Les Egarés is more than a record. It’s play space, a locus of musical life, a poetic asylum inhabited by two twosomes who for years have excelled in the art of crossfertilising sounds and transcending genres. They are Ballaké Sissoko (kora) and Vincent Segal (cello) on the one hand and Vincent Peirani (accordion) and Émile Parisien (sax) on the other.
In the case of these magicians, 2 + 2 no longer makes 4, it makes 1. Because what they concoct is most definitely a unity of spirit, a single and fluid sound that disdains all forms of egotistical competitiveness and puts each participant at the service of a common musical good. Neither jazz, nor trad, nor chamber, nor avant-garde, but a bit of all of them, all at once, Les Egarés is the kind of album that makes the ear the king of all instruments, an album where virtuosity expresses itself in the art of complicity, where the simple and grandiose idea of listening to one another results in the birth of a splendid song with four parts.
It all started with a summit meeting – high on a hill overlooking Lyon. That night in June 2019, at Les Nuits de Fourvière Festival, everyone was preparing to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the NØ FØRMAT label in a beautiful setting of Roman stones under an open sky. Vincent Segal played the role of master of ceremonies and held a kind of musical salon, gathering together guests of choice, among whom were Ballaké Sissoko, Vincent Peirani and Émile Parisien. The participants signed a pact: rehearsing must never take precedence over anything that showed signs of being a moment of spontaneous creation. But how to reign in such inspired musicians, all of them enlivened by this desire to converse in music? That afternoon, in an arbour that shielded them from the hot sun, they started to jam, just for the beauty and pleasure of it, and the music just flowed like a spring, fresh and limpid. It was the memory of this spontaneous outpouring that gave rise to the idea of forming a quartet of Egarés (‘those who have gone astray’). And that’s what the recording of the album felt like too: a spontaneous sharing of impulse and know-how.
Only one promise couldn’t be fulfilled, one long held dear by Vincent Segal, and that was to record in Bamako with his accomplice Ballaké Sissoko, as the pair had previously done for their divine debut Chamber Music. The extreme tension that currently holds sway in Mali scuppered this dream and, in the end, the four musicians set up their creative workshop in the alpine town of Gap. Outside, the weather was unpredictable; in the studio, the sun came out almost immediately. But it wasn’t a bland unchanging beauty: from the first notes, everything was volatile, in motion, vibrating. No surprises there: none of these four free stylers likes to be imprisoned, whether it’s in a particular role, or in a particular style or sound to which their instrument could so easily be confined. Each bought a few rough diamonds along in their knapsack and submitted them to the group.
Tempered by that common fire, in the natural crucible of a live acoustic setting, those gems took on a new form, sublimating themselves and soon providing the material for an authentic and communal trove of music–musical gold in fact, melted down into a singular alloy of tones, touches, breaths and phrasings, that starts with a motif in unison that straightway spells out the basic alchemical formula.
NØ FØRMAT
___________________________________________
Here is our Needles & Grooves Vol. 46 – April 2023 AotM. I explained the reasons why I picked this album as our AotM on this post that I kindly ask to read. I trully believe following these suggestions will help to take the best from this great album. I say great album but there are actually three albums. It happens that when a few months ago I contacted NØ FØRMAT to inform that I was planning to pick Chamber Music as my AotM, they told that a new album would come in the first months of 2023. So I waited and the timing is now perfect to introduce the music of Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal, joined here by Emile Parisien and Vincent Peirani. NØ FØRMAT also wanted to participate in our event and they did a discount code, NEEDLES, that gives a 20% discount on each album by the duo and on their
NØ FØRMAT pass. If you are not in France and not even in Europe, I still strongly recommend to order directly from the label as their shipping prices are really cheap and it might end being cheaper ordering from them than from a local shop or even Amazon.
Buy CHAMBER MUSIC
Buy MUSIQUE DE NUIT
Buy LES EGARES
About the NØ FØRMAT annual pass. There are actually three different options. CD, Vinyl and Collection. All of these options give you all the albums released in the year on digital files, premium access to their platform, videos, podcats, gifts with each package and 20% discount on all the catalogue.
To make it simple, when you subscribe you are in for the year and will receive four shipments. If a shipment was already made before you joined, you'll receive it anyway but with your next shipment. CD and Vinyl options are easy to understand, Collection is like Vinyl but you can pick three additional records from the catalogue.
You pay 60€, 80€ or 130€ and that's it. Shipping is included, there is nothing else to pay. I want to remind that this is the second time a NØ FØRMAT album is picked as AotM after Melissa Laveaux - Radyo Siwèl picked in March 2021 by @Colonel_Angus. I can also recommend Koki Nakano, Trio SR9, Blick Bassy and Piers Faccini albums.
Learn more and/or subscribe to NØ FØRMAT pass
Thank you all and please love these albums as much as I do.
Here is our Needles & Grooves Vol. 46 – April 2023 AotM. I explained the reasons why I picked this album as our AotM on this post that I kindly ask to read. I trully believe following these suggestions will help to take the best from this great album. I say great album but there are actually three albums. It happens that when a few months ago I contacted NØ FØRMAT to inform that I was planning to pick Chamber Music as my AotM, they told that a new album would come in the first months of 2023. So I waited and the timing is now perfect to introduce the music of Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal, joined here by Emile Parisien and Vincent Peirani. NØ FØRMAT also wanted to participate in our event and they did a discount code, NEEDLES, that gives a 20% discount on each album by the duo and on their
NØ FØRMAT pass. If you are not in France and not even in Europe, I still strongly recommend to order directly from the label as their shipping prices are really cheap and it might end being cheaper ordering from them than from a local shop or even Amazon.
Buy CHAMBER MUSIC
Buy MUSIQUE DE NUIT
Buy LES EGARES
About the NØ FØRMAT annual pass. There are actually three different options. CD, Vinyl and Collection. All of these options give you all the albums released in the year on digital files, premium access to their platform, videos, podcats, gifts with each package and 20% discount on all the catalogue.
To make it simple, when you subscribe you are in for the year and will receive four shipments. If a shipment was already made before you joined, you'll receive it anyway but with your next shipment. CD and Vinyl options are easy to understand, Collection is like Vinyl but you can pick three additional records from the catalogue.
You pay 60€, 80€ or 130€ and that's it. Shipping is included, there is nothing else to pay. I want to remind that this is the second time a NØ FØRMAT album is picked as AotM after Melissa Laveaux - Radyo Siwèl picked in March 2021 by @Colonel_Angus. I can also recommend Koki Nakano, Trio SR9, Blick Bassy and Piers Faccini albums.
Learn more and/or subscribe to NØ FØRMAT pass
Thank you all and please love these albums as much as I do.
Last edited:
