TRIALOGUE

A project around South Indian, Moroccan and medieval European traditions

Al-Adhân, Benedicam, Lalitha Saharsaranamam, Kanthamam Kathirkamam / Alleluia, imperatrix egregia, Al Kalbou, Puis que ma dolour, Raga Amritavarshini, Entre terre et ciel, Ihesus Cristz, Raml el maya, Eppo Varuvaro, Por nos Virgen / Chamss el achiya, Shanti / Salam / Agnus Dei

Aruna Saïram, Noureddine Tahiri, Dominique Vellard [voice]

H.N. Bkaskar [violin]

Driss Berrada [oud]

Keyvan Chemirani [zarb]

Patri Satish Kumar [mridangam]

Baptiste Romain [fiddle]

The director of the Ensemble Gilles Binchois, Dominique Vellard, has been spending many years searching for connections – be they of intellectual, spiritual or musical natures – with non-western traditions, searching for links and ties between them that will lead to a deeper understanding and awareness of medieval European chant (and Vellard has been one of the leading specialists in this area for some three decades). His approach has entailed searching out meeting points between these musical cultures to bring them closer together and to draw out their musical qualities, but never in the sense of any unwarranted combining or blending.

The meeting of Vellard in the middle 1990s with the legendary South Indian singer Aruna Saïram paved the way for an ensuing rich musical and human dialogue, and led them to give over 30 concerts in Europe, India, Morocco and Malaysia as well as recording an album for EMI in 1999.

The Islamic tradition was brought within the scope of this adventure with Vellard and Saïram’s joint collaboration from 2002 onwards with the Moroccan singer Noureddine Tahiri; a new high point is now being reached with the release of this new Glossa recording, 'Trialogue'. Together with their instrumentalists they provide intensely moving performances, with music of a great beauty, all set to captivate serious music lovers from world to classical.

Glossa GCDP32306