“A dazzling record!”

“When I was a child, I remember reading again and again a simplified version of Homer’s Odyssey. I was fascinated by this fantastic world, inhabited by gods and humans with magical names, capable of breaking the sky and unleashing the sea.
As I grew up, I opened my mind to the multiple levels of reading contained in this work; I understood that the Odyssey was a journey leading to oneself.

I also realised that this poem was the transcription of an oral tradition, transmitted from generation to generation, since ancient times. By exploring the stories of this oral tradition without a compass, the storytellers move forward on the edge of improvisation, as is the case with jazz musicians.
These words have come down to us, fixed in wonderful verses by Homer’s poetic vision. But it is the variation that underlies the oral narrative, as in jazz music — which continues to transform itself even after being recorded.

Each track on this album is dedicated to a character from the Odyssey. Ulysses of course, but also Calypso, Polyphemus, Charybdis and Scylla, Nausicaa, Circe, Penelope, Melenas... The sea will be the backdrop of the album; the cycle of the waves, the amplitude of the water’s movements particularly appeal to me. I wish to tell in music the multitude of imaginary worlds that this epic story inspires me, by seeking in my compositions to express dynamics and varied emotions: love, fear, temptation, hope...

My work is based on chanted readings in the manner of the ancient Greeks, in order to draw inspiration from the rhythm of the original verses. I refer to Philippe Jacottet’s French translation.”