Louis Matute - Our Folklore (2022) [Hi-Res]

Are we destined to play only the music that culturally belongs to us and lives within us? Do the borders that lie between countries and the vastness of the salt water act as natural thresholds that prevent the soul and spirit of music from being shared and passed on beyond its geographical framework?

Through his Honduran father, Louis Matute is immersed in South American music. Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, each of these countries brought him an element, an inspiration that he made his own. Through his German mother, he discovered the great composers whose harmonic spirit he preserved. Both geographically and musically, these cultures seem to be at odds, if not evolving in parallel universes. Occasionally they overlap, but rarely do they blend

With a sometimes destructive tightness, Louis Matute seized the opportunity to build. He reinforced his own foundation with elements from elsewhere. Unafraid to explore unfamiliar territory, he took his six musicians on this jazz adventure. During an inevitably enriching journey, he drew inspiration from vibrations hundreds or even thousands of miles away, brought by musical messengers or recorded directly on the spot. They respect the codes and values of the paths taken and mix in such a way that nothing prevails, but everything forms a whole

A new culture, a new folklore. Our Folklore. Electric in a purely instrumental, acoustic ensemble, his guitar draws the strong and expressive themes that will guide piano and brass on the path to follow. A path that took the six strings beyond the Mediterranean under the influence of nervous rhythms to meet an oud that plays its oriental, enchanting and mysterious melodies. The oud has become as much jazz as jazz is oriental. In the midst of traditional South American music and melancholic pop-rock, another piece in this unique artistic landscape. The leader Louis Matute darkens his scores with an eye to the strengths of each musician who makes up his Large Ensemble

Total cohesion then allows everyone to shine like a soloist when the time comes. Expressing the culture that one brings to the septet. The culture that one has discovered and assimilated. The culture that, through its keys, its strokes or its movements on the handle, has become an element that is both constitutive and central to this new folklore. Our Folklore.