Voices

Matthieu & Camille Saglio - Al AlbaCD / digital Camille Saglio voice, shakers Matthieu Saglio cello, palmas, vocals on #8, 10, 14 Gabriel Saglio bass clarinet on #9 "Al Alba" – ‘at dawn’ in Spanish – brings together through music two people whose connection with each other is close and lifelong: brothers Matthieu and Camille Saglio. Cellist Matthieu studied classical music in Rennes in Brittany and then settled in the Spanish city of Valencia. He is driven by a passion to explore different sound cultures, combining them with influences from jazz and world music. Vocalist Camille started to take a serious and passionate interest in music at the age of twelve, beguiled by his older brother’s enthusiasm for the cello. The instrument Camille would decide to adopt as his means of expression was his own singing voice. This is the brothers' first album together, and it has a spiritual dimension to it. It is about transitions and boundaries, about being in states of flux and how that affects music and people. There is a hint of the Celtic-Breton, especially in a leaning towards minor-key melancholy. Flamenco is also present, giving a taut rhythmic framework, but also connecting to the dreams and arabesques of the Mediterranean sound world. And Mathieu Saglio's rigorous classical training allows him great facility and breadth of choice when it comes to composition, as well as a particularly refined sound. Matthieu Saglio’s ways of working have led him to major successes, notably the creation of multi-layered, cross-border music in the flamenco crossover ensemble "Jerez-Texas” and the trio "NES" with the singer/cellist/ACT artist Nesrine, and also through the projects in his own name, both as leader and at the centre of a web of collaboration - on the ACT albums "El camino de los vientos" (2020) and "Voices" (2023).Camille Saglio, likewise, is a traveller between different worlds. The band Sôdi with flute and percussion, which he founded in Toulouse in 2003, explored world music and forged connections with the music of West Africa and the Orient. Camille became part of the Manafina project, learned to play guitar, n'goni and oud and also to express himself in various languages from Bambara and Arabic to Turkish. He wrote short stories and stage plays, produced his own shows such as "Dis-leur que j'ai vécu" (tell them I’ve lived - 2010) and worked with actors and dancers from Vincent Loiseau to Didier Bardoux and Hervé Maigret.He now sings in an imaginary language, which he creates live, evolving in his own universe. Able to carry the listener up and away into high counter-tenor register, he improvises with a voice trumpet sound, but he can also spring surprises too, by switching to a song in English, Bambara, French or Spanish. Camille Saglio has a style which is uniquely his.In this way, both brothers developed independently into poets of their genre. And finally, after years of separate experiences, they have now converged musically. "Al Alba" is a programme of songs which are as gentle as they are powerful. Matthieu Saglio uses his cello as a source of inspiration and opens up all kinds of spaces for his brother's voice. Sometimes he changes role and becomes a singer himself with bowed lines. The closeness to his brother's feelings is palpable in Camille’s singing. There is an interweaving of energy lines, which is also accommodated by the repertoire. Camille Saglio sings Arabic poetry ("Tariq") as well as a well-known political song ("Strange Fruit"), an independent classic by Noir Désir ("Le vent nous portera" – the wind will carry us), Spanish or free melodic lines and ornaments. For one piece, third brother Gabriel Saglio also joins in on bass clarinet. Recorded on an island in the River Loire, this album takes inspiration from the spirit of the river, its flow and the ever-fleeting, ever-changing nature of its moods and emotions.‘Al Alba’ is music in a state of flux, the sound of brothers whose cultural perspectives have real breadth. It is music from deep within. Totally personal, yet at the same time completely universal.Credits:Produced by Camille and Matthieu SaglioMusic and lyrics by Camille and Matthieu Saglio, except #2 (Lhasa de Sela), #7 (Lewis Allan), and #11 (Bertrand Can-tat, Serge Teyssot-Gay, Jean-Paul Roy, Denis Barthe)Recorded on June 24 and mixed on August 24 at Studio de l'Île, Chalonnes-sur-Loire, France by Alban CointeCello bases recorded on April 24 at La Seta Azul Estudis, Benicàssim, Spain, by Juan Carlos TomásMastered on September 24 at Blockhaus DY 10, Nantes, France, by Florian Tatard“Strange Fruit” © Edward B. Marks Music Company, all Rights administered by Warner Chappell Music France“Con Toda Palabra” © Éditorial Avenue“Le Vent Nous Portera” © ND Musique, Universal Music Publishing FranceCover art by Federico Herrero, “Chorus”, 2021, with kind permission of the artist

