Eva Quartet & Hector Zazou - The Arch (2014)

The Swan song of the French musical magician Hector Zazou is a project together with the exceptional Bulgarian voices of ‘Eva Quartet’ (part of the world famous choir ‘Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares’) with the special participation of musicians from different genres and fields of music.

One producer of The Arch is Dimiter Panev – founder and director of the Bulgarian-German label and booking agency Elen Music – a 15-year-old company working with musicians from Bulgaria as well as other different countries. DimiterPanev is also known as the producer of the CD ‘Ivo Papasov’, which got the 2005 BBC Music Award.

For three years Hector Zazou and Dimiter Panev travelled together a lot, communicated with musicians from all over the world, exchanged opinions, ideas, thoughts. It was a very long, yet creative way - The Arch. They went through the sophisticated and long process of creating this unique project - all the guest musicians were recorded in several studio sessions and many more improvised recordings on three continents.

The list of guests is quite long, featuring musicians from jazz, folk, world music, fusion, electronic and avant-garde etc. Among the outstanding musicians there are the ‘queen’ of experimental music Laurie Anderson (USA), Ryuichi Sakamoto (Japan), one of the most interesting piano players and composers of our time, the avantgarde rock guitar player Robert Fripp (UK), founder of the cult rock band King Crimson, the R.E.M. ex-drummer Bill Rieflin (USA). Moreover, several creative jazz musicians like Bill Frisell (USA), Nils Petter Molvær (Norway) and Zoltan Lantos (Hungary) took part in The Arch. Some of the biggest folk and world music musicians – Djiavan Gasparian (Armenia), Carlos Nunez (Spain) and Bollywood String Orchestra (India), Indian singer Kaushiki Charkaborty and the masterly Algerian oud player Mehdi Haddab (The Speed Caravan) are part of this incredible project.

Of course, there are also many guests from Bulgaria – the contemporary composer and brilliant pianist Antoni Donchev, the male voices of Dvuglas – Milen Ivanov and Daniel Spasov, Sofia String Quartet, the creative project Diva Reka featuring the masterly kaval player Kostadin Genchev and tambura player Dimiter Hristov and many more.

The Arch is mixed and mastered by Peter Walsh – a sound engineer who has worked together with many musicians – from the Spandau Ballet and Stevie Wonder to Peter Gabriel and Pulp.

The Arch is the methaphorical place where ancient traditions and magical voices meet contemporary feelings, amazing talent, masterly techniques, fame and pure creative spirit in order to create music that connects the best of music. Hector Zazou’s spirit has come alive again.

Tracklist:

01. Lazaritsa
02. Razvivay, Dobro
03. Balno Li Ti E, Sino Ljo
04. Gospodi, Pomiluy
05. Planinsko
06. Pladne Doyde
07. Dostoino Est
08. Yana
09. Snoshti Si, Mamo, Zamraknakh
10. Minka
11. The Arch
12. Kadóna

Musicians:

Alto Vocals – Evelina Christova
Bouzouki – Stefano Saletti (tracks: 8)
Clarinet – Renaud Gabriel Pion (tracks: 8, 9)
Conductor – Milen Ivanov
Contralto Vocals – Daniela Stoichkova
Drum [Tupan] – Stoyan Pavlov (tracks: 2)
Drums – Bill Rieflin* (tracks: 9)
Duduk – Djivan Gasparian* (tracks: 6, 10)
Electronics – Hector Zazou
Flute – Xavier Cobo (tracks: 7, 8, 9)
Flute, Bagpipes – Carlos Nunez (2) (tracks: 1, 8)
Guitar – Bill Frisell (tracks: 1, 12), Robert Fripp (tracks: 7), Roberto Cechetto (tracks: 3)
Harmonica – Quatuor Harmos (tracks: 6)
Harmonium – Janne Strömstedt (tracks: 6)
Harp – Cecilia Chailly (tracks: 3, 4, 10)
Kantele – Minna Raskinen (tracks: 1)
Kaval – Kostadin Gentchev (tracks: 4, 8, 10)
Kaval, Tambura, Violin [Gudulka], Accordion, Mandolin, Percussion – Diva Reka Group (tracks: 2, 5, 7)
Marimba – Dobri Paliev (tracks: 5, 8, 10)
Mezzo-soprano Vocals – Sofia Kovacheva
Orchestra – Bollywood Orchestra (tracks: 4, 8)
Piano – Antoni Donchev (tracks: 2, 5, 9, 10), Diego Amador (tracks: 8), Ryuichi Sakamoto (tracks: 3)
Producer – Dimiter Panev, Hector Zazou
Saw – David Coulter (tracks: 12)
Soprano Vocals – Gergana Dimitrova
Tambura – Dimiter Hristov (tracks: 8, 10)
Trumpet – Nils Petter Molvær (tracks: 3, 9)
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Andrea Guzzoletti (tracks: 2, 8)
Vibraphone – Radosvet Kukudov (tracks: 4, 12)
Violin – Zoltan Lantos* (tracks: 1, 2, 7, 10)
Violin [Solo Gudulka] – Violeta Petkova (tracks: 7)
Violin, Viola, Cello, Violin – String Quartet: Ljudmil Nenchev, Emil Boshev, Ognian Kostantinov, Christo Tanev (tracks: 2, 10,)
Vocals – Daniel Spassov (tracks: 6), Milen Ivanov (tracks: 6)
Voice – Kaushiki Chakrabarty (tracks: 7)
Voice, Violin – Laurie Anderson (tracks: 4, 11, 12)