Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
Kirjuhel’s playing is infinitely gentle… then the finger-movements speed up. They become invisible like those of an aged bluesman in a trance. The notes rain down as densely as a tropical shower… jazz without a name, a futuristic cadence WORLD - WORLD
This music seems to respond to the soughing of the wind and the stretching of time - L’EXPRESS
world music in every sense of the term… voyage in the memories recorded in every living cell - JAZZ & TZAZ
A pioneering harpist, Kirjuhel develops the possibilities of the Celtic harp as a solo instrument as well as one for free improvisation - INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
a rhythmicality like a beating heart –the resonance of the arrows shot from Kirjuhel’s harp touches upon the universal - OUEST FRANCE
a highly unusual work…combining drifty, avant-garde Celtic harp with vocal experiments…Kirjuhel is a sensitive, innovative harpist, sliding his fingers over the strings, tapping the body of the harp, creating new sonorities… - DIRTY LINEN
with his harp Kirjuhel plays the music of the soul… a universe of sound of unutterable beauty - MIDI LIBRE
an artist on a quest for a link between cultures ancient and contemporary - DIE WELT
novel compositions of Celtic, Balkan and oriental inspiration, on rhythms of jazz and Flamenco - TO VIMA
a multifaceted performer…his live performances have a thespian quality…a music pioneer in many ways - ATHENS NEWS
Discography
2004 Firescan, 12 improvisational creations for soundpulsed harp. Percussion: Khalid Kouhen.
Soundpulse: Marc Depasse & François Lemarié. Harp, music: Kirjuhel. (REVOE-ABEILLE MUSIQUE) REVOE RK 1412. CD
2000 Concert, A musical voyage in 13 parts for harp, violin, cello, zarb, percussion. Violin: Hugo Crotti. Harp, guitar, Cretan lute, music and voice: Kirjuhel. (REVOE-CIRE JAUNE) REVOE RK 13. CD
1999 Echo of Mont-Saint-Michel, A modern oratorio in 12 sequences. Flute: Jean- Paul Auboux. Violin: Hugo Crotti. Harp, guitar, music and vocals: Kirjuhel. (REVOE-CIRE JAUNE) REVOE RK 12. CD
1997 ANA words of stone, Instantaneous composition for harp and multiple voice in five archaic sequences: Dor, An, Ur, Karn, Ka. Harp, music and vocals: Kirjuhel. (REVOE-KINISI) REVOE RK 11. CD
1995 Fragments Epiques, Cosmic oratorio in 3 parts singing the Odyssey of Modern Man. Vocals: Fanchon Daemers. Flute: Jean-Paul Auboux. Zarb, Edaka: Bruno Caillat. Electroacoustic landscapes, sampling: Philippe Beaucamp. Text, music, voice: Kirjuhel. (REVOE-KINISI) REVOE RK 10. Three boxed CDs + textbook.
1991 Le Voyage de Psyche, Contemporary oratorio for voices mingled. Electroacoustic structures: Jean-Paul Auboux. Vocals: Fanchon Daemers et Bernadette Tessier. Text: Paul Valéry. Music, voice: Kirjuhel. (REVOE-REVOE) REVOE RK 7. CD
1989 Kirjuhel Chante Yunus Emre, 15 chants based on texts of 13th cent. Turkish poet Yunus Emre. Indian Flute: Jean-Paul Auboux. Cello: Jean Barthe. Violin: Hugo Crotti. Double bass: François Rabbath. Music, voice: Kirjuhel. (REVOE-REVOE) REVOE RK 3. 30 cm + cassette + CD
1986 12 POEMES en langue française, A musical anthology gathering the spellbinding verse of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Hugo...Violin: Hugo Crotti. Cello: Jean Barthe. Guitar, music, voice: Kirjuhel.
ffff de Télérama. Remastering 1999. (REVOE-CIRE JAUNE) REVOE RK 101. 30 cm + cassette + CD
1979 L’Exil Intérieur , Double bass: François Rabbath. DROUG D 5106. LP
1976 Enfance du Monde, Double bass: François Rabbath. BARCLAY 80611. LP.
1975 Les Arrivistes. DROUG D 5103. LP
1974 Les Questions, DROUG D 5101. LP
1972 An Droug. DROUG 30120. LP
1971 Breizh. KELENN. 45 T
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Kirjuhel’s latest album, Firescan, almost wholly improvised, the outcome of his tours of the last two years in France (50 cities) is his 14th disc, the first to be entirely instrumental. It will be released in France on 5 November 2004 (distribution Abeille Musique www.abeillemusique.com) and will be presented in first performance to the public of Paris at the Café de la Danse from 30 November to 4 December 2004.
He bought his first guitar to play Django Reinhardt, at the age of fourteen he immersed himself in Rimbaud, Flamenco and Blues, he loves the music of Keith Jarrett, of Atahualpa Yupanqui and of Anouar Brahem, he listens to Chopin, Maurice Ohana and Muddy Waters, he transforms his harp with metal cords into a ‘nuclear’ instrument to compose his music, to improvise in the inspiration of modal jazz, to imagine a beat of life projecting his music into unchartered space: Kirjuhel rebels against prefabricated paths, be it in life or in music. For his harp he invents “soundpulse”, a novel sound concept. Turbo of his harp, soundpulse multiplies resonances by external processes creating an eruption of sound in a place of vastness.
On stage and in his new album Firescan he is accompanied by Khalid Kouhen, a percussionist of Arabic-Indian inspiration who, on his tablas, djembe, jar and cymbals propels rhythm as though from the very interior of the harp, a rare and profound musical complicity.
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