Matthieu Saglio - VoicesCD / digital Matthieu Saglio cello & vocals Steve Shehan percussion & drums Christian Belhomme piano & keys Léo Ullmann violin The Voices: Susana Baca, Alim Qasimov, Natacha Atlas, Nils Landgren, Wasis Diop, Anna Colom, Camille Saglio, Vega Tomás In “Voices”, Mathieu Saglio, with his quartet and a fascinating roster of guest vocal soloists from many countries, follows a bold dream. “Voices” builds on the success and the momentum of Saglio’s previous ACT album “El Camino de los Vientos'' (2020), a 'varied musical journey through the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia.'(JAZZTHETIK). Both Fono Forum and Stereo magazines in Germany made “El Camino” an album of the month, and Jazz-Rhone-Alpes had it as their best album of the year. France-Musique's Nathalie Piolé called it "an album you never tire of listening to,” and her opinion has been completely validated by the streaming statistics for the past three years: plays of tracks from “El Camino” on Spotify are now over 7 million. At the heart of both “El Camino" and "Voices" is the cello playing of the “talented and charismatic” (Songlines) Matthieu Saglio, who is also composer and producer. Originally from Rennes in France, he has lived in the creative cauldron of Valencia for the past two decades. His playing functions as what he calls a 'fil directeur' (guiding thread) through the album. As soloist, time and time again on "Voices", he manages to find exactly the right comment or embellishment as a response to what one of the vocal soloists has just done. Then, when he steps away from the limelight and accompanies, he can draw on a huge range of the new techniques with chords and basslines which he has developed for the cello; these give him myriad ways to anchor and propel the music. Saglio is also thrilled to be working with what has now become a regular working quartet in the years since "El Camino: drummer/percussionist Steve Shehan, pianist/keyboardist Christian Belhomme and violinist Léo Ullmann. Of the quartet, the cellist says: "They are three truly extraordinary musicians, the perfect companions to bring my compositions to life.” In “Voices”, Saglio’s ambition is “to pay tribute to the voices of the world, of men, women, of all ages, of all languages... the voice as the essence of humanity...which at the same time brings people together and unifies them.” For “Voices” Saglio sent out invitations to vocalists, attaching a melody written by him which he could imagine them singing. He then embarked on a dialogue with each one, the whole process being done remotely. Incidentally, Saglio’s vision, fostering remote collaborations in this way, already stood out as remarkable in “Camino”: that whole album was achieved before the pandemic, which has now made such ways of working much more commonplace. The opening track sets a tone of idealism, imagining the kind of society in which we would all like to live, using a recording of Nelson Mandela: 'A democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities'. "I was really happy to open this album with Mandela’s words," says Saglio. Each of the very different collaborations on “Voices” brings its rewards. Veteran Peruvian Susana Baca, the first singer in Saglio’s dream team to be approached, fills every one of the sparse words of “Ponte un Alma'' with significance and resonance. Egyptian-Belgian singer Natacha Atlas has written her own lyric for the beguiling, hypnotic “Amâl”. Flamenco singer Anna Colom enchants in “Divina Tormenta” with a Spanish translation of Paul Verlaine’s poem “Green”. Senegalese legend Wasis Diop’s intensely rhythmic speech-singing commentary in “Temps Modernes” is an art form in its own right. Alim Qasimov is a legend in his native Azerbaijan. "To have him on the record really was one of my impossible dreams,” says Saglio. "I found his contact details with help from a German Festival who had recorded a concert with him, and went from there..." Saglio was thrilled to work with Nils Landgren: "He is such a great musician, and I have also completely fallen in love with his unique way of singing ballads, and the beautiful lyrics he put to my composition.” If the soloists on “Voices” might start to sound like an extended, world-encompassing family, Saglio’s real-life family is also involved: on “Irta” we hear the countertenor and voice-trumpet timbres of his younger brother Camille. “He genuinely has invented a new language and brings an extraordinary sense of musical freedom,” comments Matthieu Saglio with both respect and brotherly affection. With “Voices”, Matthieu Saglio has once again taken what might seem an impossible dream to bring people together through music and made it work brilliantly. His compositions become the vehicles to enable strong and unique musical personalities from all over the world to express themselves naturally and authentically. Saglio's imagination and his determination to make unlikely and magical things happen are a rare combination. Or as he explains: “I believe in dreams, and I run after them.”Credits: Vocals on Movement by Natacha Atlas, Wasis Diop, Anna Colom, Vega Tomás, Camille and Matthieu Saglio Additional vocals on 1 – 4 by Camille Saglio and Matthieu Saglio Recorded July 2022 – January 2023 Mixed by Juan Carlos Tomás & Matthieu Saglio at La Seta Azul Estudis, Benicassim, Spain Mastered by Pierre Jacquot, Logodio S.A.S., Le Chesnay, France Cover art by Uwe Kowski: Vorhang, 2013, used with the kind permission of the artist

