Eastern Spring by Madeleine & Salomon

<a href="https://madeleine-salomon.bandcamp.com/album/eastern-spring">Eastern Spring by Madeleine & Salomon, Clotilde Rullaud, Alexandre Saada</a>

Eastern Spring: like a nod to Arab Spring, but above all, an embrace of the hopes for social change and the wonders of the world’s youth at the end of the sixties in the West and in the East. Following A Woman’s Journey, dedicated to the great female activists of American song, Madeleine & Salomon, aka Clotilde Rullaud and Alexandre Saada, pay tribute to the oriental and militant pop music of the 1960s-1970s by rejuvenating it through the delicate and minimalist prism of their inventive and contemporary music.

From the end of the 1960s to the end of the following decade, the youth all around the world rose up to demand a new, fairer, freer and more colorful human organisation. A social and cultural political movement that rejected war, segregation, narrow-mindedness and consumerist logic by advocating the power of imagination, desire for justice and equity, combined with an acute curiosity for discovering the world, its images, sounds, senses and sensations. In the West, the kings and queens of pop music are inspired by Eastern cultures, and in the East, in Asia, the Middle East and around the Mediterranean Sea, young musicians are adopting their audacious electric and experimental sounds to express their own messages. It is this repertoire that Madeleine & Salomon revisit with Eastern Spring.

Clotilde Rullaud and Alexandre Saada have carried out meticulous research to extract the gems that resonate closest to their inspiration, song that were for a long time only known in their respective regions or by a few attentive travelers, and that were rendered by established reactionary societies. Engages, dreamy or romantic songs, all bearing social or spiritual questions that still resonate throughout the world today. “Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt… The territory is vast, the duo reformulates with all the sense of purity that they are known for, songs that each take the form of a hymn to freedom. Their language becomes universal? and the interpretation is nothing short of overwhelming. This beautiful and deeply human record will be one of the year’s essentials, that’s for sure.” Denis Desassis – Citizen Jazz

"These twin hearts beat so strongly and burn with such passion for the East, it’s impossible not to adore this jewel of a record.”

Télérama - TTTT & Grands Crus 2022 - Louis-Julien Nicolaou

"A unique, strong, emotional album that leaves no one indifferent"

France Musique - BEST OF 2022 - Open Jazz - Alex Dutilh

“Impressionist poetry. (…) An essential record in this time of war and repression committed against people daring to demand a freer society.”

FIP - Catherine Carette

“A waking dream, fragile and intimate. A great success!”

TSF

"A voice, a piano and lots and lots of emotion. Where does it come from? The sincerity of the voice of Clotilde Rullaud (Madeleine) and piano of Alexandre Saada (Salomon). But also new repertoire, consisting of oriental pop songs from the 60s and 70s. Translated, restored and revived by the duo, they give off a very pure breath to make the driest Arabian desert cry."

Télérama Sortir - TTTT - Louis-Julien Nicolaou

"The great comeback of the French duo who blew us away in 2016"

France Musique - BanZZaï - BEST OF 2022 - Nathalie Piolé

“This beautiful and deeply human record will be one of this year’s must-haves, that’s for sure.”

Citizen Jazz - SELECTED! & BEST OF 2022 - Denis Desassis

“A remarkable achievement.”

Jazz News - A MUST-HAVE & BEST OF 2022 - Pierre Tenne

"With their powerfully crafted voices and impressive piano playing, they bring back songs, themes and hits from Iran, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon and Israel and address them to our unconditioned ears. For there is nothing more beautiful than listening to Matar Naem, a poem by the immensely talented Mahmoud Darwich, a protest anthem by the group Ferkat Al-Ard, which this unique duo finally makes available to the whole world."

Jazz Magazine - **** & BEST OF 2022 - Guy Darol

"A magnificent constellation!"

France Culture - Par les temps qui courent - Marie Richeux

"The duo returns with a superb album, variations on a repertoire from the Mediterranean basin. […] An art of dialogue, a great deal of freedom."

Politis - Pauline Guedj

"Anyone who doesn't have goosebumps listening to Clotilde Rullaud's warm, inhabited voice or Alexandre Saada's melodic piano under tension should raise their finger!"

Citizen Jazz - SELECTED! - Denis Desassis

“There’s the same fervor in both the voice and the piano, which underpins the text with a driving subtlety.”

Mediapart - Jean-Jacques Birgé

"When you walk into a Madeleine & Salomon album, there are dreams stuck to your shoes. […] A magnificent extension and a declaration of love to a music of worldwide inspiration. If your heart isn't pounding after this, you're missing organs."

SunShip – Franpi

"Remarkable and lovely!"

Jubilation Jazz - Valley Free Radio WXOJ-LP (USA) - Ken Irwin

"Madeleine & Salomon, the duo that illuminates the oriental pop of the 1960s and 1970s. In their masterful album 'Eastern Spring' […] politics, eroticism… everything vibrates, carried by a powerful emotion."

Télérama - TTTT - Louis-Julien Nicolaou

"Eastern spring is spring, an oriental spring of revolution that refers to all those springs that led to calamitous autumns with a Mediterranean repertoire from the 60s and 70s, recoloured by the piano-voice duo Madeleine and Salomon."

RFI - Musiques du monde - Laurence Aloir

Clotilde Rullaud: Vocals, flute on tracks 5 and 6

Alexandre Saada: Piano, vocals on tracks 2, 6, 8

Jean-Paul Gonnod: Fx on tracks 4, 5, 6, 8, 9

All arrangements: Madeleine & Salomon

Recorded by Jean-Paul Gonnod at Studio Gil Evans / Label Bleu, Amiens – February, 21st and 22nd 2022

Mixed and mastered by Marc Urselli at EastSide Sound Studio, NYC – May 2022

Artwork: Bérangère Lallemant

Photo: Alexandre Saada assisted by Louise Gaillard

Video: Marion Auvin

All translation and adaptation of the lyrics but on tracks 4 and 9 : Madeleine & Salomon
English lyrics consultant: Roland Glasser

UPC : 3760061229303