Be before all else a breathing animal

'Be before all else a breathing animal', Franz Brugen used to say in his provocative way in the masterclasses he gave in the late 1970s, which I was lucky enough to take part in. This programme is therefore an investigation of the original power of music generated by the 'primal breath', which can lead to trance, to meditation, or to jubilation; and since this is, above all, a very personal album, based on my need to breathe, on the universal quest for the moment, and on a highly emotional relationship to the pieces that make it up, I have gathered round me a group of instrumentalists who are my closest friends and partners.
That is virtuoso flautist Pierre Hamon in the photo above, and the quote comes from his notes for the 2009 album Hypnos. This refreshingly counterituitive mix of the early and contemporary on the indie Zig-Zag Territoires label is slipping into the penumbra of 21st century forbidden music, so hurry.

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