Nesrine

Nesrine - Kan Ya MakanCD / Vinyl / digital Nesrine vocals, cello Vincent Huma guitar Grégoire Musso bass, keyboards Anissa Nehari percussion Rhani Krija percussion Paco Soler trombone 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) Credits: Produced by Nesrine, Grégoire Musso, Vincent Huma

Nils Landgren - 3 GenerationsCD / Vinyl / digital Nils Landgren with Joachim Kühn, Michael Wollny, Iiro Rantala, Lars Danielsson, Cæcilie Norby, Viktoria Tolstoy, Wolfgang Haffner, Ulf Wakenius, Jan Lundgren, Ida Sand, Youn Sun Nah, Vincent Peirani, Emile Parisien, David Helbock, Marius Neset, Nesrine, Julian & Roman Wasserfuhr, Anna Gréta, Johanna Summer, Jakob Manz, and many more We are Family – Celebrating 30 ACT Years Nils Landgren has been and remains the absolute linchpin of the ACT family. To date, the Swede has made forty albums on the label as leader, plus another twenty as producer or soloist. Michael Wollny, whose many many projects with Landgren give him a special connection, sums up a key ele-ment in his success: “With Nils everything becomes easy.” There is indeed a particular ease about Mr. Red Horn’s way of being; it is infectious and runs through everything he does. Which is all the more remarkable when one considers the sheer number of roles he takes on: trombonist, singer, band-leader, producer, festival director, professor, curator, talent scout and mentor.All of Landgren’s multiple roles and traits come to the fore on “3 Generations”. Working alongside producer and ACT founder Siggi Loch, Nils Landgren brings together three gene-rations of ACT artists’ in various line-ups to mark the label’s 30th anniversary. Landgren and Loch have a friendship and habits of working well together which go back almost as long as the existence of ACT itself. The two met for the first time at the 1994 Jazz Baltica Festival, just two years after the label was founded. Landgren became an exclusive ACT artist shortly thereafter. Since that time, it has been through Landgren’s network that artists such as Esbjörn Svensson, Rigmor Gustafsson, Viktoria Tolstoy, Ida Sand, Wolfgang Haffner and many more have joined the label. Nils Landgren continues in his trusted role as ACT’s leading connector and integrator. Finding and nurturing young talent has always been one of ACT’s strong suits. It was true for Nils Landgren, then later for Michael Wollny who joined the label in 2005 and is today one of the most significant pianists in Europe. With artists such as Johanna Summer and Jakob Manz - both born many years after ACT was founded - the label looks to the future with its younger generation of musicians bringing new ener-gy and impetus to the world of jazz.The Times (UK) has written: “Since 1992, ACT has been building its own European union of musicians, fostering a freedom of movement between nationalities and genres, and has given us an authentic impression of what the continent is about.” “3 Generations” demonstrates quite how true that assertion is. Around forty artists from the ACT Family make this anniversary album a celebration of the breadth, openness and inclusive power of jazz. The core of the album consists of recordings made at a summer 2022 studio session lasting several days. In reality, it is only Nils Landgren and Siggi Loch who could have brought this pano-rama of musical Europe into being. The influences here range from jazz, popular song and folk to classical and contempo-rary music, and much more. Thirty tracks from three generations of musicians marking thirty years of ACT, with Nils Landgren as driving force. Not just a retrospective, but above all an insight into the present and future of the discovery label “in the Spirit of Jazz”.Credits: Recorded by Thomas Schöttl at Jazzanova Studio, Berlin on June 7 - 9, 2022, assisted by José Victor Torell – except as otherwise indicated Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Produced by Siggi Loch and Nils Landgren The Art in Music: Cover Art by Yinka Shonibare CBE: Detail from Creatures of the Mappa Mundi, Mandragora, 2018

