PEEMAÏ

LAOS, FRANCE
WORLD ETHNIC GROOVE
AVAIL ALL YEAR LONG 2020/2021

About

Peemaï’s music is based on traditional music from Southeast Asia: Burma, Indonesia and Laos. The Hindu-Buddhist influence in this part of the world has generated an exciting suite of musical traditions, carried by the practice of instruments specific to dreamlike range, such as the Burmese gauk saung[harp], the Lao khene[mouth organ], or Indonesian gamelans[collective instrument]…

Peemaï’s four musicians have chosen to reclaim these melodies, their colours and sounds. In their music, the melodies of molam[the rural blues of Laos and the Issan region of Thailand] mingle with electric and synthetic sounds; sacred music is covered with new sound textures invoking Hendrix or Coltrane. Rich in these hypnotic rhythms with haunting melodies, the group offers a unique musical proposal; a joyful fusion of traditional Asian music, jazz culture, rock and electro.

Peemaï’s music, with its wild groove, offers a joyful musical journey, where the smiles of its performers spread among their audience, in a ritual of shared happiness.

« To attend a Peemaï’s live concert is travelling through sounds you would not expect. Looking at the saxophonist you can hear his keyboards ; it feels like you are surrounded by the moisture from the Mekong, while your eyes slide to the guitar and the bass. The bass is shaking you when you realize you are in an other time zone. The miracle is a true collective sound. Charmingly insolent and really unusual. » Alex Dutilh – Open Jazz / France Musique- April 2017

Beyond the ethnomusicological aspect that can be projected on Peemaï, there remains a resolutely human dimension resulting from the respective personal approaches of the four musicians. This musical project stems from a very first group where jazz rock was discussed, then they naturally turned to Laotian culture since two of them were from it, and the other musicians had been enriched by Asian musical cultures during professional and personal trips.
Peemai will therefore have been built on the basis of a meeting, an exchange, and the desire to make music together. At the request of Franck Vaillant, the Lao Classics label based in Vientiane (Laos), sends musicians a series of recordings of the most prestigious Lao traditional music ensembles. This incredible raw material will allow musicians to extract certain melodies, themes, rhythms and colours, giving the emerging musical project the scope of a fusion of continents.

In spring 2016, the group’s first tour in Southeast Asia allowed them to give their very first concert on Asian soil, in Laos; and it is in 2019, that they met their Laotian collaborators Sisenchan THIPPHAVONG and Vilasay LAYSOULIVONG, during a two-day residency that will lead to their first joint concert at the International Jazz Festival in Vientiane.

Today, after three years of existence, about forty shows in France, the release of their first album, in which Laotian musicians appear on several tracks, Peemaï is preparing new trips, and is part of a real process of sharing and exchange with Asian musicians.
They follow a Gamelan internship (a human collective instrument mainly composed of blade keyboards and bronze gongs) in January 2019 in Yogyakarta, Java (Indonesia), and give a second tour in Southeast Asia (Laos, Thailand and Cambodia) in May 2019.
Peemaï is currently preparing an arts creation project with Gagaku, music of the Imperial Court of Japan and Mynio (Korean folk song) as its main focus.

Over the course of his concerts and enriched by his encounters, Peemaï constantly reinvents himself and redefines his itinerant music in search of universality, both in content and form. The fruit of these multiple experiences will lead to the development of a second album for between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021.

Major shows :
Europe : Studio de l’Ermitage, Paris (France) / Poisson Lune, Paris (France) /Jazzahead, Bremen (Germany) / Festival Détours du Monde (France) / No Border Festival (France) / Festival Musiques dels Monts (France), Jazz ô Caveau (France) / Les Musicales (France) / Scène Nationale de Sète (France) / Le Pannonica (France) / La Fraternelle (France) / El Mediator (France)….
Asia : Vientiane International Jazz Festival (Laos) / Beishan World Music Festival (PRC)

Hugues MAYOT
saxophones

Hugues Mayot is a saxophonist and clarinettist from France. After studying at the conservatories of Metz and Strasbourg, as well as at the CNSM in Paris, he was recruited by Marc Ducret to participate in his large orchestra Le Sens de la Marche. Since then, he has multiplied his collaborations in the field of jazz and improvised music: André Minvielle, Magma, Radiation 10, Vincent Peirani, François Jeanneau, Paul Brousseau, Bruno Chevillon, Daniel Zimmerman, Han Bennink, Médéric Collignon, Sylvain Rifflet, Jeanne Added, La Campagnie des Musiques à Ouïr, Le Sacre du Tympan, Michael Moore, Antoine Berjault, ONJ d’Yvinec, Ciné X’tet, Kolkhoze Printanium, Surnatural Orchestra, Didier Levallet, Sissel Vera Pedersen, Pascal Schumacher, Sophia Ribeiro, Stéphane Payen, Serge Lazarévitch, Toma Gouband, HSB, Big Band Umlaut, Jean Loup Longnon Big Band, United Colors of Sodom etc… But also in the field of world music and traditional music: Orlando Poleo, Brice Wassy, Martha Galarraga, Gustavo Ovalles, Chérif Soumano, Osain Del Monte.

Currently, he writes and plays in his two projects as a leader: «What if?», an electric quartet with Jozef Dumoulin, Franck Vaillant and Joachim florent, and «L’Arbre Rouge», an acoustic quintet with Théo and Valentin Ceccaldi, Joachim Florent and Sophie Bernado. Fidel Fourneyron’s new project «Que Vola?» to Pierre Durand’s Roots Quartet, Sylvaine Hélary’s Spring Roll, Philippe Gleizes’ Gleizkrew and Bertrand Beruard’s Beps.

