On her maloya road, she moves forward determinedly, following the paths of her beliefs and intuitions. She keeps her antennae up, always on the lookout for new songs. With her very personal way of bringing songs to life, Christine Salem has created thirteen new titles, and if maloya cements this adventure, the foundations of her songs are mostly blues. It is clear on this album that Christine Salem loves that music born from the earth, pain and history.
For each of the songs on Mersi, it was necessary to find the key, the arrangements that would make it sound “right” and Christine Salem chose as a common thread the virtuoso violin of the composer, arranger and conductor Frédéric Norel. Thus, the groove of the percussion entangles the violin’s flights of fancy, inspired by classical and even folk music. Far, however, from an artificial juxtaposition of two universes that a priori nothing connects, the ensemble sounds natural, creating this new land, born from Christine’s imagination: a hybrid world, built on the freedom she leaves to each of her musicians. The production and mixing of this album by Jean Lamoot (Bashung, Salif Keita) has brought out its light, sincerity and charisma.
– NEWS –
New show to be presented in 2023
Mersi (released 2021) still available on tour
On her maloya road, she moves forward determinedly, following the paths of her beliefs and intuitions. She keeps her antennae up, always on the lookout for new songs. With her very personal way of bringing songs to life, Christine Salem has created thirteen new titles, and if maloya cements this adventure, the foundations of her songs are mostly blues. It is clear on this album that Christine Salem loves that music born from the earth, pain and history.
For each of the songs on Mersi, it was necessary to find the key, the arrangements that would make it sound “right” and Christine Salem chose as a common thread the virtuoso violin of the composer, arranger and conductor Frédéric Norel. Thus, the groove of the percussion entangles the violin’s flights of fancy, inspired by classical and even folk music. Far, however, from an artificial juxtaposition of two universes that a priori nothing connects, the ensemble sounds natural, creating this new land, born from Christine’s imagination: a hybrid world, built on the freedom she leaves to each of her musicians. The production and mixing of this album by Jean Lamoot (Bashung, Salif Keita) has brought out its light, sincerity and charisma.
Thanks to the arrangements of Frédéric Norel, the titles of the lady of the Camellias, stripped by essence, find an unsuspected epic breath with the orchestral power of the regional ensemble.
A dark, deep, almost androgynous velvet voice; carried by the heavy beat of the roulèr, the grainy sliding of the kayamb and the mystical vibrato of the bow bobre, the singer from Reunion lets the spirits that inhabit her spring forth spontaneously: this lament of ancestors and former slaves, this maloya of origins, bloomed again in the street where she herself, child of a sensitive district of Saint-Denis, grew up.
Christine Salem's maloya is lively, violent and exhilarating, like a sea wind throwing its spray in packets across the face of the sky."
– LINE-UP –
Christine SALEM (voix, kayamb)
Anne-Laure BOURGET (percussions diverses)
Jacky MALBROUCK (Rouler, Doum doums)
Sébastien MARTEL (guitare)
Frédéric NOREL (violon et arrangements)
