maandag 23 oktober 2006

Projet Piano (8): Sapho


Another guestpost, by longtime lost pal Gerwinou. He revives our old flame Sapho:

Sapho was born and raised in Morocco, she moved to France with her parents at the age of 16. On her first albums she makes rock music, but she soon finds her own particular style with the albums Barbarie and Passions, passions, in which she combines contemporary music with classical and oriental influences. In 94 she sings Umm Kulthums masterpiece al-Atlal ("the Ruins") in Jerusalem, and at least during the concert Palestinians and Israelis dance together peacefully. She wrote several novels, played in several plays (like the French version of the Vagina monologues) and takes a fierce stand against racism and the suppression of women. Her most recent album is dedicated to the songs of Leo Ferré, one of the great chansonniers of the 20th century.
The song Piscine is from the 1985 album Passions, passions, the music is based on a piano piece by the French composer Erik Satie, Les Gnossienes, the text is of her own hand. She sings about losing her love, by the side of the pool, the sun is shining and she is wishing it would snow, feeling like a millstone around his neck, while he is laughing and making faces to cheer her up.
You may or may not like her music but Sapho is one of those artists that do not shy away from the experiment, building bridges between East and West both on an artistic as well as a political level, and who keeps reinventing herself again and again.

Sapho - Piscine
(Pascal Rogé - Gnossiennes No.1)

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