
Eastern Spring by Madeleine & Salomon
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
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
© and ℗ Madeleine & Salomon and Tzig’Art – 2022
UPC : 3760061229303
Catalog number : TZIG220930
Photos copyright : Laurence ALOIR, Florence DUCOMMUN, Jean-Pierre DEGAS, Benoîte FANTON, Jules GAILLARD, Patrick MARTIN, Rosenthal KOLIA, Pierre NOCCA, Patrick GRIN, Claude CARMEL FERRARA
Nominations:
- “Best Film” at the Los Angeles Short Film Festival 2023
- Finalist for “Best Music Video” at the Big Fridge International Film Festival 2023
- “Best Music Video” category at the Athens Short Film Festival 2023
- “Best Music Video” at the Echoes Film Festival 2023
Selections:
- “Favorite” category at the Carrefour du Film d’Animation 2022
- National Animation Film Festival 2023 in Rennes
- Mega Art Festival 2023
- New York Lift-Off Film Festival 2023
Screenings:
- Aired on France TV / France 3 on March 14 as part of the program “Libre Court”
- Mk2 Beaubourg as part of the “Animation en courts” program organized by AFCA and the Short Film Agency
- CLAP program for Independent Cinemas in Nouvelle Aquitaine for screenings from October 10, 2023, to June 30, 2024.