Festival du Monde Arabe presents

Kurdes en cordes – Kamaan Ensemble & Éléonore Fourniau

Setting out in new directions, the Kamaan Ensemble and Éléonore Fourniau invite us to immerse ourselves in the timeless melodies gleaned from the vast lands of Kurdistan. To the sounds of subtle musical ornamentations and of unusual tones drawn from the wealth of Kurdish classical, popular and contemporary musical styles, this new production conveys us weightlessly into the whirlwind of an original and hypnotic world.

Accompanied on their traditional instruments – the santour, kamancheh, rabab, tar and daf – the musicians of the Kamaan Ensemble invite singer Eléonore Fourniau to embellish, with her pure and crystalline voice crossing between East and West, the abundance and sumptuousness of the Kurdish repertory.

Éléonore Fourniau, who lives and breathes music, left her native France for Turkey to learn Turkish and Kurdish musical styles and chants. With her saz and her hurdy-gurdy, a medieval instrument that she brings subtly into Oriental music, she sings of the pains and joys of the Kurdish people with stunning sensitivity and precision. From an agonizing lament to a lyrical poem, from a lullaby to a saga, Éléonore both surprises and fascinates with her mastery of Oriental song and vocal techniques.

Kurdish folkloric songs have been conveyed orally by troubadours over the centuries across the various regions that form Kurdistan. The resulting musical and cultural diversity confers its own cachet on each locality, forming an integral part of this vast territory despite regional divisions.

Kurde en cordes, to be premiered at the FMA, offers us an enchanting overview of these various musical and cultural traditions, moving between catchy beats and timeless melodies, a thrilling adventure in the discovery of one of the world’s least known cultures!

For information and tickets: www.placedesarts.com  514-842-2112 or 1-866-842-2112

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