Les Montagnes Bleues
/ The Bleu Mountains

Ludovic B.A, French singer-songwriter and guitarist, takes you on a musical and poetic journey by the form of travel journal. A creation of songs written and recorded along the way, the production of an album with the collaboration of artists from different countries. A creation born from the need to re-enchant the world and reconnect with Mother Earth.

A Musical Travel Journal

Writing my songs often while traveling, the desire to make a musical and artistic travel journal has been recalling me for years. I was already telling here and there about the encounters, the views and the stories linked to the songs, but I wanted to go a little further in this direction. I didn’t know when or in what form this project would take place, but its intention has reappeard as such an obvious thing in the last while.

As an artist with a nomad soul, continuing to meet, share, create, sing, all this seems to me as a necessity in this gloomy and troubled period which invites us to invest entirely in the fields of all our possiblities.

« Les Montagnes Bleues » is several things.

It is first and foremost the project of writing and producing an album in several stages, in a nomadic way. I have already started writing this album since a few months, in Burgundy. It is currently continuing in Japan and will later continue in the Pyrenees, Cévennes, Corsica, Italy, Spain, Morocco. Detours to other regions may be considered. There are several creative residencies and collaborations planned with talented artists from different countries that you will discover along the way and with whom I have imagined different encounters.

« Les Montagnes Bleues » is the vision of an enchanted nature : the writing of this album is largely inspired by birds, flowers, trees and waters, lights, the infinite faces of living things. Most of the artists who participate in this project have a strong relationship with nature.

The planned stages are beloved places, places of the heart that for some of them I have already frequented and where I have forged relationships. So these are not random choices that invite me, but the taste and the need to reconnect, create, share and sow good seeds on friendly paths after a year gone by without obvious prospects.

Part of this album will be recorded while roaming on these adventure trails with a mini mobile recording studio.

« Hirondelle / Swallow », an E.P of 4 songs that will be on this album, will be released digitally on platforms in April 2021.

« Les Montagnes Bleues », it is also a blog which will be this desired travel-journal, a musical, poetic and visual travel-journal of the project, on which you can follow us and where we will give you regular news. There you will discover songs, snapshots, collaborations, texts, videos, photos, etc ... On this blog it won'be only about giving you to listen, but also giving you to see what is happening around the creation of this album, to tell you about the places crossed, the secret paths, the environments as well as the habitants, by reweaving the broken links.

Borrowing the words of the writer, Kenneth White, it is therefore to a "geopoetic" adventure that I invite you, also with the idea of offering you inspired "maps".

At the end of this adventure we'll have lived through a whole period and this project will have been a source of inspiration for many people... this is our wish.

PROVISIONAL TIMETABLE

- February & March : Creative residencies in Japan, in Nara, near Kyoto, and on the island of Okishima where the local community and the municipality support the project. Collaborations planned with several artists (see below).

See you in the week of 22 to 28 for the first online musical sharing on the blog : http://lesmontagnesbleues.com/

- April to September : Presence in France and in Europe, collaborations with several artists, itinerant creation planned in the Pyrenees, in the Cévennes, in Corsica, in Burgundy, in Spain and in Italy.

- October : Creative residency at the L'Moultalâte cultural space in Marrakech around the notions of transmission and the link with the land of the ancestors. A documentary relating this residency and the musical sharing with the villagers in the mountains will be produced by Dounia Aït El Moumen, film production assistant from Marrakech, accompanied by Adam Salah Eddine, contemporary dancer and founder of the Espace Culturel L'Moultâlate, as well as Abdel Mounim Elallami, contemporary dancer and photographer. The program of this residency is being refined, for this residency a collaboration with Saïd El Moumen, co-founder of the Marrakech international dance festival should also see the light of day.

- November & December : Additional recording sessions in the studio.

- Between February and April 2022 : Release date being planned for the album.

This schedule will be adjusted according to the health situation, of course, if it's necessary to specify it, and also according to the concrete progress of the project ...

The Artists

LUDOVIC B.A

I am a singer-songwriter and guitarist, I have cultivated for many years the art of a songwriting in French, poetic and nomad. I have given more than 350 concerts including a hundred in Japan, as well in concert halls and festivals as off the beaten track. I've also traveled part of Europe and Morocco in music.

For the project « Les Montagnes Bleues », I have the chance to work with talented and inspiring artists, musicians and visual artists, whom you will find in different places, on the P.E., on the album and on the blog. As I told you above, you will discover these collaborations along the way, and this as so many surprises to come. Other artists are expected to participate in this project but here are the first names.

YÖKO TAKEDA

Yöko is the first partner of the project, the one who supports me, the essential one without whom this project wouldn't have the same flavor nither the same amplitude, you who read me here already know well, very probably. Talented violinist from Japan, I have worked a lot in duo with her for ten years. She coordinates and organizes the part of this project in Japan, the creative residencies in this country and the partnerships.

Together we have already created several projects including the one called « Concerts en Aparté » : traveling through mountains and valleys, towns and hinterlands, bringing culture to isolated places and to audiences neglected by institutions, with this project we have given more than 130 "home-concerts", shows at private homes and in third places (reintegration farm after prison, associative grocery store, intergenerational village, etc ...).

We have also created other shows and collaborated with different artists over time.

Two albums mark this beautiful journey that we have achieved together : «le sentier et l’estuaire» (the path and the estuary), released in 2015, and «Les Mains Tisserandes» (The Weaving Hands) released in 2018.

