CONSTANTINOPLE – Traversées (fvll concert)

Constantinople is a Montreal-based early music and middle eastern music ensemble. The group was formed in 1988 by brothers Kiya Tabassian (setar) and Ziya Tabassian (tombak). The sétar and tombak are complemented by viola da gamba, renaissance cornett, and daf.

[FR] De tout temps, en tous lieux, la Parole du monde s’est incarnée dans celle, terrestre, du barde, du troubadour ou du griot. Ces artisans poètes, tout autant passeurs que pacificateurs, sont le trait d’union avec les forces de la nature, le divin indicible, la mémoire des anciens. Il leur revient d’entretenir le foyer quotidien de l’âme collective.

Éternels oiseaux migrateurs, Kiya Tabassian, maître du sétar et défricheur de mémoires, et Ablaye Cissoko, griot de Saint-Louis du Sénégal et maître de la kora sillonnent les scènes du monde ensemble depuis dix ans. Ensemble, avec le virtuose de percussion Patrick Graham, ces libres penseurs et voyageurs font du monde leur jardin.

[ENG] Everywhere, from time immemorial, the Word has been embodied by the bard, the troubadour, the griot. These wordsmiths, at once messengers and peacemakers, are the links with the forces of nature, the inexpressible divine, the memory of the ancients. It falls to them to maintain the realm of the collective soul.

Nowadays, these freethinkers and travellers are making the world their garden… like Kiya Tabassian, the virtuoso of Persian setar and Ablaye Cissoko, griot from Saint-Louis, Senegal, both eternally migrating birds. This meeting between Ablaye and Constantinople, between strings and vocals, goes back in time to evoke the beauty of being. It is a joint passage through the common sites of the imagination, like a long breath before the inexorable march of the world and time.

PROGRAM:

1. RÊVERIES – Kiya Tabassian

2. MARYAMA – Ablaye Cissoko / Kiya Tabassian; poème de Hafez (1325-1390)

3. ESTUAIRE – Kiya Tabassian / Ablaye Cissoko

4. DENKILO – Ablaye Cissoko

5. VERS ISFAHAN – Kiya Tabassian / Ablaye Cissoko

6. AHOUYE VAHSHI – Kiya Tabassian ; poème de Hafez

7. TRAVERSÉES – Kiya Tabassian / Ablaye Cissoko

8. SIRIFO – Kiya Tabassian / Ablaye Cissoko

9. DÉPARTS – Kiya Tabassian; poème d’Amir Khosro Dehlavi (1253-1325) / Ablaye Cissoko

10. POISSON AU FOND DE L’OCÉAN, Kiya Tabassian, Ablaye Cissoko

11. SOLO DE PERCUSSION, Patrick Graham

12. SOUTOURO, Ablaye Cissoko

13. KAILEN – Ablaye Cissoko / Kiya Tabassian