Various Artists - Fahrt ins Blaue III - dreamin in the spirit of jazzCD / digital Esbjörn Svensson E.S.T. Symphony Youn Sun Nah, Ulf Wakenius & Lars Danielsson Wolfgang Haffner Quartet feat. Dusko Goykovich Nils Landgren Quartet Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano &Jan Lundgren Julian & Roman Wasserfuhr, Tim Lefebvre & Nate Wood Viktoria Tolstoy Cæcilie Norby & Lars Danielsson Matthieu Saglio &Vincent Peirani Ulf Wakenius Norah Jones, Joel Harrison & David Binney Jan Lundgren Quartet Michael Wollny & Vincent Peirani Natalia Mateo Jens Thomas & Christof Lauer Daydreams and soothing stories...in the Spirit of Jazz "There's a place for us, somewhere a place for us. Peace and quiet and open air wait for us. Somewhere…". These words from the classic song from Leonard Bernstein's “West Side Story” set the tone for "Fahrt ins Blaue III - dreamin' in the Spirit of Jazz": this is uplifting music, to take the mind and the soul to a place of safety. The kind of quiet interlude in a day which is always restorative. Switch off and then switch back on – better focused. We find calm, intimacy, thoughtfulness here; the sixteen tracks in this compilation have a sense of flow, while also allowing the listener to wander off into all kinds of musical dream worlds....From the very first spacious piano tones of Esbjörn Svensson’s "Ajar", one feels time standing blissfully still. This little gem, and the "e.s.t. Prelude" which follows it, is our entry point into the dreamy universe which will open itself up to us over the next 67 minutes. Youn Sun Nah's bittersweet "Lento", based on the music of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, gently emerges, seamlessly followed by Dusko Goykovich’s wonderfully warm and sad muted trumpet as he contemplates the falling of "Autumn Leaves" with Wolfgang Haffner's "Kind of Cool" ensemble. Then we hear singer/trombonist Nils Landgren, gentle almost to the point of weightlessness in "Somewhere". There is poetry and the originality in Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano and Jan Lundg-ren’s Mare Nostrum Trio: we hear Swedish pianist Lundg-ren’s earwormish ballad “Aurore”. Lundgren also appears with his own quartet, with some hushed lyrical magic from Finnish saxophonist Jukka Perko in "No.9". On "Fahrt ins Blaue III", Michael Wollny and Vincent Peirani show their astonishing kinship of spirit and their serendipitous ability to move together in their duetting on "The Kiss". Accordionist Peirani is also to be heard with Ricardo Esteve’s heart-rendingly lovely flamenco guitar and cellist Matthieu Saglio on the poignantly sad but uplifting and warmly Mediterranean "Bolero triste". We then hear the Wasserfuhr brothers transport us to New York's Brooklyn Bridge with a sweeping view of the shimmering Manhattan skyline at dusk with their relaxed grooving jazz ballad "Carlo". For peace and inspiration, there’s a man and his guitar: Ulf Wakenius plays Keith Jarrett's "My Song". That is followed by the duo of Caecilie Norby and Lars Danielsson enchanting us with an intimate version of Leonard Cohen's “Hallelujah”. Two more singers take us to the world of cinema: Natalia Mateo sings Wojciech Młynarski's gorgeous lyrics to Krzysztof Komeda’s “Lullaby” from "Rosemary's Baby", starting in her native Polish, and drifting into utterly beautiful wordlessness; and Viktoria Tolstoy offers that most pensive and gentle of breakup songs, "Why Should I Care". from the Clint Eastwood film "True Crime", with some stupendous guitar work from Krister Jonsson. And then there is an appearance by inimitable Norah Jones alongside guitarist Joel Harrison and saxophonist David Binney. She recorded a languid version of the country song "Tennessee Waltz" on ACT, on the album "Free Country", from the same era as her 27 million-seller "Come Away With Me". Pianist Jens Thomas and saxophonist Christof Lauer give us the quiet poise of “Green Dance”. This epilogue sums up the aesthetic of "Fahrt ins Blaue III": dreamlike music of beauty, tranquillity and calm – that it is well worth spending some time with. Credits:Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Various Artists - Magic Moments 13CD / digitalBest Jazzinfotainment: 16 tracks, 75 minutes of music in the Spirit of Jazz, including Nils Landgren & Jan Lundgren, Wolfgang Haffner,Ulf Wakenius, Solveig Slettahjell, Grégoire Maret, Vincent Peirani & Emile Parisien, Kadri Voorand, Viktoria Tolstoy, Jazzrausch Bigband.