WORLD

My activity take place in vast and varied geographical space.
I like to navigate through different cultural environments, skip from one to the other, feed one with the other...

Zambia

Zambia has been a revelation to me : I was planning to stay three days only, I stayed three months, only to come back again in the following years...

This is where I made my firts music recordings, in 1992. It was in a Ila village, in the center of this country of vast wilderness. But it's further west, in the Lozi kingdom, that I dropped my luggage and made an important series of recordings, which I plan to publish with Altamira in the future.

Lesotho

I discovered Lesoth more recently, even though I had been dreaming to go there for 15 years. I made recordings for Altamira, in partnership with local NGO Grow and the Morija Museum.

Burundi

I made a series of video shots in the various natural reserves of the country, in association with the National Institute for Environment and Nature Conservation. The project was interrupted by the 1993 military coup and the civil war it ignited.

Rwanda

Following the coup in Burundi, I did not wish to be evacuated to France, and sneaked into Rwanda where I joined the Red Cross. During two months, I built camps and organized large distributions of equipment for the thousands of refugees fleeing the massacres.

Mauritania

I stayed several times in the saharan town of Chinguetti, where I worked with guitarist Moudou ould Mattalla on his album Guitar of the sands, released in 2006 and praised by the press.

Madagascar

I came across the village of Isorana, in the Betsileo highlands, in 2007 and keep returning there since.

With the CLEF, rural library, I made a series of recordings of local music and poetry which I soon connected to my town Saint-Denis, in France. We developped a project of artistic exchanges between the two places which keeps growing... Local artists are commited through bi-cultural compositions, exchange of poetry and videos, while shows are being organised in both countries...

Out of this exciting work came the album Les Paroles Ont Des Ailes ("Words Have Wings"), a colorful, intercultural mix filled with hope and humanity.
Now available to all as a free download on Altamira's website.


Project official website [in french]




In Isorana, I met Tanga, a young peasant-musician, and his family troupe. Together we made their first album, The Treasure of our Ancestors.


Project official website



I also shot Paysanne, a documentary film about the peasant ecology of Tanga's village Antsangy.

Philippines

My stays among the Tboli, on the southern island of Mindanao, have been an extremely rich experience. I have worked for eleven years on a musical project with a group of lovely women artists : the Lemhadong collective.

With many, diversified instruments, their music depicts a lush world populated with birds, frogs and music-loving fairies. A world in which music is a link between men and nature.

After a first CD dedicated to the hegelung lute, Lute music in Tboli country, we published a sound protrait, Women artists of Lake Sebu, which received several distinctions.

The musicians then came to France in 2010. At the heart of this experience, a three-weeks long cultural residency in the city of Saint-Denis where they shared with inhabitants of all ages and origins. They also gave shows at the Quai Branly Museum, the Orientales festival and the Saint-Denis TGP. A unique adventure !



Project official website


On various occasions, I gave an audiovisual conference on this topic - in France, in Belgium and in the Philippines.


In 2004, I had the pleasure to contribute as a musician to Chin Chin Gutierrez's concert in Paris presenting Uyayi, her project dedicated to philipine lullabies.

Tibet

I have been visiting the tibetan exile community of Ladakh since 1998. Together we made the album Tibet, songs from exile, a sound portrait a this population caught between two worlds.

I produced two CDs with musician Sherap Dorjee : The Art of Tibetan Lute and Songs from the Six High Valleys.

I also produced an audiovisual conference, originally commissioned the National Museum of Asian Arts and given in various places

France

Saint-Denis, France, is the town where I grew up and reside.

A dynamic city near Paris, Saint-Denis has been welcoming migrants for over a century, mostly rural, coming from places as different as Britany, Mali, Spain, Algeria or the Carribean...

For a decade, I developped a rich field of activity with the inhabitants of all generations and origins, connecting people through cultural action, mostly for Altamira : concerts, open mics, film screenings, public reading, holiday trips, conferences...

After major projects such as La Mémoire En Chantant, Générations Slam, Safar with Steve Shehan and our artistic cooperation with Madagascar, the hosting in Saint-Denis of Lemhadong's tribal women from the Philippines Saint-Denis has been the climax and synthesis of this rich decade.

Altamira in Saint-Denis [in french]

Based on Altamira's projects with the elders, the french government attributed the label "Aging Well, Living Together" to the municipality.

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