Other Artists :

YOANN PIOVOSO : Pianist from Burgundy, discreet musician, modest and country gentleman of the French improv scene, he is distinguished in particular by his duo with the harpist Hélène Breschand. Surrounded by a Fender Rhodes piano, analog synthesizers or a flute to call the good spirits, he always has more than one trick up his sleeve.

YUKO KUNOMURA : Joyful viola player, respected teacher and relationship magician. She is one of the co-organizers of the project and helps us develop it for work residences and the organization of concerts in Japan.

CHIE NARITA : Cellist, singer-songwriter, figure of the alternative scene in Tokyo, she gives numerous concerts in Japan and realizes numerous multidisciplinary performances. She is also a pianist. She has produced three albums, including "Asakoto" recently released. I have worked with her several times.

DELPHINE BENHAMOU : A prodigious classical musician working with many distinguished composers such as Philippe Hersant or Félix Ibarrondo, Delphine Benhamou is an archetypal incarnation of the spirit of the harp. When she is playing, we only need to close our eyes to find ourselves in a warm garden from another time where roses are queen, where fountains sing and where birds fly against a soft azure blue background. From her window she sees Debussy sending her musical love letters, scores which she interprets with great poetic delicacy. We sometimes see her at the Opera in Paris and she takes part in a considerable number of projects. Currently she is passionate about a project related to archeology where she performs the oldest musical notations found in Syria, dating from -1300.

STEVE ETO : A talented Japanese-American percussionist and renowned artist, he accompanies many celebrities on the Japanese scene. He notably worked with filmmaker Naomi Kawase for the film “Shara” and participates in the film festival that she organizes in Nara, Japan, the city where they both live. He also works on a large number of alternative projects and participates in the intensive sessions of the major annual Buddhist rituals in the city of Nara.

ALAIN LARRIBET, le berger des sons : Solar artist with the accent of the Pyrenees, he sings with the same luminous accent. Multi-instrumentalist, singer, storyteller and composer, we can no longer count the very talented collaborations he's made, notably with Murray Head, Pierre-Michel Grade, Yannick Jaulin or even the slammer Marc Alexandre Oho Bombe. Colors of the world, jazz and poetry characterize his work.

GIULIO CANTORE : Musician of the Italian folk scene, talented guitarist, singer-songwriter, emeritus luthier with rare wood, this esthete discreetly cultivates his art among the trees in Emilia-Romagna. He has notably collaborated with the famous Neapolitan singer Gnut. He also works with the British Folk singer Paul Armfield.

TOHKEÏ NAOMI YANAÏ, traditional Japanese calligrapher
A worker with a morning conscience, in her Ryokan (traditional inn) in Nara, she welcomes her guests with great care and discretion. It's in the same way that she nobly practices the art of Shodo, tirelessly day after day, writing the Buddhist sutras with the healing of all beings in mind. She performs many live performances with different musicians in which she performs vibrant works inspired by the nobility of the heart.

JEAN BAPTISTE ANDRIOLLO, painter
An artist from Franche-Comté region exiled in the mountains of Japan, he can only spend the winter in the heart of white and snow, like a meditating heron. He is a man who lives simply, in a kind of happy sobriety with art, friendship, a good glass of sake and cheese as the best means of support. He worked in a washi paper factory, the traditional Japanese paper. His works of great sincerity are those of an artist imbued with the traditional arts of the country in which he lives, although they are most natural to him.

YU WATANABE, painter, graphic designer, illustrator and farmer.
A graduate of the Tokyo University of the Arts, this silent and deep artist cultivates the art of drawing as that of living a healthy diet, with great love. She exhibited in many places in Tokyo before leaving for Vietnam on a humanitarian mission. Living near Lake Biwa, she is also a farmer, and with her husband and children they cultivate their rice and manage a small alternative store, "Watanabe Tateguten". It wouldn't occur to them not to cultivate what they eat themselves. His drawings, inspired by everyday life, vibrate with light like the rice they grow.

Counterparties and the role of contributors

The rewards are a piece of this musical journey to take back home. The adventure is frugal, the material light, but the work is ambitious. Talented artists from various horizons bring their paws to this work.

I imagined this project by asking myself how to get through this period of crisis as an artist, how to dig meaning and continue to create links. Supporting this project means supporting the realization of a non-framework artistic self-production work that carries strong values, a collaborative project that also values initiatives and models of life linked to Mother Earth, with a sensitive and poetic about them. Supporting this project also means enabling the Burgundian cultural association Le Cœur Sauvage, which oversees this project, to eventually become a real music label that continues to uphold these values.

■ Works by Yu Watanabe
Set of 10 original printed paper sheets, from the collection of watercolor works of Yu Watanabe, artist in collaboration in Japan. In a homemade waxed paper envelope.

■ Small calligraphies by Tohkei
Set of 3 calligraphic works in postcard format, by Tohkei, artist in collaboration in Japan.

■ Sumi-e painting by JB Andriollo
Sumi-e style painting (size almost A4) on homemade Mino-Washi sheet in traditional Japanese technique, by Jean Baptiste Andriollo, artist in collaboration in Japan.

■ Calligraphy [large format] by Tohkei
Unique calligraphy mounted in washi paper (approx. 35 x 120 cm), by Tohkei. This work will be produced in direct relation to the planned collaboration with percussionist Steve Eto during our creation residency in Nara.
(Photos given as examples for this reward)

Les Montagnes Bleues, a musical journal, a geopoetic adventure

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