Editorial: Time keeps on slipping, into the future...
Posted March 07, 2006That’s what Steve Miller sang, many years ago, in his song “Fly like an Eagle”. And he couldn’t be more right !
February and March are bringing us two new ” French ” signings which we are very proud to be able to represent :
Yaron Herman, a young jazz pianist based in France, of Israeli origin. His first CD on French label Laborie will be out in April, with Naïve distributing. He has a terrific buzz going for him here in France. More about this in the “latest news”, below.
And the tandem of Mathis Haug and Seamus Taylor, not really French names either: Mathis, with German origins, has lived in France for most of his young life, and so has Seamus, with parents from Britain. They met at school, and together they write for Mathis & the Mathematiks, a group lead by Mathis which has been a great discovery for us last year. More about this also in the ‘latest news’ section below.
Pianist Giovanni Mirabassi and his trio plus one (Flavio Boltro) continue garnering great reviews, while the man himself is currently touring the UK with saxophone player Tim Whitehead. Giovanni guested on Whitehead’s current album “Lucky Boys” to which he contributed three tunes.
His next album will be a solo of “chanson française”, a very special project on release through Minium, a label that is part of Discograph here in France.
Man, the fascinating duo from Nantes signed to Belgian independent Subrosa for their latest album HELPING HAND are now collecting rave reviews in Germany and Switzerland, and are off to a good start in the US;
While Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu’s experiment with musicians from Mali on the Friykiwa label continues making headway in France, with some brilliant dates forthcoming and great reviews abroad.
Of the three acts listed in the finals of the BBC world music awards und published by Métisse Music in France: Omar Sosa from Cuba (and the world), Mercan Dede from Turkey and the meanwhile world-famous Fanfare Ciocarlia, the latter made it to the top of the list in the European section. Congratulations to young label, publisher and touring agent Asphalt Tango from Berlin, who have been the ones to launch this exceptional group of musicians internationally, with the help and great support of Piranha Records for many years, and now under their own steam.
The young Turkish musician Mercan Dede will actually be back in France for a concert extravaganza at the St. Denis Basilique in the Paris region.
Talking about awards, Peter Togni, Canadian classical music composer and organist, who is collaborating in the trio Sanctuary signed to Warner Classics (as well as to Métisse Music) has just been nominated for the prestigious Canadian Juno Award in the classical section; while Frank London’s “Carnival Conspiracy”, an absolutely inspired klezmer record released by Piranha, won the German Music Critics’ Award. Don’t miss it, this is splendid music, one of Piranha’s best ever releases. The Berlin label has never been short of talent, but they are entering a particularly exciting phase with a double CD release by mbira queen Stella Chiweshe celebrating the 100th release of this adventurous label; and a very exciting collaboration by Jewish/North African veteran Maurice El Medioni with Roberto Rodriguez from Cuba, definitely a “Descarga Oriental” of major proportions! Both will be out here in France in April, together with a new Boban Markovic CD, through Nocturne.
Welsh artist John Greaves who made Paris his home a long time ago is working a project based on poetry by Paul Verlaine of which we have been able to get an earful, to our great excitement. We expect this to be ready for release beginning of 2007.