XVIII-21 Musiques des Lumières

The cross over is existing for centuries, not only for 50 years. Le Baroque Nomade mixes harpsichord and 'oud, gamba, lute and ethiopian singers and d

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Jean-Christophe Frisch travels all over the world since he created XVIII-21 Le Baroque Nomade, and
began to get together baroque and world music artists from across the planet. He reveals the encounters
between European music and world music, between classical and traditional music, and reinvents them for
the 21rst century auditor. Son of a harpsichordist and passionate of travels, Jean-Christophe Frisch quickly
interests in the musicians who, sailing on caravels, set off to the end of the world to explore other cultures
and their music. And there have been much more than we can imagine since the 17th century... Those
encounters showed the way to nowadays world music.

Since its foundation, XVIII-21 aims at finding those improbable and fascinating encounters between
santurs and violas, wood tambours and organs, lyrical voices and vibrations of voices from ancestral
lands... After having reconstituted concerts given in the Court of the Emperor of China at the Age of
Enlightenment, told the encounters between music of the slaves and freed from Brazil and the
Amazonian Indians’ one, then savoured Ottoman, Persian, Afghan and up to Indian traditional
music, Jean-Christophe Frisch keeps on tailing forgotten scores in Transylvania,
the Philippines, Ethiopia, recollections and mirrors of the sounds which now fascinate us.

XVIII-21 has given concerts in France in more than 100 festivals and theatres and in 29 foreign
countries. Each time, the encounters have been memorable, revealing different and enlightening
approaches of music and its interpretations. The newness of the sounds of violas da gamba, lutes and
theorbos, captivates the musicians and publics of world music, and the rhythms they discover (folias,
passacailles, sarabandas...) surprises and leads them in collaborative improvisations where past and
present, East and West, fantasizing and historical reality blend.

Unclassifiable, XVIII-21 and its baroque world music performed in World Music seasons, from Cité de
la Musique to Festival Africolor, as in prestigious places of classical music as Southbank Festival of
London, Festival of Bergen in Norway, Jerusalem, Utrecht, Granada, the operas of Roma, Damascus and
la Fenice in Venice. The concert given in Kabul just after the Talibans' ban on music was lifted, with
Afghan musicians, will always be an unforgettable memory.

Among more than twenty CDs, its recordings are unanimously hailed by the press: 'One of the best CDs
of the year 2003' (Sunday Times), 'One of the year's most extraordinary releases' (Gramophone), 'Fascinating
recordings' (Early Music Review)...

Nicknamed 'the Indiana Jones of Music', Jean-Christophe Frisch and his work are acclaimed in numerous
articles: 'A cultural revelation. The resulting sound is gripping. Past master in this subtle to-and-fro
between the Same and the Other' (Télérama), 'XVIII-21 plays on contrasts as on relationships with a skill
that succeeds in respecting the poet's share. [...] novelty of the approach, the quality of the interpretation
and the musicological rigour of the chosen options...' (Le Monde), 'Essential' (classicnews.com), 'Admirable
spirit of imagination' (Early Music Review)...

His energy and charisma transport the listener into a poetic, sensitive world. 'That is called infinite respect'
(Télérama).

participating in

  • WOMEX 2011

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