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VÖ: 31.10.2024
Genre: Vocal Jazz, French Jazz
This product will be released on 31 October 2024
ACT 9986-2,
614427998620
Nesrine / vocals, cello
Vincent Huma / guitar
Grégoire Musso / bass, keyboards
Anissa Nehari / percussion
Rhani Krija / percussion
Paco Soler / trombone
Produced by Nesrine, Grégoire Musso, Vincent Huma
Cover art by Mariya Olegovna
Franco-Algerian singer, cellist and songwriter Nesrine is a storyteller, a ‘Scheherazade’, for our times. And her album ‘Kan Ya Makan’ – the Arabic for ‘once upon a time’ – has something of the aura of a modern ‘Tales from the Arabian Nights’. The Times newspaper (UK) has called Nesrine ‘an incandescent, multilingual talent’, Rolling Stone Magazine is fascinated by her ‘musical world without borders’. Her songs in Arabic, French and English have the character of a personal biography, encompassing both Algeria, the country in which her family originated, and her current home town, Paris.
Nesrine's ingeniously crafted and multifaceted songs are also a reflection of quite how diverse her musical career has been: she played as a classical cellist in Daniel Barenboim's East-Western Divan Orchestra and in the orchestra of the Valencia Opera under conductors including Lorin Maazel – but has also performed as a guest star with Cirque du Soleil. She gave up the safe path of being a classical orchestral musician in favour of a solo career – and has made a major success of the shift: she now regularly performs at Philharmonies, other concert halls and at festivals throughout Europe and the USA, and her two albums on ACT have received international acclaim. A digital EP was also released at the beginning of 2024, featuring Nesrine performing her music with the renowned Metropol Orkest.
Whereas Nesrine's previous albums, ‘Ahlam’ with the trio NES (2018) and her solo debut ‘Nesrine’ (2020) took a broader perspective, ‘Kan Ya Makan’ now zooms in close: “My previous albums were more about my view of the world,” says Nesrine. “This one is about my personal story. Many of the pieces are about close relationships between me and other people. But also about me. In ”Dunia’ – the Arabic for ‘life’ – I tell my whole life story, from childhood to the present day.’ And what is abundantly clear is how close and how unified the very disparate musical and personal influences on Nesrine have now become. For the first time, she also sings in two different languages, Arabic and French, within the same song. She says: ‘I firmly believe in this kind of connection and the possibilities it opens up. It's a real reflection of myself and a liberation. I don't have to choose one side; I can just be both.’
This reconciliation of apparent contradictions is also reflected in the music. For example, the cello part in the song ‘Bonnie & Clyde’, quotes the prelude from the Cello Suite No. 1 by Johann Sebastian Bach, while elsewhere there are references to Serge Gainsbourg combined with Arabic rhythms; stylistically confident and vocal passages with some judicious vocal processing are blended in to the complexity of layered cello patterns. Nesrine uses the classical heritage of her instrument in a wide variety of ways, creating bass lines, pads, arpeggios, melody lines – and layering them into elaborate structures of complex clarity. ‘The cello is my constant companion,’ explains Nesrine. ‘It usually forms the starting point when I’m composing; everything else builds on it. Only sometimes do I have a vocal melody in my head, and only then do I bring in the cello.’
Despite the complexity of her music, writing is first and foremost a sensual, intuitive process for Nesrine: ‘It's like capturing information that already exists. I don't write much music. Whatever I write is just there and that's it. For the current album, I only had these nine songs. That's how I always work, my whole working process is very focussed.’ Together with her producers and fellow musicians Vincent Huma and Grégoire Musso, Nesrine has distilled her ideas into compact, three- to four-minute formats. They were joined by friends such as Rhani Krija and Anissa Nehari on percussion, plus trombonist Paco Soler – and cellist and singer Juliette Saumagne, her female Clyde in the song ‘Bonnie & Clyde’. Even though Nesrine mainly talks about herself, her life and her personal connections to other people and things in the songs on ‘Kan Ya Makan’, the album also conveys her view of the world and our time: "If my grandfather hadn't left Algeria at some point and come to France, I wouldn't be the person I am today, I wouldn't be making the music I make. I want my listeners to feel that it's not primarily a problem when people move from one country to another – it's a beautiful thing. The current political debates are all about extremes. I don't think that will get us anywhere. What gives me confidence and strength are the people who listen to my music and my stories. We only see what we want to see. And I want to open people's eyes with my music." In the title track she sings: Kan Ya Makan....once upon a time: love, art and beauty.
