Sylvaine Hélary is a rare bird, having played with the “Surnatural Orchestra”, the French singer Dominique A, Steve Coleman, the French Orchestre National de Jazz (which she will take over as director in 2025) and her fellow musician Sarah Murcia, with whom she co-leads the quintet La tête de Lark.
After several albums with small groups, Sylvaine Hélary is back with her brand-new Orchestre Incandescent, bringing together nine artists working on the frontiers of jazz, pop, baroque and electronic music. The result is a singular orchestral sound that fuses delicacy and power, timbre and bewitching rhythms.
RARE BIRDS unfurls a subtle range of poetics, a palette of sensitive expression with many surprises. Synthetic meets organic, instrumentation travels through the centuries and viola da gamba meets synthesizer, music and lyrics flow from the same clear, fresh source.
Sylvaine Hélary's musical setting of Emily Dickinson words, the intense atmosphere of The Abandoned Village a poem by P.J. Harvey, from whom she has already covered verses on a previous album, and the rich, plural universe presented by the flutist and composer, are all evidence of charisma and sisterhood.
credits
released September 13, 2024
All compositions by Sylvaine Hélary
Except #5 by Guillaume Magne and Antonin Rayon
All poems by Emily Dickinson
Except #7 by Polly Jean Harvey
Recorded April-May 2024 at Studio Ouanne by Anaëlle Marsollier and Antonin Rayon
Mixed and mastered by Antonin Rayon
with precious advice of Guillaume Magne Graphic
Design by Jean Depagne
Photos by Caroline Ruffault
Live photo by Maxim François
Produced by Association Sybille and Yolk Records
Warm thanks to Le Théâtre de Vanves, Le Petit Faucheux, Les 2 Scènes, Valérie and Véronique, Dominique Chrétien and Catherine Gélineau, Céline L’Hostis and Christel Deslis
Awarded as the best french jazz label in 2020, Yolk has released nearly 100 CDs. The label is giving artists the control of
their releases. Founded by three jazz musicians who remain its artistic directors: Alban Darche, Sébastien Boisseau and Jean-Louis Pommier, Yolk is a platform for encounters, an attractive space for internationally renowned musicians....more
No one does music quite like Camille and Xavier do. I see their music as being akin to soundtracks for unfilmed movies. In this instance it is a movie about explorers of mountainous terrain, perhaps the terrain of our lives. Merci pour cette musique si intrigante. :-) sumbuk
Mary Halvorson is a genius composer and guitarist who has developed her own musical language, and with Code Girl she has incorporated poetry into that language. Incredible compositions and lyricism (each track is a different kind of poem). Halvorson's playing is as great as usual, and all the other members of the band sound great. Robert Wyatt's singing in particular works extremely well in the tracks he's featured. Highly, highly recommend. rat