Julien Coulon Par-delà les Nuages

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Beyond the Clouds

Making a solo album is no easy feat! This project has been on my mind for several years, but the desire has always been hampered by a lack of time, resources, and above all, the doubt of being able to offer an album worthy of the name.

Having finally overcome these various obstacles, I decided, during the spring of 2011, to embark on the adventure. From then on, the question of the repertoire arose.

As for the guitar, the choice was quickly made, as some pieces have been with me for over a decade. But for the oud and the laúd, the choice proved less obvious, as I absolutely didn't want an instrumental "catch-all." Therefore, I gave considerable thought to the overall form of this album to ensure a harmonious musical flow despite the diversity of the pieces and instruments.

Furthermore, I had the desire to bring together, for the duration of an album, Mohamed Abdel Wahab and Maurice Ravel, Rabih Abou-Khalil and Baden Powell, Anouar Brahem and Erik Satie, and this has now been accomplished!

So now comes the time for sharing, sharing this repertoire and these instruments that fascinate and nourish me, and which I hope will take you on a journey as much as they take me on one.…

This album is dedicated to the memory of Marie-Françoise Coulon-Lafosse and Dimitrí Castellucci.

Recorded 8-10 September 2011 in the Chapelle-Ermitage Sainte-Anne d’Aillant-sur-Tholon
Benoit Laur: engineer, editing, mixing and mastering
Emmanuelle Vaudey/Morgans: graphics
Nicolas Turlet: Photography

Format:

Having finally overcome these various obstacles, I decided, during the spring of 2011, to embark on the adventure. From then on, the question of the repertoire arose.

So now comes the time for sharing, sharing this repertoire and these instruments that fascinate and nourish me, and which I hope will take you on a journey as much as they take me on one.…

The album in depth

Nihavent and Uskudara are two longas, Turkish instrumental pieces originating from Gypsy music. The first is named after a mode, the second after a district of Istanbul, and is found in other musical traditions (Arabic, Sephardic and Balkan).

Verano Porteño, first of the Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons, a tribute to Vivaldi's celebrated cycle of concertos of the same name), is a tango nuevo by Astor Piazzolla, a style he invented in the 60s, claiming to be both tango and jazz.

Pavane de la Belle au Bois Dormant (Pavane of Sleeping Beauty) is the first of the five children's pieces from Maurice Ravel’s Ma mère l'Oye, a cycle for piano four hands inspired by Perrault's fairy tales.

Al Nahr El Khaled (The Eternal River) is a tribute to the Nile River. It is one of the most famous pieces by the Egyptian singer/composer/oud player Mohamed Abdel Wahab, a major artist of 20th-century Arabic music.

Mariam Matrem / Imperayritz de la Ciutat Joyosa are two pieces from the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat (Red Book), a collection of religious texts and hymns written at the end of the 14th century in Catalonia and dedicated to the Virgin Mary of Montserrat.

Par-delà les Nuages is a humble homage to Claude Debussy, a composer I admire as much as Satie and Ravel. Near the end of the piece, after the “storm”, I quote from the first measures of his Nuages (the first movement of his Nocturnes).

Nashwa (Ecstasy) by Lebanese composer and oud player Rabih Abou-Khalel, is a piece I particularly love, as is Parfum de Gitane by the Tunisian composer and oud player Anouar Brahem. These two musicians have a similar approach (a blending of East and West) while having different yet complementary styles.

Canto de Ossanba is an afro-samba composed by Baden Powell, with lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. I quote in this piece from another of their famous afro-sambas, Berimbau.

Indim Yarin Babçasina (I went down into the garden of my beloved) is from Azerbaijan, its characteristic poetic title giving it a special flavor.

Gnossienne I, this gem by Erik Satie, needs no introduction. As for the origin of its title, one hypothesis is the Palace of Knossos in Crete, but in reality, this piece was inspired by hearing Romanian music at the Exposition Universelle of 1889.