"Nesrine lets us hear the beauty of the world." (André Manoukian, Radio France)
Vincent Huma / guitar
Grégoire Musso / bass, keyboards
Anissa Nehari / percussion
Rhani Krija / percussion
Paco Soler / trombone
Produced by Nesrine, Grégoire Musso, Vincent Huma
Cover art by Mariya Olegovna
Franco-Algerian singer, cellist and songwriter Nesrine is a storyteller, a ‘Scheherazade’, for our times. And her album ‘Kan Ya Makan’ – the Arabic for ‘once upon a time’ – has something of the aura of a modern ‘Tales from the Arabian Nights’. The Times newspaper (UK) has called Nesrine ‘an incandescent, multilingual talent’, Rolling Stone Magazine is fascinated by her ‘musical world without borders’. Her songs in Arabic, French and English have the character of a personal biography, encompassing both Algeria, the country in which her family originated, and her current home town, Paris.
Nesrine's ingeniously crafted and multifaceted songs are also a reflection of quite how diverse her musical career has been: she played as a classical cellist in Daniel Barenboim's East-Western Divan Orchestra and in the orchestra of the Valencia Opera under conductors including Lorin Maazel – but has also performed as a guest star with Cirque du Soleil. She gave up the safe path of being a classical orchestral musician in favour of a solo career – and has made a major success of the shift: she now regularly performs at Philharmonies, other concert halls and at festivals throughout Europe and the USA, and her two albums on ACT have received international acclaim. A digital EP was also released at the beginning of 2024, featuring Nesrine performing her music with the renowned Metropol Orkest.
Whereas Nesrine's previous albums, ‘Ahlam’ with the trio NES (2018) and her solo debut ‘Nesrine’ (2020) took a broader perspective, ‘Kan Ya Makan’ now zooms in close: “My previous albums were more about my view of the world,” says Nesrine. “This one is about my personal story. Many of the pieces are about close relationships between me and other people. But also about me. In ”Dunia’ – the Arabic for ‘life’ – I tell my whole life story, from childhood to the present day.’ And what is abundantly clear is how close and how unified the very disparate musical and personal influences on Nesrine have now become. For the first time, she also sings in two different languages, Arabic and French, within the same song. She says: ‘I firmly believe in this kind of connection and the possibilities it opens up. It's a real reflection of myself and a liberation. I don't have to choose one side; I can just be both.’
This reconciliation of apparent contradictions is also reflected in the music. For example, the cello part in the song ‘Bonnie & Clyde’, quotes the prelude from the Cello Suite No. 1 by Johann Sebastian Bach, while elsewhere there are references to Serge Gainsbourg combined with Arabic rhythms; stylistically confident and vocal passages with some judicious vocal processing are blended in to the complexity of layered cello patterns. Nesrine uses the classical heritage of her instrument in a wide variety of ways, creating bass lines, pads, arpeggios, melody lines – and layering them into elaborate structures of complex clarity. ‘The cello is my constant companion,’ explains Nesrine. ‘It usually forms the starting point when I’m composing; everything else builds on it. Only sometimes do I have a vocal melody in my head, and only then do I bring in the cello.’
Despite the complexity of her music, writing is first and foremost a sensual, intuitive process for Nesrine: ‘It's like capturing information that already exists. I don't write much music. Whatever I write is just there and that's it. For the current album, I only had these nine songs. That's how I always work, my whole working process is very focussed.’ Together with her producers and fellow musicians Vincent Huma and Grégoire Musso, Nesrine has distilled her ideas into compact, three- to four-minute formats. They were joined by friends such as Rhani Krija and Anissa Nehari on percussion, plus trombonist Paco Soler – and cellist and singer Juliette Saumagne, her female Clyde in the song ‘Bonnie & Clyde’. Even though Nesrine mainly talks about herself, her life and her personal connections to other people and things in the songs on ‘Kan Ya Makan’, the album also conveys her view of the world and our time: "If my grandfather hadn't left Algeria at some point and come to France, I wouldn't be the person I am today, I wouldn't be making the music I make. I want my listeners to feel that it's not primarily a problem when people move from one country to another – it's a beautiful thing. The current political debates are all about extremes. I don't think that will get us anywhere. What gives me confidence and strength are the people who listen to my music and my stories. We only see what we want to see. And I want to open people's eyes with my music." In the title track she sings: Kan Ya Makan....once upon a time: love, art and beauty.
"Nesrine lets us hear the beauty of the world." (André Manoukian, Radio France)