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Scotsman
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Sissoko, Segal, Parisien & Peirani at EIF: the unlikely quartet where egos are 'out of the window'
If you're looking for genre-busting combos you'll be hard-pressed to find anything more eclectic than this quartet, writes Jim Gilchrist Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Its patent diversity may suggest an ensemble put together by a well-meaning cultural affairs committee: take one Malian kora player, add an eclectically-minded cellist, a leading jazz saxophonist and a similarly venturesome accordionist. The result, however, far from emerging as an ungainly musical camel, is a uniquely collaborative quartet producing beguiling music that eloquently, gleefully defies categorisation. The quartet Sissoko, Segal, Parisien and Peirani bring their potent musical melting pot to the Edinburgh International Festival next month, as part of the festival's series of folk, jazz and world music recitals at The Hub. It's their first visit as a quartet, although kora player Ballaké Sissoko and cellist Vincent Segal performed at the festival in 2021. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Vincent Peirani (accordion), Ballaké Sissoko (kora), Émile Parisien (sax) and Vincent Segal (cello) Sissoko and Segal established their unlikely seeming partnership in the early Noughties. Sissoko, master of the glittering, 21-stringed kora or harp-lute, comes from a long line of Malian griots – hereditary tradition-bearers and praise musicians; while Segal is a French cellist steeped in everything from baroque to trip-hop. Their first album together, Chamber Music, became a surprise bestseller in Europe and North America. The other half of the quartet is also an established musical partnership. Soprano saxophonist Émile Parisien is a major figure in French jazz and beyond, steeped in jazz traditions while exploring way beyond them, while Vincent Peirani is a similarly barrier-breaking accordionist who long ago stepped out of the confines of the musette music normally associated with the accordion in France. Their frequent joint appearances can find the pair playing anything from a classic rag with American jazz statesman Wynton Marsalis to Led Zeppelin numbers. As a quartet, Sissoko, Segal, Parisien and Peirani released their first album in 2023, titling it Les Égarés, which can be translated as 'the lost ones', but here means 'the wanderers', as Parisien emphasises, speaking from his home outside Paris: 'It's 'lost' but in a poetic way. You know when you are walking in the city or in a forest, just walking without thinking where you are going – just floating.' The album's title track, written by Segal, is La Chanson des Égarés, typical of the group's rich tapestry of contrasting tones, cello sometimes percussive, sometimes sonorous over thrumming strings, the round-toned singing of Parisien's soprano sax contrasting with glittering fusillades of notes from the kora. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In contrast, there's Esperanza, a perky, accordion-led café tune, while Peirani and Sissoko work up a dramatic pulse to power an acoustic re-imagining of Joe Zawinul's Orient Express as saxophone and melismatic cello sing out. And in one Peirani composition, Nomad's Sky, kora, plucked cello then accordion generate a brooding, torrid mood before soprano sax breaks out with a plangent, Middle-Eastern sounding solo. The two duos first got together pre-Covid, as Parisien explains: 'It was an idea from Vincent Segal when he was given carte blanche at a festival and he decided to invite Vincent Peirani and me to play maybe two songs with him. It was immediately a superb meeting and the director of Vincent and Ballaké's label, No Formats, asked us after the concert, 'Guys, don't you want to do something together?' So, right after Covid, we decided to make the album together.' One gets the impression that the group's vivid mix of tones and contrasts is bound by empathy: 'There is a lot of respect between us and the wish of everybody is to serve the music,' says Parisien. 'There are no egos, just a wish to make some poetic music together.' Asked how he would describe the music of Les Égarés to an EIF audience, Peirani initially finds it a hard question to answer, 'because there are so many different influences. In my mind, though, it's a real meeting between Ballaké and his musical background of the traditional Malian kora and our western European music. On paper it seems a strange combination: saxophone and accordion already seems strange, cello even more so, then with the addition of the kora definitely strange – you don't know what to expect.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Peirani also agrees with the tapestry comparison, and the importance of empathy: 'The combination of the four instruments permits us to go in many different ways, harmonically, rhythmically. And, okay, we are four musicians, we all have our egos, but with this combination it's more about being human beings. We're just servants of the music; the egos are out the window.' An accordion virtuoso who included covers of Marilyn Manson and the Nine Inch Nails on his album Jokers, and who habitually performs barefoot, Peirani emphasises the 'two duos' origins of the ensemble: 'It has been really good for all of us. In my case I'm used to playing with Émile, but now we've two people more, like a duo extended, and I think for Vincent and Ballaké it's the same.' The effect of the collaboration rubs off, Peirani finds, even when he and Parisien are back together as a duo: 'These past few weeks I played a lot as a duo with Émile an it was funny because we took the same repertoire we've been playing for many years but these last few weeks we've been playing it completely differently. After each show we look at each other and say, 'Mmm, this is the Les Égarés influence.'' Further stretching his musical connections at the EIF, the accordionist, along with Les Égarés colleague cellist Vincent Segal, will join the Aga Khan Master Musicians earlier the same evening, playing with renowned performers from Asia and the Middle East. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I'm looking forward to it,' he says. 'We had two concerts in Paris last April and, to be honest, these people are really amazing. Again it's new musicians, new background, new history, then we are on stage and we have to share the music in performance and create something different and this is so exciting.'
