A three-instrument duet. In her new show, singer/songwriter Djazia Satour teams up with pianist Pierre-Luc Jamain to add an original twist to her repertoire and orchestrate her latest songs. The artists’ respective styles intermingle to serve up the subtlest of musical improvisations and the unexpected buzzing sound of Djazia’s bendir lends a haunting rhythm to her compositions.
The duet plays against a black backdrop that invites confession on matters that, when sung in Algerian Arabic by Djazia, are evocative of nostalgia and echo the tumult of today’s world.
Bright moons illuminate a new musical landscape where Djazia’s bendir and Pierre-Luc’s piano fuse together to create an original musical register. Moving beyond the conventional aesthetics of the piano and vocal duet, the two artists create a world in which every timbre resonates in a shifting balance. Uncategorizable, their sound is the result of keen intuition and meticulous experimentation.
Press extracts :
“The Algerian singer who lives in France brought, from the first minutes of the evening, a beautiful atmosphere of listening and sharing. Her words in Arabic which tell of exile, wandering, freedom, she interprets them with a very beautiful voice, with warmth and generosity” (Ouest-France – 2019)
Djazia Satour is back with new album Aswât (Voices) exploring the algerian legacy in a subtle and original manner. Her unique mix of indie folk and pop- infused groove embraces her heritage and childhood in Algiers to create warm and flavourful music : a mix of 1950s Chaabi with the tribal rhythms of bendirs, elegant melodies from a banjo or a mandole, with deep bass and energetic analog keyboards.
In Aswât,Djazia carries the voices of the voiceless, she tells the stories less told, from a new angle. Depossession, exile and migration(Ida, TalebLaman, Chouf Elil), memories of loved and estranged people and places (Souâl, Loun Liyam,YamaTal). So many voices in the turmoil of our modern world, migrating like birds in a melody of winds (Neghmat Erriah) that carry « screamsand lamentations» so profound that Djazia found the absolute need to tell in her native language, arabic.
With a raw sound and feel, this new project showcases the power of her voice and hymn like melodies that invite us to join her in a brand new world. A world where tradition nourrishes the authenticity of a modern, creative and refreshing artist in a new form of borderless mediterranean folk & pop.
Djazia Satour’s life and career in France started at the end of the 90s as a backup vocalist for the band Gnawa Diffusion, before becoming the voice of MIG, the electro/trip hop band that made her famous (MIG EP, 2001 – Dhikrayat LP, 2004 – Yamatna LP, 2006). In 2010, Djazia self-produced her first solo EP, Klami, and on her first LP Alwane (My Colours) released in 2014, Djazia sang in both Arabic and English, drawing its influences from Arabic music, and african-american music.
She went on to enchant crowds in France and beyond, and share the stage with acts such as Labess, Mashrou’ Leila, Orange Blossom but also had the opportunity of performing in the world-famous festivals of Jazz à Carthage (Tunisia) and L’Boulevard in Casablanca (Morocco). In the fall of 2018, Djazia Satour released her second album ASW T (Voices) and is now on tour.