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Matthieu Saglio - El camino de los vientosCD / digital Matthieu Saglio cello & vocals Nguyên Lê guitar Nils Petter Molvær trumpet Carles Benavent bass Vincent Peirani accordion Steve Shehan percussion, piano, bass Bijan Chemirani percussion Léo Ullmann violin Ricardo Esteve flamenco guitar Isabel Julve voice Abdoulaye N’Diaye voice Camille Saglio voice Teo, Marco & Gael Saglio Pérez vocals In “El camino de los vientos” (the way of the winds) Matthieu Saglio has not just had a bold plan for an album, he has also carried it through and made a genuine success of it. The French-born, Valencia-based cellist has followed his instinct for open-mindedness in music and welcomed in some very different musi-cal cultures, with his own contribution as composer, cellist and producer as the strong linking thread running through the album.Saglio’s most recent association with ACT was as the co-founder and main composer behind NES, the trio which had a runaway success with the 2018 album “Ahlam”. But whereas that album set about exploring French and North African sonorities, Saglio casts his net considerably wider here. While composing the pieces for it, he imagined and dreamed how the composi-tions might sound with particular guests playing along with him. His plan was that some of the guests on the album would be people he has a long history of playing regularly with over sever-al years, such as the singer Isabel Julve, the French-Iranian per-cussionist Bijan Chemirani, flamenco guitarist Ricardo Esteve... Others were simply “people whose music I have just listened to for a long time, and where I imagined their particular sound, their universe…” Some of them were people he had met maybe just once, people for whom he had what one might call a “musical crush”. The guests he wanted to invite were Nguyên Lê, Nils Petter Molvaer, Vincent Peirani, percussionist Steve Shehan, electric bassist Carles Benavent... The plan was as follows: the guests would be invited to play over cello tracks he sent them. They would record their contributions when and where they wanted: “I recorded all of the cello tracks here in a little studio near Valencia. I sent the guests deliberately minimal instructions as to what or how they would play.”But would Matthieu Saglio’s bold plan for each track and for the album as a whole actually work? Would all the proposed guests would accept to take part?. One by one, they did, starting with Nguyên Lê. And then the next stage: when he received the recordings back from his guests, having given them such free rein, would the reality match up to his dream? In fact, those turned out to be the very moments when Saglio knew that the project was taking its true shape, as he had hoped. “Each time it was a magnificent surprise!”, he remembers.One reason why “El camino de los vientos” works so well is that the listener instantly knows in each track exactly where they are – and not just geographically but emotionally too. The titles of the tracks, often in the form of just a single word, land us in a different world. “L’appel du muezzin” places us directly in a square somewhere in the Arab world. The cello’s voice carries the call to prayer from a minaret that has echoed through the centuries. The sound of a zarb played by Bijan Chemirani then brings more of a sense of urgency. “Bolero triste” is a poignantly melodic Spanish number introduced by guitar, then lifted by the accordion. “Metit” means suffering or pain in the West African Wolof language, and introduces us to the irresistibly affecting voice of Senegalese singer Abdoulaye N’Diaye. “Amanecer” is the Spanish for sunrise. Percussionist Steve Shehan makes the fast 5/8 groove seem effortlessly natural, allowing the richly communicative trumpet sound of Nils Petter Molvær to float over it. “Atman” is the Hindu word for the soul and introduces the voice of Mathieu’s brother Camille. “Caravelle” gives us the unique musical voice of Nguyên Lê in a memory of Ravel’s “Bole-ro”. Then two tracks with violinist Léo Ullmann give us a con-trasting, higher string voice: first the orchestral arrangement of “El Abrazo” (the embrace) with a lot of multi-tracked voicing, and then the simpler slow waltz of “Sur le chemin”. “Tiempo para soñar” is a catchy, sunny song about life, love, trust and above all optimism from Isabel Julve. “Las sirenas” is an evocative track with eerie cello harmonics which will almost certainly end up in a film soundtrack. And finally “Les cathédrales” takes us into the reflective world of the Bach cello suites – with occasional excursions into fast string-crossing virtuosity à la David Popper.In “El camino de los vientos” Matthieu Saglio takes us on a fascinating journey. But this album has been made without any of the normal rushing from airport to airport, and without the pressure tightness of time in the studio on anyone involved. Each participant has had the space and the time to be authentically themselves in their natural habitat – and without the carbon footprint of travelling. Technology allied to creative artistry was always supposed to bring us benefits and joys; there is plenty of both to be thoroughly enjoyed on this remarkable album.Credits: Mixed by Juan Carlos Tomás at La Seta Azul Studio, Benicas-sim (Spain), April 2019 Mastered by Pieter De Wagter at EQuuS Studio, Vlezenbeek (Belgium), September 2019 Produced by Matthieu Saglio

