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BLUE MAQAM

Blue Maqam 4tet

Renaud GARCIA-FONS :  5 Strings Double Bass
Solea GARCIA-FONS :  Vocals
Stephan CARACCI :  Vibes, Marimba
Jean-Luc DI-FRAYA: Percussion, Drums

This new Blue Maqam quartet explores an original repertoire drawing its sources both from the tradition of Eastern and Mediterranean modes (Maqam) and in that of music from across the Atlantic (Blues/Jazz/AfroLatin).

« After Le Souffle des Cordes and Cinematic Double Bass, I wanted to create a new group combining the lyricism of the voice with the double bass played with a bow as well as the grooves of Latin and jazz music. In this world that is tearing itself apart, I felt the deep desire to develop music without walls or barriers of style, where the voice can express in several languages a song that brings us together, unites us to a common source. »

Obviously, it is a great moment of emotion and musical fervor that this quartet with completely new instrumentation invites us to experience.



LA LUNA DE SEDA

LaLunadeSeda

Renaud GARCIA-FONS :  5 Strings Double Bass
Kiko RUIZ :  Flamenca Guitar
Derya TURKAN :  Kemence
Serkan HALILI : Kanun

A new illustration of its passion for stringed instruments, this new quartet is developing an original repertoire dedicated to the meeting between Ottoman music and modern flamenco.
A great bond has united these 4 virtuosos for many years, during their meeting within different formations Silk Moon with Derya Turkan, Arcoluz Trio with Kiko Ruiz and more recently Serkan Halli with the Breath of the Strings.
After all these years of multiple musical experiences, the idea of this La Luna de Seda quartet simply became obvious, their four instruments, from the smallest to the largest string instruments, find a natural complementarity of timbres and playing modes and together produce the effect of a true orchestra, uniting East and West.
What also unites these four recognized soloists is their taste for lyrical expression and deep singing from the tradition of Oriental Maqam and Andalusian cante Jondo as well as groove from traditional music. Furthermore, this quartet was born from a deep desire to go beyond the traditional expression of their instruments to discover new musical, rhythmic, refined and poetic spaces together. Obviously, it is a great moment of emotion and musical fervor that this quartet with completely new instrumentation invites us to experience.

 
 
 
 

CONCERTO

RGF LVDS Portrait RGF 1488 Solene Person 300

Renaud GARCIA-FONS :  5 Strings Double Bass
Symphonic Orchestra

For many years, Renaud Garcia-Fons has been developing a universal vision of the double bass. Between technical mastery and lyrical escapades, the double bass becomes in his hands a solo instrument in its own right whose sound is immediately recognizable. Without denying its classical and jazz origins, Renaud Garcia-Fons's double bass, with its instantly recognizable sound, goes with its thousand and one voices to meet world music. Passionate about composition and writing for different ensembles Oriental Bass, Navigatore, etc., as well as for film music, Renaud Garcia-Fons invites us here to a meeting with the Macedonian Philarmonics on the theme of travel, an open musical expression on the world.

Taking advantage of the rich palette of timbres and colors that a symphonic orchestra such as Macedonian Philarmonics can bring, Renaud Garcia-Fons has composed a repertoire that draws its inspiration from both classical music and various traditional music, flamenco, Afro-Latin music, Oriental music but also his city, Paris.

More than a simple rapprochement, it is a matter of developing in co-operation with the orchestra a musical form both written and improvised, integrating the rigor of classical interpretation and the freedom of improvised music.

This musical creation, between an opening inspired by the dramatic events of Paris in 2015 and a final festive tutti Fortaleza built on the flamenco rhythm of Seguiryia, revolves around several movements, as many climates each evoking a distinct musical universe. Alternating energetic and groovy orchestral sequences and more intimate passages, bass solo and orchestra unite in a common musical language in the service of an emotion that only a music without borders can bring.

It is at a musical celebration dedicated to friendship and humanity sharing between peoples that Renaud Garcia-Fons invites us.

 

LE SOUFFLE DES CORDES

Renaud GARCIA-FONS :  5 strings double bass
Derya TURKAN :  Kemence
Serkan HALILI :  Kannun
Kiko RUIZ :  Guitar
Florent BRANNENS :  Violin
Amandine LEY :  Violin
Aurelia SOUVIGNET :  Alto
Nicolas SAINT-YVES :  Cello

 

With "Le souffle des cordes" Renaud Garcia-Fons aims to go further in the meeting of classical and traditionnal instruments.
It's a "crossover" project mixing composition and improvisation.

 

FARANGI

Claire & Renaud
CLAIRE ANTONINI : Theorbo
RENAUD GARCIA-FONS : 5 strings double bass

 

Renaud Garcia-Fons & Claire Antonini, two exceptional musicians, formed a duo several years ago.
Their music has been enriched over time, each musician bringing unique experiences and passions for early music, jazz, and oriental music in the broadest sense.
The love for melody, for the rhythms of ancient traditions, for modal music expression, combine to give this project its unique sound.
The repertoire of 19 short pieces, primarily original compositions, are miniatures, describing imaginary travel to a cultural crossroads.
Here the double bass sounds like a ney, the theorbo like a setar.
Both voices are heard, yet the rich combination of timbres and modes of playing are ever renewed in the orchestrations.
Farangi, the foreigner in Persian, the traveler coming from west, wishes to celebrate and share this natural connection, the pleasure of soul that connects different music styles, as a universal language speaking to everyone’s heart.