ABC News
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Australian Festival of Chamber Music moving from Townsville to Cairns
The Australian Festival of Chamber Music, founded in Townsville in 1991, will move to Cairns next year. It is a blow to Townsville in the longstanding rivalry with Cairns for the title of capital of North Queensland. In 2024 the festival generated $19 million for the Queensland economy, bringing more than 1,100 tourists to Townsville. "Sometimes you need to leave home to grow," festival director Mary Jo Capps said. The annual event runs for 10 days with a variety of concerts, conversations and masterclasses. It also features outdoor concerts in Townsville's lush city gardens or on the beaches of nearby Orpheus Island. But the director said the choice to move hinged on festival growth and the need to enhance the audience experience. For 20 years the festival board had been advocating for a purpose-built concert hall in Townsville. A total $100 million had been allocated to the project, but last year the council decided to spend it on Townsville's Reef HQ aquarium instead. "Cairns already has a precinct with hotels, restaurants, public transport, all in the vicinity of the performance venue," Ms Capps said. "It eliminates the need for buses, taxis, cars, which has been a challenge in Townsville." Townsville City Council also declined to pay for a bus subsidy and a concert garden. But the council has provided $140,000 in annual funding for the festival for the past three years. "When we started talking to Cairns, we told Townsville," Ms Capps said. Cairns is a four-hour drive north of Townsville via the Bruce Highway. The Far North Queensland city has an international airport and a dedicated performing arts centre — unlike Townsville. "Many of the things that we had to work around in Townsville are already in place," Ms Capps said. "This is about future growth but it doesn't erase the past. "Townsville and its community have given us incredible support. "We will always honour that legacy." Acting Townsville Mayor Ann-Maree Greaney said it was sad to see the festival move but she wished the event well. "We have proudly supported the Australian Festival of Chamber Music for more than 30 years," Cr Greaney said. "The festival has fostered generations of talented musicians and chamber music lovers, putting Townsville on the international map. "We are looking forward to raising the bar higher than ever for our northern cousins as we celebrate the 2025 festival in Townsville." The 2025 festival will take place from July 25 to August 2.
Otago Daily Times
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Digital art and music combined
Live music loops, improvisation, and taonga puoro combine with digital art in "Mai Te Uira", a unique collaborative performance, which comes to Dunedin next week. Touring through New Zealand for Chamber Music New Zealand, "Mai Te Uira" brings the work of multidisciplinary artist Kereama Taepa (Te Arawa, Te Āti Awa) together with musician, producer and innovator Tiki Taane (Ngāti Maniapoto) . The show will be presented at Dunedin's Glenroy Auditorium next Wednesday, June 18, at 7.30pm. Grounded in a karakia (prayer) that references the atua (spirit) and whakapapa (ancestry) of their artforms, Mai Te Uira explores the transformative nature of innovation. Featuring animated digital art by Kereama, Taane taps into his own deep well of creativity to create live loops and improvisations in response on stage. This collaboration is the result of a partnership between The Dowse Art Museum and Chamber Music New Zealand.