Various Artists - Magic Moments 15: In the Spirit of JazzCD / digitalBest jazz infotainment for the 30th anniversary of ACT: 16 tracks, 65 minutes of music in the spirit of jazz, featuring artists like Nils Landgren, Emile Parisien & Theo Croker, Iiro Rantala, Vincent Peirani Trio, Michael Wollny Trio, Joel Lyssarides, Jakob Manz & Johanna Summer, and more.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Various Artists - Fantastische FrauenCD / digital Julia Hülsmann & Rebekka Bakken, Anna Gréta, Solveig Slettahjell, Céline Bonacina, Ida Sand, Cæcilie Norby, Viktoria Tolstoy, Johanna Summer, Rigmor Gustafsson, Terri Lyne Carrington, Rita Marcotulli, Nesrine, Youn Sun Nah, Janne Mark, Kadri Voorand, Laila Biali Music is feminine. And it always has been, whether in Italian, German and French. Viva la musica. Die Musik. La musique. And in jazz? During the 20th century female musicians lives were lived in the shadows. Lil Hardin, for example, wrote compositions like “Struttin‘ With Some Barbecue”, and yet while her husband Louis Armstrong was becoming famous, she was hardly noticed at all. She was, as she described it later, “standing at the bottom of the ladder holding it and watching him climb.” Since then, however, things have moved on. Progress may be slow, but things are definitely changing. In jazz, today the female element has gone way beyond just the “girl singer with a band”. It is not only quite normal for a woman to be playing electric guitar, bass, drums or trumpet, we now have musicians such as Terri Lyne Carrington serving as important role models. “Fantastische Frauen” presents a selection of the strong female voices who have either forged their careers in partnership with ACT, or at least been with the label for part of their journey. Some came to the label at the beginning of their careers; others were already more established: Berlin-based pianist/composer Julia Hülsmann released three albums for ACT in the early 2000s, showing a refined sensitivity for language and a flawless instinct for setting poetry to music. “Same Girl” is her arrangement of the Randy Newman song, with Norwegian singer Rebekka Bakken as a kindred spirit on the album “Scattering Poems”.  Scandinavian singers have always been a major presence on ACT, including some stalwarts who have been with the label for several years: Viktoria Tolstoy, from Sweden, has eight albums to her name on ACT, of which “Shining On You” was the first. It features compositions by probably the most important Swedish jazz musician of the last 20 years, pianist Esbjörn Svensson. Icelandic pianist/singer Anna Gréta is a new member of the ACT family. “Nightjar in the Northern Sky” is simple, direct and con-cise. Solveig Slettahjell (Norway), Ida Sand (Sweden, both singer and pianist), Cæcilie Norby (Denmark) and Rigmor Gustafsson (Sweden) are important and well-established figures on the scene, and are all much more than “mere” singers: they have been writing and arranging their own music for many years, and also penning the lyrics and leading their own bands.  Janne Mark from Denmark occupies a very special place: she has found her own fascinating path between folk music, church hymns and jazz. Kadri Voorand from Estonia is also much more than just a singer. Alongside her mind-boggling vocal skills and her clever use of effects devices, the fact of quite how good a pianist she is – and also lyricist and composer – runs the risk of being overlooked. “I’m Not in Love” is both charming and unsett-ling, with just the right mixture of each. Youn Sun Nah, from South Korea, brought her love of French chanson and jazz to Europe, and has made some terrific recordings: “Momento Magico” with guitarist Ulf Wakenius stuns with its virtuosity, leaving the listener breathless. Nesrine creates magical worlds of sound with no boundaries: Cello and voice with Arabic roots and Mediterranean soul. Canadian vocalist/pianist Laila Biali combines everything which is good about singer-songwriting. Céline Bonacina takes on an unusual role; there are still not many well-known female baritone saxophonists, and even fewer who lead their own interesting bands. This Frenchwoman absolutely does her own thing... ...something which can also be said about pianist Johanna Summer. She chose Robert Schumann’s “Kinderszenen” (scenes from childhood) and “Album für die Jugend” (album for the young) as the starting point for free improvisations. Her album has had a major impact.  For Italian pianist Rita Marcotulli, the power of melody is the driving force – her album with the accordionist Luciano Biondini has a dreamlike quality. Today US-American Terri Lyne Carrington is one of the leading figures on the drum set and has played with all of the greats of jazz. She shared the stage with Wayne Shorter, composer of the classic “Witch Hunt” when she was still in her twenties. “Fantastische Frauen” is a very apt title for this album because music is female and so, increasingly, is jazz. The fact that this is now recognised and appreciated has been a major step forward. At some point in the future it will only ever be about the music, irrespective of whether it has been created or performed by male, female or diverse artists. And that will be the next big step forward.Credits: Curated by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Various Artists - Magic Moments 14 "In The Spirit Of Jazz"CD / digital"More than any other art form, music touches people directly," is ACT founder Siggi Loch's credo. For nearly 30 years, the core of what the label does has been to find and to promote the artists who can inspire the mind, reach the heart and touch the soul, and who do so in ways that have a lasting impact. Perhaps this has never been more important than now in the time of the pandemic, when culture has been silenced, when people have felt emotionally isolated and – far too often – the only “reality” has been virtual. With sixteen tracks from the current ACT release schedule, "Magic Moments 14" gathers together all of the power of "Music in the Spirit of Jazz", this world language beyond words which is understandable to everyone. It not only brings people together, it also moves and inspires them. ACT’s main mission is in the absolute foreground on this album: to be a discovery label. ACT’s main focus has always been on European jazz, to document this art form growing and developing, to show it reflecting on its own musical traditions, linking them back to jazz’s American roots and thereby opening up new paths. So, in that spirit, "Magic Moments 14" begins with a "Canzon del fuego fatuo" from the remarkable young Spanish pianist Daniel Garcia. Here is a fascinating new voice from Spanish jazz, taking up the music of his homeland in a refreshingly new way. We also mark here the ACT debut of mesmerising Austrian actor Birgit Minichmayr. Here is a voice and a personality with charismatic presence, delivering a Shakespeare Sonnet in the grand manner, together with Quadro Nuevo’s versatile world music team and the early jazz specialist Bernd Lhotzky. Other examples of new shining stars in the European musical firmament are the French-Algerian cellist and singer Nesrine and Austrian pianist David Helbock’s new trio. This focus on new and recent arrivals at the label does not mean neglecting the artists who have been with ACT since the beginning and who have made it the leading label for Swedish jazz: trombonist Nils Landgren contributes a new humdinger from his Funk Unit, a band which has been giving soul jazz a European face for over twenty-five years. Bassist/composer Lars Danielsson again celebrates the combination of classical music, jazz and Nordic sound with "Cloudland" from his new Liberetto album. Ida Sand conti-nues the tradition of Scandinavian singers who enrich the world's songbook with their pop "in the spirit of jazz". And for the final track, Jan Lundgren and Lars Danielsson, toge-ther with Emile Parisien, the French musician who has single-handedly redefined the soprano saxophone, show us Euro-pean art music with a Swedish accent at its most communicative and inspired. Last but not least, ACT was one of the first important labels to promote contemporary German jazz. There are more German artists on "Magic Moments 14" than ever before, demonstrating this important strand: violinist Florian Willeitner from Passau; guitarist Philipp Schiepek who has made a meteoric rise in the South German scene; the feisty attitude of KUU! led by singer Jelena Kuljic – like Minichmayr also primarily known for her acting and stagecraft; the Jazzrausch Bigband, whose techno jazz is attracting attention worldwide; and two rising stars who are currently harvesting all of the major awards, Johanna Summer and Vincent Meissner.Summer and Meissner - like Garcia, Lundgren and Helbock - also stand for the special place ACT has always found for the best pianists in Europe. Thus it is two German pianists of major international significance who complete the offering on "Magic Moments 14": 77-year-old Joachim Kühn is still utterly driven and a major force; his heir apparent Michael Wollny can also be heard here in his new all-star quartet with Emile Parisien, Tim Lefebvre and Christian Lillinger. The drummer was a multiple award-winner at the new German Jazz Prize, including one for KUU!. "Magic Moments 14" is a quintessence of the many directions which genre-crossing, innovative jazz is currently taking. These difficult times need remedies that are both energising and emotionally affecting: here are musicians who unfailingly show us the value and importance of trust and dialogue.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