 

 

Bassist Renaud García-Fons has often played with Claire Antonini, an expert in early music and the theorbar. 19 miniatures adorn the fine duo album Farangi, which resembles an imaginative Eurasian journey. It extends the timbres of the two instruments deep into Iran, to Kurdistan or Syria, but it can also - in a charming chaconne - sound quite courtly-Baroque.
Jazzthing

REVOIR PARIS

RGF

Renaud GARCIA-FONS : 5 string double bass
David VENITUCCI : Accordion
Stephan CARACCI : Vibes, Drums

 

It was perhaps inevitable that one day, the intrepid musical explorer Renaud Garcia-Fons would come back his native Paris, cosmopolitan capital, cultural crossroads for artists of all nationalities to which city the Franco-Catalan bassist dedicates his new album La vie devant soi. The title is from the book by Ajar/Gary, which tells of “the extraordinary bond between a little Arab orphan and a Jewish mama”.
For this project Garcia-Fons has brought together David Venitucci (accordion) and Stephen Caracci (vibes and percussion) accomplices in innovation and experimentation on the margins of jazz. The underlying idea, essential to the Garcia-Fons credo, being “to create a kind of chamber music, to play together, searching for nuances and sound textures from an acoustic base”.
Known for his mastery of flamenco, his musical expeditions to India and the East, his love for the Mediterranean basin, Renaud Garcia-Fons felt the need to go elsewhere. Here he’s following the chronology of a multi-faceted city from the 19th. Century French School to Parisian Jazz. “If I only made Mediterranean or oriental music, I’d be limiting myself; I’ve got more than that in my luggage. I was listening to Satie and Debussy long before I heard Munir Bashir…”
And what we get are eleven discreet Parisian scenes. A nose-tapping tip of the hat to Prévert, Doisneau, Michel Simon. From the busy,bustling Montmartre en Courant to the achingly moving Le long de la Seine. Groove and poetry, nostalgia and pure cheek….an ode to humanity

 Jean-Stephane Brosse

PASEO A DOS

DORANTES : Piano
RENAUD GARCIA-FONS : Five strings double bass

 

Guest Artists:
JAVI RUIBAL : Drums and percussion
URSULA LOPEZ : Flamenca dance

 

Andalucian gypsy DORANTES leans on his own roots to bring piano in a music where the main instrument is since ever the guitar

He works on a more complex music than pure flamenco including improvisation without daring he plays jazz

Renaud GARCIA-FONS with his unique sound on double bass has explored the pathes of flamenco with Arcoluz and Linea del Sur

 

 

SILK MOON

SMD

Derya TURKAN :  Kemence d' Istanbul
Renaud GARCIA-FONS : 5 strings double-bass

SILK MOON : New Album - Release Nov 11th, 2014 - e-motive records

 

A friendly partnership links these two musicians since a long time, when they met with famous Ney player Kudsi Erguner. In 2006 they were already playing together on the album Minstrel Era dedicated to classical ottoman music with cellist Ugur Isic.

Their two instruments, the more little and the among strings instruments, sounds like a true orchestra even if they're only two.
Renaud and Derya like lyrical expression and the deep chant from tradition, Oriental and Magam and Cante Jondo from Andalucia.
Beyond the classical use of their instruments , they discover together new musical spaces subtle and poetics.

A geat emotional moment with an instrumentation never used before.

 

 

SOLO

Renaud GARCIA-FONS : Five-strings Double Bass

 

In this SOLO, Renaud Garcia-Fons sings a beautiful love song for his instrument by drawing inspiration from the music that comprises his world of ten recordings, coming from other times (Marcevol, Hacia Compostella) and other places around the vast Mediterranean (Jeyhounabad, Kalimbass).

Alone with his instrument (and some loops made only with bass sounds), he pushes the boundaries of an already immense technique, and unfolds a song of breathtaking beauty.

Renaud Garcia-Fons, avoiding a fall into the trap of virtuosity, our man has created a tour de force in building a world of musical strokes both bold and fine, and lyrically warm.

 

2009 : Solo Performance Award by the International Bass Association
2010 : Echo Deutscher MuzikPreis Jazz : Best Instrumentist
2010 : "Giraldillo" of the best Musical Interpretation at Sevilla's Flamenco Biennal for his participation to Dorantes show "Sin Muros"
2013 : Echo Deutscher MuzikPreis Jazz : Best DVD
2014 : Film Festival in Luchon : Best Music

 

 

PRINZ AHMED

PrinzRenaud Garcia-Fons Contrebasse 5 cordes
David Venitucci Accordéon
Henri Tournier Flûte bansuri de l'Inde du nord
Bruno Caillat Zarb
Sebastien Bonniau Vibraphone
Claire Antonini Luth, Théorbe


The project "The Adventures of Prince Achmed. New music to a silhouette film by Lotte
Reiniger "