The evening kicks off with the Naghash Ensemble and their crystalline voices, traditional instruments (duduk, dhôl, oud) and a piano with intrepid jazz touches, taking us into a parallel universe as disconcerting as it is sublime. This virtuoso ensemble revives the striking meditations of Mkrtich Naghash, an exiled priest from the 15th century. Reinterpreting the theme of uprooting (gharib) in the present, their music plunges us into a captivating atmosphere where the pain of exile beats with the sweet ecstasy of those who reach Wisdom. We hear arrangements calibrated to the millimeter, where each tone, each note, firmly holds its place in a creative osmosis that cannot leave anyone indifferent. This unclassifiable project brings together past and present, East and West, sacred and classical music, folk and jazz, lyrical song and the spirituality of popular tradition. Moving! With Hasmik Baghdasaryan & Tatevik Movsesyan (soprano vocals), Arpine Ter-Petrosyan (alto vocals), Tigran Hovhannisyan (dhôl), Aram Nikoghosyan (oud), Harutyun Chkolyan (duduk) & John Hodian (piano, compositions).
The evening closes with Trio Joubran. Twenty years on, they’ve been enchanting the world with a single instrumental voice. Three prodigious ouds, from which gusty notes or melodious strings emerge with a glance or a jerk of the chin. What fascinates these brothers of blood and soul is their natural ease in improvisation, the disarming simplicity of their playing. Leading the thousand-year-old Arab maqâms step by step towards new horizons, the Trio continues on its talented path. And while they’ve recently travelled with Roger Waters (ex-Pink Floyd) between electro layers and hypnotic tracks, they couldn’t resist a stop in Arles, accompanied by a string trio and percussion, to share a long peregrination with an air of rediscovered freedom.
