Mauretanian

Following his solo recording "Légendes" and the quartet album "Alboreá" (both of which received highest ratings from critics all over the world), Renaud's east-western synthesis comes to a climax on "Oriental Bass". Says Renaud: "I had a dream about a bass - half Gypsy, half Mauretanian - that travelled from India to Andalusia passing by the Mediterranean north or south. The bass is neither a traditional nor an oriental instrument. But its range of sonorities and the ways it is played upon - both pizzicato and con arco - seem to make it feel comfortable in the neighbourhood of certain instruments at home in the oriental world. For several years now my work - composing and improvising - has been led by these relationships and by the love the bass brings to all of this music…