Léonore Boulanger / voice
Jean-Daniel Botta / electric guitar
Matthieu Ferrandez / organ
Laurent Sériès / zarb percussion
When avant-songwriter Léonore Boulanger met Iranian musician Maam-Li Merati at a show in 2011, it kick-started an engagement with Persian classical music culminating in this gorgeous collection of songs that, while steeped in the traditions that birthed them, have a freshness and elegance that seems brand new.
Léonore Boulanger immersed herself in the Radif, a collection of ancient melodies that are the basis of Iranian traditional music, using them as musical settings (mainly in the dastgah and avaz forms) to accompany a series of Persian love poems from the 13th and 14th centuries.
‘You, you traded me for nothing
Me, I still choose that I wouldn’t trade a single hair yours
for the entire world”
Saadi
In 2015 « La maison d'amour" is joined by Matthieu Ferrandez on harmonium and organ and the odd string and percussion flourish from Jean-Daniel Botta (and Laurent Sériès on stage).
Make no mistake – this is beautiful, fragile music. Boulanger inhabits the lilting vocal style required for these recitations perfectly, her voice bursting with both sweetness and pathos on tracks like Avaz-e Abu Ata (Tasnif-e Bahare Delkash), soaring like a sparrow on the breeze one moment, then turning on a dime for staccato gasps and gulps. – We Need No Swords