When the Franco-Algerian singer, cellist and songwriter Nesrine Belmokh and her trio NES appeared on the scene in 2018 they seemed to emerge from nowhere. Many parts of the music world in Europe were taken by surprise by her, and completely captivated as well. Now, for her second album named simply after her – "Nesrine" – she has re-invented herself. Nesrine's debut album "Ahlam" was received with tremendous and widespread enthusiasm. What commentators noticed was its sheer beauty, the unusual instrumentation of voice, cello and percussion, and also the way in which the Mediterranean region from North Africa to Southern Europe was brought to life and unified through music. The distinguished cellist Sol Gabetta called Nesrine "a wonderful singer and cellist". London’s Sunday Times described her as "an incandescent, multilingual talent, " and later went on to include “Ahlam” among the newspaper’s albums of the year. French producer and radio host André Manouki-an was in raptures: "NES lets us hear the beauty of the world" and Deutschlandfunk stated simply that "NES’s time has come.” Several extensive tours throughout Europe followed, and NES beguiled audiences in major classical venues like the Philharmonie and the Konzerthaus in Berlin, made a very big impression at the Amsterdam Cello Biennale, and had major success at important jazz and world music festivals. In the new album, Nesrine the solo artist gives us further glimpses of her personal and musical life story. She grew up in France as a child of Algerian parents. She learned classical cello, and was soon working with organisations such as Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Opera in Valencia, conducted by Lorin Maazel, plus landing a solo role in one of the programmes of "Cirque du Soleil". But it is through the ingenious songs that she writes herself, in Arabic, French and English, that her dazzling artistic personality comes through. Nesrine’s musical world is without borders; the combination of cello with her powerful voice and the interaction of her North African roots with her European present are irresistible. There is an economy of expression here, and the poise and culture of classical music are juxtaposed with rhythms coming from both pop and jazz – it is a fascinating and constantly shifting blend. For the new album Nesrine has teamed up with producer/guitarist Vincent Huma (Jorge Drexler, Miguel Bosé, Marlango) and sound engineer Fab Dupont (Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Wynton Marsalis, David Crosby and many more). Together with NES percussionist David Gadea and guests, they have succeeded in creating a complex musical world of both acoustic and electronic sounds, and yet the natural-ness, the simplicity and warmth of the debut album "Ahlam" have been retained, and also broadened by adding completely new influences. In theory this might sound as if the juxtaposing of different cultures and the crossing over between them will lead to overload, but for Nesrine we are dealing with things that are normal, even existential. Her music is a reflection about her generation for whom origins and stylistic boundaries define themselves through their interaction. This music functions and flows so naturally because the combining of cultures is never artificial. It results from the fact that the different elements are simply, logically and truly parts of the artistic essence of the artist herself, and of her personal history. To ask what this music is just has to be the wrong question. World music? Or global pop? Or fusion? The right question to ask is *who* it is. And the answer has a compelling simplicity about it: NESRINE.

