Friday 3 November 2017, 7.30pm
Emmanuelle Parrenin sings (in French) and plays the hurdy-gurdy, various harps, the thumb piano, the spinet des Vosges, the dulcimer, singing bowls… Founding figure of the revivalist folk scene in France, she toured everywhere and played with Gentiane or Melusine, as well as Didier Malherbe, Vincent Segal or Alan Stivell.
She is however best known for having recorded thirty years ago an enigmatic and beautiful album, “Maison Rose” highly sought on e-bay: where ultimate post-folk meets trad and experimental electro-acoustic.
This album was reissued on the spring of 2017 by Souffle Continu Records , along with Perelandra , a compilation of previously unreleased music from 1978 to 1982.
Léonore Boulanger / voice
Jean-Daniel Botta / electric guitar
Matthieu Ferrandez / organ
Laurent Sériès / zarb percussion
When avant-songwriter Léonore Boulanger met Iranian musician Maam-Li Merati at a show in 2011, it kick-started an engagement with Persian classical music culminating in this gorgeous collection of songs that, while steeped in the traditions that birthed them, have a freshness and elegance that seems brand new.
Léonore Boulanger immersed herself in the Radif, a collection of ancient melodies that are the basis of Iranian traditional music, using them as musical settings (mainly in the dastgah and avaz forms) to accompany a series of Persian love poems from the 13th and 14th centuries.
‘You, you traded me for nothing
Me, I still choose that I wouldn’t trade a single hair yours
for the entire world”
Saadi
In 2015 « La maison d'amour" is joined by Matthieu Ferrandez on harmonium and organ and the odd string and percussion flourish from Jean-Daniel Botta (and Laurent Sériès on stage).
Make no mistake – this is beautiful, fragile music. Boulanger inhabits the lilting vocal style required for these recitations perfectly, her voice bursting with both sweetness and pathos on tracks like Avaz-e Abu Ata (Tasnif-e Bahare Delkash), soaring like a sparrow on the breeze one moment, then turning on a dime for staccato gasps and gulps. – We Need No Swords
