Riding over an urgent, North African infected groove, Chi Ci Talia? is the latest preview from Crimi’s forthcoming Luci e Guai LP - an eight-song serving stitching together Algerian raï, hard New Orleans funk and Sicilian folk balladry that comes out on French imprint Airfono this April.
Formed in 2018, Crimi finds Julien, a musician with over 20 years of experience, collaborating with a brand new trio of players. However, it is the singer & sax player’s past ventures that combine to explain how he hit on this sound specifically his work with Mazalda, from Lyon, who evolved from jazzy pop oddballs into a drum-heavy live dance party with their own fifty-speaker travelling soundsystem, the ‘Turbo Clap Station’. In recent years, they branched out into raï – first meeting Algerian singer Cheb Lakhdar and backing him in a series of concerts, and later recording an album, El Ndjoum, with Sofiane Saidi, a star of raï’s new electro-wave who’s also featured with Parisian duo Acid Arab. (Mazalda and Sofiane proved their mettle by playing the Algerian city of Oran, raï’s spiritual home, in early 2020.) During this period, Julien also performed in La Squadra Zeus – from the Alpine town of Chambéry but dedicated to the traditional folk styles of southern Italy, nearly 2,000 km away.
Playing Sicilian flute and Calabrian bagpipes in the trio, Julien learned so much about this music and its relationship to the region’s culture – including, ultimately, the realization that he wasn’t cut out to play these trad arrangements in a straight fashion. No drama: the musician envisaged potential new soundclashes, and the first stirrings of what became Crimi were in his rewirings of three traditional Sicilian songs which appear on the forthcoming album Luci E Guai. This is music born to be witnessed the life, holding a glass of something potent, and lord willing that can happen soon: Crimi played a streamed show for Lyon’s Festival du Péristyle late last year, but Julien acknowledges that ain’t the real deal. They’ve been making a film about the band in the meantime, with French director Tangui Le Cras – and writing the next Crimi album. May it be released into a world where movement is as free as the sound these four musicians bring to life.
Airfono is a label dedicated to original, spectacular, and virtuoso projects with the ambition to
record a mix of
live energy, futuristic grooves, and festive spirit. From jazz to techno, Airfono is a
home for experimentation and musical freedom.
Central place of acoustic instrument is one of the constants of this family which goes from hand made techno to raï or from ambient electro to post-punk....more
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