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

Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic X - East - WestCD / digital Majid Bekkas guembri & vocals Nguyên Lê e-guitar NES Nesrine vocals & cello Matthieu Saglio cello & vocals David Gadea percussion Black String Yoon Jeong Heo e-guitarGeomungo Jean Oh e-guitar Aram Lee / daegeum & yanggeum Min Wang Hwang ajaeng & janggu ‘East meets West’ was the central theme in the life of Nesuhi Ertegün (1917-1989). He grew up as the son of the Turkish Ambassador in Washington, and Nesuhi himself was to become an ambassador too: one of the most important producers and advocates that jazz has ever had. On the 30th anniversary of his death, Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic curator Siggi Loch dedicated an evening to commemorating this friend and mentor who had been like a father to him. For Nesuhi, jazz had no borders; this concert was a posthumous validation of the farsightedness of that vision. On the cultural world map, East-West today is synonymous with the tense relationship between Europe and Asia, between Occident and Orient. From the Renaissance to the present day, there have been repeated waves of enthusiasm for Eastern culture in the West. And for the hundred years or so that jazz has existed, it too has always tended to absorb elements from other cultures into its stylistic vocabulary. Conversely, artists from Eastern cultures have embraced jazz, fused it with their own traditions, revealing new and fascinating expressive possibilities. Black String, the South Korean quartet led by geomungo player Yoon Jeong Heo, takes a 1500-year old Korean musical tradition and brings it into the modern era and into jazz in way which is totally compelling artistically. NES Trio with charismatic singer/cellist Nesrine Belmokh has a distinctive sound drawn from the musical melting pot of the Mediterranean region. A special guest is the Moroccan oud and guembri player Majid Bekkas, who has often brought the Gnawa blues of his homeland into projects ranging from “folklore imaginaire” to avantgarde jazz. And providing the perfect East-West link is French-Vietnamese guitarist Nguyên Lê, whose go-between role combin-ing the worlds of jazz, rock and Asian folk music has been pio-neering. Together they celebrate a meeting of East and West. Nesui Ertegün would have been overjoyed. Credits: Recorded live in concert by Klaus Scheuermann at the Berlin Philharmonie (KMS), November 20, 2019 Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Curated and produced by Siggi Loch Cover art by Philip Taaffe, Isfahan (2009), by courtesy of Jablonka Galerie Cologne

Magic Moments 1167 minutes of pure listening pleasure: The eleventh edition of the popular Magic Moments offers a comprehensive insight into our latest ACT releases with newcomers, ACT stars and real insider tips at a special price. Among others with Michael Wollny, David Helbock, Vincent Peirani, Iiro Rantala, Joachim Kühn New Trio, Ida Sand, Lars Danielsson & Paolo Fresu and many more.Credits:Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann Manufacturer 

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