Renaud Garcia-Fons - Mediterrannees
2011

Renaud Garcia-Fons' New Album Bridges The Mediterranean

Renaud Garcia-Fons is known among jazz fans as an ear-popping virtuoso of the acoustic bass. The sounds he conjures from his five-string instrument have won him admirers around the world. But for his latest project, the Spanish-French musician says he wanted to concentrate on composition -- specifically the sounds of the Mediterranean -- while searching for a bridge between the music of the East and the West.

Garcia-Fons says the initial thinking behind his new album, Mediterranees, was not to compose music for a band, but to make a concept album inspired by music across the Mediterranean and the search for a common identity. That process took him back to his childhood.

"When I was in family, I was of course listening to Spanish music," he says. "But when I grew up in Paris, I had a chance to listen to many different music from north of Africa, which is Mediterranean. After that, I had really a passion for all music coming from Middle East, from Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt."

Garcia-Fons says all of these different styles of music share common elements, and that he wanted to find the connections.

"We have some bridges, but also, of course, each tradition is unique," he says. "The sense of this music was also to try to establish some bridges between."

Garcia-Fons' exploration begins in Andalucia, in the south of Spain, with a piece called "Aljamiado" -- its title a reference to the Spanish language from the time when the region was ruled by the Moors.

"For me, it's a good illustration of the union between Occident and Orient," Garcia-Fons says. His music moves from West to East, from Spain to the South of France, Italy and Greece, to the northern tip of the Mediterranean.

"So all the first pieces are more on the 'occidental way,' and then the big change starts in the piece called 'Bosphore,' " he says. "Because the trip arrive finally on the Bosphorus, so we reach the border with the Orient and start more Oriental influences."

A Unique Virtuoso

Unlike some of Garcia-Fons' previous recordings, the new album is not centered on his five-string acoustic bass, but rather on composition. Nevertheless, Yatrika Shah-Rais -- music director at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, where Garcia-Fons performed recently with his quartet -- says Garcia-Fons is a virtuoso.

"This is a world-class musician that deserves to be truly acknowledged for what he does," Shah-Rais says. "He's unique in every sense of the word. He's unique in his approach to compositions, to his music. He's unique in his technique. He's unique in the way that he has revolutionized the bass, and simply he has a fantastic band."

Garcia-Fons says he's always been intrigued with the notion that the roots of Western music come from the East. And he says that thread is present, not just in Western Europe, but also in the Americas.

"This is a fascinating point for me. And this is what also I really appreciate in all American music, from South to North, is that we can feel this influence from the Mediterranean area," Garcia-Fons says. "I think maybe the common relative is baroque music. I heard that many baroque musicians find some codex, for example, in Mexico, so I think this was one of the bridge for the music to come here and to meet other culture, other people."
-- NPR.org

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"The project of a musical voyage grew slowly with me – I guess it has to do with my Spanish and Italian roots. The trip that we take here begins on the most Southern tip of Spain, progresses along the Northern Mediterranean coast until it reaches the Bosporus, turns south to the Lebanon, then Egypt and winds up on the North – African side of the Gibraltar straits. There is nothing ethno-musical or touristy on this journey but simply the desire to be led on the passionate path propelled by the melodies. Melody is at any rate the connecting link of all Mediterranean people! I began each composition with simple melodies, sometimes solemn, but also joyful, dancing or meditative – each time another possibility to dig into an emotion, a scent or an atmosphere. On each step a new rhythm, a new orchestration, sketches of images, fragments of different lifes surface. This voyage is an exploration of the chain that links East and West in the sense the forgotten language Aljamiado (literature spoken in Spanish but written in the Arabic consonant language) to which the first piece is dedicated."
-- Renaud Garcia-Fons

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Personnel --
Renaud Garcia-Fons - compositions and arrangements, double basses, tanbur, udu, bendir, cajon, daf, palmas
Claire Antonini - baroque lute, theorbo, tar, zither, bozouki
David Venitucci - accordion
Kiko Ruiz - flamenco guitar, palmas
Adel Shams el-din - rik, derbouka
Bruno Caillat - zarb, rik, daf
Bruno Sansalone - clarinets
Henri Tournier - bansuris, alto flute, bass and octobass
Solea Garcia-Fons - vocal in "Los Secretos"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Track List
01 - Aljamiado
02 - Luces de Lorca
03 - Fortaleza
04 - Los Secretos
05 - Las Ramblas
06 - La Demoiselle de Ceret
07 - Camp d'Argeles
08 - La Strada
09 - Romsarom
10 - Iraklio
11 - Dalmatia
12 - Mythologie
13 - Bosphore
14 - Bekaa
15 - Hmar Nadir
16 - Sinai
17 - Safran
18 - Poussiere de Ksar

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

EAC log and CUE sheet included.
Audio format: FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) 
http://flac.sourceforge.net/index.html

Pastafari 
http://piratebayproxy.live/user/pastafari/