Philippe & Gabriel

The last song I wrote for the album is about our fathers and elders, their legacy… At the time of the songwriting my father was critically ill in the hospital. As he has been living in African during the last years of his life, I decided for “La Memoire” to use some African folk elements and mix themwith a traditionalMore…RECORDING IN SENEGAL

In my pre 20’s I did 3 years of classical piano and had the dream to learn counterpoint, harmonization. Life had it other way and I could not follow this path for some years. As I resumed songwriting in 2018 I slowly went back to my passion for classical music and the study of orchestration. I spent time reading scoresheet,More…WRITING CLASSICAL MUSIC

“Une Annee Formidable” is the first single from the Les Rivières Folk album. Recorded during 2020, it marks a collaboration between several folk and country artists, who worked online from different countries. The single arranged by multi-awarded Italian musician Roberto Tola,  who toured and recorded with Bob Minzer, Tom Harrel, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Shakatak and many more.

Une Année Formidable took folk colors from the first notes written. It was while imagining a banjo accompanying the chorus that I decided to contact Toby Wilson, a multi-instrumentalist based in the UK. He kindly accepted to collaborate on the song and rearranged and recorded the guitars and the banjo in his studio.

After recording the musical core of Une Année Formidable we wanted to give the song some extra color with the addition of a slide guitar and solo guitar for the finale played by a country artist from the USA Paul Tooley. To accompany the chorus and the drums parts arranged by Roberto Tola, I wanted to flesh out the soundMore…RECORDING ADDITIONAL INSTRUMENTS