Gilles CORONADO
electric guitar

Gilles Coronado is a chameleon guitarist based in Paris since 1991, he participated in the emergence of the new improvised music scene during the 90s, embodied by the club «Les Instants Chavirés».

In 1994, he founded the Urban Mood group (Guillaume Orti, Vincent Ségal and Norbert Lucarain). He has been participating in Thôt since its creation, as well as Caroline, Sarah Murcia’s group, sharing experiences with contemporary dance (Mathilde Monnier, Catherine Contour, Thierry Baë, Loïc Touzé,…), recording with Katerine, Francis and his Painters for a massive project of over fifty French song covers (52 covers in the space).

Off-road musician, he is also associated with fictions for France Culture, a musical creation for «Tephra Formations» at the Beaubourg Centre (by Philippe Katerine and designer Robert Stadler), as well as musical programs for Arte.

Since 2014 he has been in charge of his own group «Coronado» with Matthieu Metzger, Antonin Rayon and Franck Vaillant. The bands with which he is currently performing are: Coronado, Caroline, solo, Matthieu Donarier’s Le Bestiaire, Antoine Antoine Antoine Antoine Antoine, Canso show with Félix Jousserand and Christophe Lavergne (musical epic), as well as his new project Domino (2 drum-guitar)

Alfred VILAYLECK
electric bass

Alfred Vilayleck became interested in music at the age of 12, particularly rock, and was particularly interested in Jimi Hendrix’s music. He quickly turned to jazz. He finds a space of freedom and constraints that fascinate him: the improvisation…

Graduated from the conservatories of Perpignan and Strasbourg in bass and guitar, he plays with several jazz groups before founding the Collectif Koa in Montpellier in 2008, of which he becomes the artistic director. This position allows him to meet and collaborate with Steve Coleman, Aka Moon, Magic Malik, or Jim Black.

He had the pleasure of playing with Serge Lazarevitch, Joël Allouche, Jeroen Van Herzeele, Julien Lourau, Hugues Mayot, Vittorio Silvestri, Ari Hoënig, Gautier Garrigue, Patrice Héral, Franck Vaillant, John Tchicaï, Stéphane Foucher, Pierre Van Dormael, Cherif Soumano, Laurent Blondiau, Michel Massot, Marc Ducret,
Guillaume Orti, Philippe Renault, Joao Lobo, Andy Emler, Eric Barret, Emil Spany, Maria Grand, Stéphane Guillaume, Erwin Siffer, Karl Jannuska, Philippe Macé…

As a globetrotter musician, he is interested in the cultures of the world and performs internationally, USA, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Morocco, Jordan, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, China, Laos, Cambodia…

Currently, he directs the Grand Ensemble Koa, and co-leads several groups including Peemaï and Gratitude trio. Alfred Vilayleck is involved in many Soundpainting projects, which he learned from Walter Thompson and sits on the board of directors of Grand Format. Possessor of a State Diploma, Alfred is a professor of Jazz and
Contemporary Music at the Conservatoire de Montpellier.

Franck VAILLANT
drums & percussions

Drummer, composer, arranger,Franck Vaillantis above all an adventurous and productive musician. He has recorded more than fifty albums, seven of them as a leader, and plays all over the world, through numerous collaborations.

Self-taught, he learns to read music relatively late, which allows him to acquire other keys and openings in his composition work, which he has been doing for several years now. A creative musician, he proliferates by enriching each of his collaborations with a very personal touch. He is one of those who are looking to extract panels of colours and sounds that a drum set offers to better serve music and his passion for groove.

His sideman activity in contemporary jazz is intense. We were able to see him alongside: Sarah Murcia, Sylvain Cathala, Gilles Coronado, Olivier Py, Michel Portal, Guillaume Orti, Stéphane Payen, Benoit Delbecq, Jozef Dumoulin, Magic Malik Mezzadri, Julien Lourau, Bojan Z, Yves Robert, Bruno Chevillon,Nelson Veras, Thomas de Pourquery, Elise Caron, Christophe Monniot, Médéric Collignon, Stéphanus Vivens, Laurent Dehors, Louis Sclavis, Emmanuel Bex, Hubert Dupont, Marc Ducret, Laurent Blondiau, Antoine Prawerman, Pierre Van Dormael. Vincent Courtois, Edward Perraud, Brad Scott, François Thuiller, Daniel Casimir, Yaron Herman, David Chevallier, Alban Darche, Vincent Ségal, Claude Barthélémy…

But words and the enhancement of the language attract him just as much. This is how he puts his love of song into practice, where he can find other spaces for reflection on sound and tempo, and the articulation of the specific format.

He gives many concerts with the Wax’In, Varans de Komodo, Kabal, Arthur H, Fred Poulet, Jeanne Balibar, LO’JO, Mike Carley, and has occasionally played with Alain Bashung, Katerine, Brigitte Fontaine, Izia, Franck Monnet, Mélissa Lavaux, Brad Scott, Bertrand Belin, Tatiana Mlanedovitch, Supersonic, Dave, Mark Tompkins, Richie Heavens, Hugues Coltman,…

Franck Vaillant participated for 4 years in the Rock World adventure of LO’JO, the Angevins group created in 1982, which after ten albums remains more famous abroad than in France. For several years, he has been participating in ARTE France’s research workshops and in Paul Ouazan’s shows directed by Sarah Murcia