LENO (vinyl)

Description

The eminent Guadeloupean drummer-composer Arnaud Dolmen returns with a third album, LéNo, as a duo with his longtime accomplice, the talented Brazilian pianist Leonardo Montana. Across 12 tracks, the duo succeeds in creating a bold, rhythmic blend, a kind of abundant musical kaleidoscope, where the inspirations of the two musicians intertwine with mastery and plunge you into a dreamlike elsewhere. A modern album where piano-drums-choirs are enough on their own. "As artists, our mission is to share hope with the world, the madness of listening to one another. LéNo is a call to freedom." Arnaud Dolmen & Leonardo Montana. This album features 12 tracks, all arranged by Arnaud Dolmen and Leonardo Montana. It includes their duo compositions ('Les Invisibles Part1', 'Spirale', unfolded in 4 parts), the drummer’s compositions ('Hey Cousin', 'Zouky Monky', 'LéNo') and the pianist’s ('Agora Sim', 'Hajj'). On two tracks, the duo revisits two standards: that of Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaria with his title 'Afro Blue' ('Les Invisibles Part 2') and that of Argentine bassist Pedro Aznar ('Romance de la Luna Tucumana'). If the Caribbean is a 'Continent of Islands', as a reporter and great traveler once wrote, then the record you hold in your hands is a continent of music. A continent under the ten fingers of Arnaud Dolmen and Leonardo Montana. Admit it, it’s prodigious! In music as in any form of art, it is not only a matter of being agile with one’s hands. One must also have felt, tasted, seen and lived so that each note is complete, full of everything one is willing to put into it. But put what, exactly? One’s roots, multiple, one’s paths, contrary... and why not one’s accent? Precisely, Arnaud Dolmen and Leonardo Montana have one, each their own, different but not so different. Let’s begin with Arnaud. A world unto himself. The quintessence of the modern Guadeloupean drummer: versatile, cultured, passionate and fascinating. 'Without doubt the drummer who is most in the music,' whispers godfather Mario Canonge. Celebrated in mainland France as well as in Sainte-Anne, Dolmen is now indispensable. With him, whatever the bottle, there is always intoxication. Montana, his partner in all kinds of adventures, is his first listener. 'Arnaud is always in the moment. With him, everything can change in a fraction of a second, which shows a wonderful quality of listening. He is the very example of someone who plays with an open heart. He is so transparent in his feelings that what we hear is truly what he is. To know Arnaud, you only need to hear him play.' Leonardo Montana, for his part, is a chameleon. Born in Bolivia, Parisian by adoption, it is less well known that at thirteen this Brazilian met Guadeloupe, where the power of Gwoka left a lasting mark on him. 'I was overwhelmed by this machine, by the sound coming out of it, which reminded me of what I had seen in Brazil but could not explain.' Percussive, orchestral, handling chiaroscuro, the harsh and the beautiful, fire and peace, Montana is a poet. 'One of the most original and intelligent pianists I have played with,' says Felipe Cabrera, the Cuban double bass master who has followed him for twenty-two years. 'If I were born again,' he continues, 'I would play only with him.' Inventive and dreamy, Leonardo is not afraid of risk: 'together, we can follow unexpected paths,' enthuses Arnaud, 'and when we go at it wholeheartedly, it creates something magical.' From there, LéNo seemed like an obvious choice, even if it came about somewhat by chance, their first steps on stage interrupted by a storm and by a global pandemic! But the desire to make an orchestra of two and to delve into their shared obsessions was stronger. To speak, blend their accents, drink from the source of the elders (Sergius Geoffroy, Gérard Lockel), and find in the great precedents ('Streams Of Consciousness' by Max Roach and Dollar Brand) the material for a discourse unlike any other. - - So, with their eyes, their ears, their voices and their hands, Dolmen and Montana gave body to their idea, composing a fascinating, unguarded, all-the-way record. A record that is 'whole': turn it up full volume, listen to the sounds that burst forth, the insistent strings, the drums and cymbals that erupt, crack, jostle and crackle. One might have thought that with just two there would be something missing. Nothing is missing. Carried by rhythms and dance, bewitched by the piano ostinatos, the cascades and leaps into the void, the mind lets go. The recording - that work of art we do not see but hear - opens wide the doors to their world. A world where two musicians sound like five or ten, and where in every gap bursts forth history, convictions, imagination and dream. "Before the journey, we are children of the same lineages," said guitarist Christian Laviso to journalist Jacques Denis. 'The Americans lost the drum. Not us.' Arnaud Dolmen and Leonardo Montana have not forgotten it. Punctuated by the Spirales, this record seems to say that history is infinite, that everything is only beginning again. Drawing the best from his Jazzette, the smallest kind of drum kit, Dolmen transcends the legacy, multiplies his field of expression and shows wild inventiveness, giving each of Leonardo’s lines new relief. Drawing their strength from the whole of creoleness, this Continent of Islands that spills over to the shores of Louisiana and Brazil, Arnaud Dolmen and Leonardo Montana follow this great path opened by the elders, and sign a spellbinding, modern and timeless record. A path with a single voice. LéNo. (David Koperhant)