Summer invited itself (despite the cold) to the 32nd Contemporary Music Festival, Grand Unison, Saturday June 15. The highly anticipated Négresses vertes brought the much-desired touch of warmth to Unison yesterday, after an evening full of great discoveries.
You can find everything at the Grand Unison festival. From children who have fun playing wooden games to teenagers for whom the music heard in the distance “isn’t really our thing, but it makes a nice background”. All from Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle, they took advantage of the opportunity to meet up not too far from home.
There is Claire, who came from Pithiverais to enjoy the festival with her friends Fabrice and Aurélie, from Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle. “We’re there to drink, enjoy the atmosphere between friends, discover the groups too, there’s some cool music. And then the Négresses vertes are well-known all the same.”
“That’s what we listened to when we were young”
We meet, closer to the stage, Ludovic and Sophie, from Chaingy. “We love music, we want to enjoy it. Les Négresses vertes, that’s what we listened to when we were young. We know the most famous hits, that’s what we hope to hear, like Under the Bodega sun.” And then a varied musical space, outdoors, secure, with “very good sound”, and free, they didn’t want to miss that.
A few more steps towards the artists, and here are the real music lovers. “I didn’t know this group, I already looked for them on Spotify,” appreciates Marcel. Élodie adds: “Already last year, I discovered musicians that I have been listening to ever since. That’s the pleasure, afterward we share with others…”.
You can find everything, and that’s what a free festival is all about. “It allows us to come without taking any risks with our money. The only risk: discovering something good,” appreciates Amélie.
The rumblings from the depths of the earth
Something good. Like Black lilies, the singer’s breaking voice, the ethereal rock sound, the rumblings coming from the depths of the earth of the drums, the melancholy of the cello, like a journey to the ends of the world, in the mists of the north.
Like the singer Mariotte, by turns joyful, angry, emphatic, on rock sounds when they are not folk, when the choirs or the saxophone do not transform her melodies. Like the artist Hyl, so friendly with the public, between hip-hop or rap that grooves, hands in the air, bodies moving, sometimes with tunes from BigFlo and Oli. Like the astonishing So Lune, where the cello combines with electro-pop and where rap rubs shoulders with classical, in an almost mystical mix…
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But the Grand U, Saturday evening, was also and of course the festive sounds of the Green Negresses. Who burst out with the most famous of their hits: “Here’s summer, I can see the sun… It’s so hot”. Joyful rhythms that almost made you forget that some were wearing hats!
In Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle, spectators “connected” to Unison, Friday
Caroline Bozec
