Tamia & Pierre Favre ‘De la nuit… le jour’

01 Ballade (7:53)
02 Wood Song (8:02)
03 Maroua (4:59)
04 De la nuit . . . le jour (7:51)
05 Mit Sang und Klang (6:52)
06 Yemanjá (7:12)
Total time: 42:44
Recorded 1987. ECM records, 1988.

Swiss drummer Pierre Favre met french one of a kind singer Tamia during the 1972 Chateauvallon jazz music festival in France and the ensuing Michel Portal LP. The pair made 3 albums as a duo and took part in 2 further collective albums (see discography below). A striking aspect in this CD is the awesome tonalities the drummer is getting from his drum-kit, from subtle gamelan parts to mysterious bell chimes. On several tracks, Favre is making extensive use of his gongs and cymbals, to the point of sounding electronic at times (tr.#6). Tamia’s wordless/invented language is meant to let her vocal range wander freely from muttered oneiric complaints to cute erotic utterances, from distant longing murmurs to tribal african chanting, sometimes augmented by rerecording (tr.#3). Comparisons with contemporary american singers doesn’t seem obvious to me, whereas I’m hearing echoes from Debussy’s Pelleas & Mélisande (an opera dealing with shades and water themes) and african ethnic elements. Additionaly, there’s a concern with tonality and pitch in this music which is a traditional feature of french or japanese music. Note: in April 2008, fellow blogger Locales For Ecstasy posted an undated solo Tamia LP, possibly from the 1970s.

Discography:

• ‘Blues for Pedro Arcanjo’, Gemini (Tamia, Pierre Favre) 1983
• ‘De la Nuit … Le Jour’, ECM (Tamia, Pierre Favre) 1987
• ‘Solitudes’, ECM (Tamia, Pierre Favre) 1991
• ‘Michel Portal unit à Chateauvallon’, Le Chant Du Monde (with Michel Portal, Bernard Vitet, Beb Guerin, Léon Francioli, Tamia, Pierre Favre) 1972
• ‘Anninnia’, Ismez Polis Music (with Lauren Newton, Lucilla Galeazzi, Norma Winstone, Tamia, Lindsay Cooper, Paolo Fresu, Gianluigi Troveso, Paul Rutherford, John Taylor, Claude Barthelemy, Paolo Damiani, Pierre Favre) 1985

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