal sound suited the project. The other musicians are a mix of people I knew well and some who had previously played with Motian.

It was important to record the CD in these conditions. For the Cully concert, I played with a different bassist and drummer (Gérald Cleaver). We rehearsed for an hour the day before, that was enough for us because my music is largely improvised and we’re used to playing together. I was really proud to get up on stage at Cully Jazz with this music, improvised music of the day!”

 Samuel Blaser

PS. This article was first published on swissvibes.org in french in April 2011. Translation Beatrice Venturini.

Plaistow, video and interview…

Cyril Bondi
Cyril Bondi

Three questions to Cyril Bondi, drummer of Plaistow, a  band formed in 2007, currently kicking up a storm everywhere they play. Plaistow’s next album, “Citadelle”, will be released on Two Gentlemen Records in April.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/52917016]

Interview first published in french in May 2011. Translation: Beatrice Venturini. Photographer: Raphaelle Mueller

What does Plaistow mean?

Cyril Bondi : Plaistow means two things. Firstly, it’s a disused metro stop in London. Many of our compositions refer to the metro because we love everything that is underground. It’s another way of saying that we can always dig. Plaistow is also a track by Squarepusher. We later found out that it’s also a playground, which fits in nicely with the spirit of the band.

Why have you chosen such a classic format as the jazz trio?

Vincent Ruiz
Vincent Ruiz

Cyril Bondi: We have fun with it. We act as if we were a jazz trio but in fact we transcend this format by bringing to it a dub, punk or electro side. There has always been this desire to gather up extremes, to bring together all our basic different influences. Johann Bourquenez, the pianist, comes from electronic music. Raphaël Ortis, our former bassist, from metal. Vincent Ruiz, our new bas player, comes from jazz. As for me, they say I come from jazz, but I think I come more from improvised music. All three of us have strong personalities and the formula ‘piano-bass-drums’ is the most comfortable for us, it allows us the most freedom to play. We never play any of our tracks the same way twice.

You’re often labelled with the term ‘post-jazz’, does it suit you?

Cyril Bondi: This ‘post-jazz’ idea actually came from us; it’s handy because it doesn’t really mean anything and it allows us to go far and wide with it. In the same track there are moments where we try to just improvise together, others where we try to play the same thing over a long stretch, and others again where we slow things down to the max. And then we might decide to throw ourselves into pure noise…..


Johann Bourquenez
Johann Bourquenez

Welcome to New York Bonaparte!

A gig on a Tuesday night can be a lonely experience in New York City for a punk rocker, who made a name for himself with his large multi-ethnic band across the Atlantic. But Bonaparte aka Tobias Jundt took on that challenge this month at Pianos in the Lower East Side of Manahattan and there already are some signs that Big Apple will enjoy the eccentric and energetic Swiss artist’s solo act and residency there in the coming weeks. The lead singer of the quiet folk band St.Claire opening for him on February 19, told the crowd that it would get loud after her show, because “it’s what happens after 10.00 pm in Manhattan”. And loud it got. Bonaparte, who recently moved to New York to write his 4th album, showed his crowd how to make  punk music with just a guitar, pedals and a computer.

IMG_5939

Sporting his usual black eye and half-cow half-horse hat, he quickly brought the crowd to its feet with his powerful guitar riffs and his clever lyrics. He opened his show with”Wrygdwylife” aka “What are you gonna do with your life” and filled the room with his energy. One could feel that the crowd did not know what to think of this wild troubadour throwing lines at her such as “No I’m not drunk, I’m just dancing” and “No I’m not dead, I’m just sleeping”. But one guy started dancing crazily in the packed room and he helped Bonaparte break the ice. The slightly drunk dude, who had never heard of Bonaparte before and kept screaming “that’s right motherf…..r”, got his reward at the end of the gig. The rocker invited  him to his next show at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn the following night.

[vimeo 60116532 w=500 h=281]

Bonaparte played several songs from “Sorry we are open”, his band’s latest record that will be released in France in April. He also played tracks from his previous record, “My Horse likes you” (2010). Among them was the energetic “Boycott Everything”. “I boycott everything that’s not made by my hands”, he sung. During his 45-minute show, he rolled on the floor, sweat, drank from somebody’s drink, jumped into the crowd, unleashed his guitar, ran with it around the place and ultimately got the crowd to convince the deejay to grant him an encore. He closed his show with the electro-punk track “Computer Love”.

Bonaparte has another solo gig at Pianos on February  26 before being joined by his “divas” at Pianos on March 5 and then moving on to Austin for the cool South by Southwest festival. The whole band will be with Tobias Jundt for 5 shows in Texas and two more shows in New York at Union Hall and Pianos.

Bonaparte’s upcoming shows

BONAPARTE SOLO – “PIANOS RESIDENCY”
26.02 | USA – NYC, Pianos (upstairs) – solo set | 10pm
05.03 | USA – NYC, Pianos (downstairs) – solo w/divas | 10pm
26.03 | USA – NYC, Pianos (downstairs) – solo w/divas | 10pm

BONAPARTE – “MAÑANA FOREVER TOUR” (full band)
13.03 | USA – Austin, SXSW – The Belmont
14.03 | USA – Austin, SXSW – Javelina
15.03 | USA – Austin, SXSW – Iron Bear
16.03 | USA – Austin – Marching Down 6th Street
17.03 | USA – Austin – Gay Bi Gay Gay
18.03 | USA – Brooklyn, NY – Union Hall
19.03 | USA – NYC – Pianos

09.04. | CH – Stans – Musiktage Stans

10.04. | F – Tourcoing – Festival Paradis Artificiels
11.04. | F – Lyon – Marché Gare
12.04. | F – Blois – Chatodo
13.04. | F – Paris – Festival Chorus
14.04. | LUX – Luxembourg – Rockhal
15.04. | D – Münster – Skaters Palace
18.04. | IT – Torino – Lapsus
19.04. | IT – Roma – Traffic
20.04. | IT – Vicenza – E20