FIRST NOEL

Description

FIRST NOEL is an album where I reinterpreted 25 of the greatest Christmas classics, in addition to 3 original tracks that I composed. It celebrates both my son's very first Christmas and my grandmother Odette's very last, last year. The memories I have of Christmas are full of wonderful moments, and I was keen to record the album while remaining true to the magic of those instants. I surrounded myself with three loyal friends: François Delporte (guitar), Frank Woeste (piano), and Sofi Jeannin (choir conductor). Together, we recorded in two magical locations: the Babel studios of my friend Armand Amar, where I had the opportunity to work on my first albums, and at the Saint-Julien-Le-Pauvre church with 8 singers possessing angelic and sublime voices. This church means a lot to me and my family. Firstly, it is the oldest church in Paris and is located only a few meters from Notre-Dame Cathedral. My father was a sacristan there in the 60s, and it was within its walls that he developed and built his path as a trumpeter. It was in this church that we celebrated the funerals of my aunt Hind and my beloved grandmother Odette. Finally, I got engaged and married there... So many symbols. After recording numerous albums, I felt that the time had come for me to offer my own version of the great Christmas classics. I wanted to give them a less childish, more musical, and spiritual dimension while preserving their subtle fragility. FIRST NOEL is an album that will suit all ages. I created it for my son Nael, for whom Christmas 2021 will be his first, as well as for my grandmother Odette, who passed away this year at the age of 99 and with whom we shared the last of her 99 Christmases. A century separates them, but the magic of Christmas is the same. I wanted FIRST NOEL to be singular, simple, humble, and instrumental in its truest sense. In other words, an album without words where melodies return to the center of listening, while also distancing itself from Hollywood arrangements and crooners à la Frank Sinatra. Music that invites appeasement, dreams, and unity, regardless of our language, age, culture, and religion. This is how Odette saw things, and it is in this sense that I would like to see Nael and Lily, my children, listen to the world.