Nesrine - Ahlam CD / digitalNesrine Belmokh voice & cello Matthieu Saglio cello & vocals David Gadea percussionNES can't be tied down to a specific location. Their music is between traditional Arabic and world music, jazz and pop. These three superb musicians originally met in Valencia in Spain. Percussionist David Gadea is from the region, and was already touring with Flamenco greats such as Ximo Tébar and Josemi Carmona; Matthieu Saglio is a French cellist “with a thousand tone colours” who has performed in more than 30 countries; the singer/cellist Nesrine Belmokh had worked with legendary conductors such as Lorin Maazel and Daniel Barenboim, and performed with Cirque du Soleil on international tours. Placido Domingo has called Nesrine “an exceptional artist, a wonderful voice.” Russafa, the area around the station in Valencia, Spain, is famous for its market, which offers every imaginable Mediterranean delicacy. This was once a working-class district, but is now full of eccentric cafés and hip restaurants. "Russafa is a place full of light and colours," explains Nesrine Belmokh. "It's the perfect meeting place for everything Mediterranean!" It also proved to be a meeting place that would shape the singer/cellist's future as a musician, because it was there that she met the percussionist David Gadea in 2015. "David and I went to a solo concert by a cellist, Matthieu Saglio. When we talked afterwards, we found out that for seven years we had both lived in Russafa without knowing each other - only 200 metres apart!" The three became friends, created a trio, built a repertoire and chose a name: NES, Nesrine's nickname. The acoustic music on her debut album "Ahlam" draws strong inspiration from pop and flamenco, as well as from the sounds Nesrine heard in her parents' house, which was frequented by Arabic musicians from the Mediterranean region.“Arab-Andalusian music is more or less the classical music of North Africa, and it left its mark on me," explains Nesrine. "It was also the starting point for my artistic career – that all got going when I sang and played mandolin in an Arab-Andalusian band. Later on I embarked on classical cello studies, but I always knew I wanted to be a singer.""Ahlam" means "dream" in Arabic. The long-held wish of the three NES musicians was to make an internationally released album - a dream which has now quite literally come true. The title song also expresses a personal dream of love fulfilled, and of the desire for peace in the world: "There is no beauty without a concept of goodness." (That sentence is a free translation of the title song's refrain.) All the Arabic lyrics on the album "Ahlam" were written by Nesrine's mother, a poet whose main occupation is as a doctor. "We’re in touch all the time," explains the singer. "An intergenerational connection like this needs constant feeding and watering!"Nesrine sings in English, French and Arabic. She can be soft and hypnotic – as in "Bye Bye", chanson-esque – in "Le Temps" or sing pop songs such as "The World is Blue" in a duet with herself. "Music is my exorcism" is the motto of "Bye Bye" – music to drive out the demons. And the lyric: “Spending days and years looking for my identity/ I guess I have to find it within a community" – suggests that this trio itself might well represent the community she is referring to. The astonishingly varied sounds of the classically trained cellist Matthieu Saglio – who also works with loop pedals, and the sometimes fiery, sometimes very delicate percussion by David Gadea constitute the virtuoso flamenco/jazz basis of this band.People with a liking for the genre-busting music of artists such as Anouar Brahem, Dhafer Youssef or Ibrahim Maalouf are going to love NES. NES are not hemmed in by categories or language barriers. Their songs are full of grace and emotion, born and nurtured by the sun in the cultural melting pot of Valencia.Credits: Music composed by Belmokh & Saglio  Produced by NES Recorded Mixed and mastered by Nicolas Baillard at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes les Fontaines, France, June 2017  Except cello loops recorded at Cut Records, Valencia, Spain, in January 2017 by Rafa Sánchez  The Art in Music: Cover art by Philip Taaffe: Asuka Nimbus, 2013, ACT Art Collection, Berlin