Sitting in a cozy recording studio booth, he sings, eyes closed and hands moving, facing the microphone, his piece Song of the silent city. The lively scene took place last spring in Pernes-les-Fontaines, at the La Buissonne studios.
Dominique A, since it's about him, spent four days there to record the intimate part of his new album, the double CD Some lights.
“This place is really made for organic and 'live' music“, notes the author of Twenty-two bar.
Two “Jazz Victories”
If Dominique A, champion of new French song since the beginning of the 90s, chose La Buissonne for these 14 trio titles with pianist Julien Noël and double bassist Sébastien Boisseau (musicians present with him during his last tour), it's for damn tangible reasons: the father ofGoodbye my love already knew the intrinsic qualities of Gérard de Haro and this studio, winner of two “Victoires de la musique”: “Victoire du jazz” for best sound engineer in 2017 and best French jazz label in 2018. And for good reason: in December 2023, Dominique A had already joined the Perne countryside to immortalize a record: in Mementohe musically adapted, in a quartet configuration (with notably Stephan Oliva), the texts of the writer Patrick Modiano. Of course, we can't do it again… So, the discreet fifty-something released the said disc under the name of Dominique Ané, his surname for civil status. Or how to better tear down the walls so that music can be listened to for what it is. And only for what it is.
The place for silence
A few months later, last spring, the singer-songwriter returned to La Buisssonne, revisiting his songs as a trio. Give us back the light or Valparaiso. Dominique A speaks of “minimal format, without drums or percussion, to encourage interpretation. The freedom of the trio is that if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter, but if we can pull a thread, we'll go for it.”
The pianist Julien Noël says the importance of “succeed in finding the place for silence”with refined arrangements and an absence of frills, in order to “bring out the essence of the pieces”, during this short four-day session (the team resided in the studio lodge).
Certainly, without fanfare, Pernes-les-Fontaines plays, in 2024, the leading roles in the “Musiques contemporains” family made in France: last April, Olivia Ruiz published her new album, “La Réplique”. An opus whose seeds were laid in Pernes, during a writing session, at the “La Ritournelle en Provence” lodge.
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