BACHAR MAR-KHALIFÉ
« Who’s gonna get the ball from behind the wall of the garden today? »
Cat. Number : iF1022 (CD)
Spring 2013
“Poetry matters now probably more than ever. We need it to recover our sensitivity and our
awareness that our humanity is under threat but that we are capable of pursuing one of
humanity’s greatest dreams: freedom, tackling reality head on, opening up to a world we
share and seeking out the essence of things. " Mahmoud Darwish
Bachar Mar-Khalifé is a free man. With him, freedom is not a state of affairs, it is a state of mind. At
a time when questions of identity are central and civil status doubles as a service record, Bachar keeps
shaking up the registers, sending labels flying.
First of all, he stresses that being born in war-torn Lebanon is no justification for trying to look good
by claiming martyr status. And yet, like a whole generation of Lebanese and, more generally, MiddleEastern kids, the war has always been part of his life. But war is certainly not something to dwell on.
Which is why in France – the ally his family escaped to when he was 6 – he readily empathised with
the silence of those who had lived through war. The old dichotomy, resistance or collaboration, is very
simplistic. People should not be so quick to judge, there is no such thing as heroism.
Bachar revisits “Ya Nas”, a traditional Kuwaiti song, which he turns into a hymn to anarchistic
freedom. Longing for a drink, for others, for flesh, for transgression... There is more to it than just
ideals; the Arab world too deserves freedom! And this it has recently demonstrated, for the whole
wide world to see, a fact Bachar acknowledges through his cover of “Marea Negra”, a revolutionary
song symbolising the Arab Spring. The words are by Syrian poet Ibrahim Qashoush, who had
protested against the system through song - “It’s time for you to go Bachar” - and was later found
dead, his vocal cords torn out. Our Bachar makes the poet’s words universal and hammers them home
like an insurrectionary march of pianos, bass guitars and percussions. The track’s main piano theme is
taken from “Marée Noire” which featured on his debut album.
Xerîbî too is a cover – “This is my covers album!” – of a song by Kurdish singer Ciwan Haco, which
conveys the agony of exile as well as the hopes of a nation. Here again, Bachar adjusts the original to
his Universalist ideals, replacing Kurdistan with Utopia. “My country”, he says.
Promo contact: Julien Gagnebien / [email protected]
C/O Tim Schäfer - Zehdenicker Straße 8 - 10119 Berlin - Germany
T: +49(0)30 53163005/ P: +49(0)17620924812
BACHAR MAR-KHALIFÉ
« Who’s gonna get the ball from behind the wall of the garden today? »
Cat. Number : iF1022 (CD)
Spring 2013
Having arrived in France in 1989, initially for a few months, the Khalifé family decided to stay.
Bachar’s time was spent in school and studying music at the Conservatoire. His parents eventually
returned home but he stayed in France. He and his brother Rami (founder of the Aufgang project
alongside Francesco Tristano, also on InFiné) were taking piano lessons with a private tutor. While
one played, the other drew. And, as the apple never falls too far from the tree, Marcel Khalifé’s two
sons were both awarded the Prix du Conservatoire. Their singing and Eastern-lute playing father is a
much-loved and acclaimed legend in Lebanon. In order to differentiate himself from both father and
brother, Bachar soon added another string to his bow by taking up percussion. He developed an
interest in the traditional repertoire from an early age, to the great dismay of his father who pictured
him more as a conductor.
He eventually felt he needed to choose between
traditional and classical percussion, the piano and
conducting, but was working on so many projects at
the time that he never got around to making a
decision. This was quite fortunate as it made him
integrate those many facets and become their unique
common denominator. On stage, he approaches them
all with the same great love and energy.
Although accustomed to the limelight from quite an
early age because of his father, he felt quite naked
stepping out alone onto the stage of Parisian venue
La Gaîté Lyrique for his first album – “Oil Slick”,
released in 2010 by InFiné. This debut album was not
something he had premeditated. But the outcome was
so true to what he wanted that he released it as it was,
with pride. Singing represented another challenge. As
he played his second gig, he realised he had taken a
10-year leap forward as far as vocals were
concerned.
But for this new record, unlike the previous one, everything had been mapped out: all the elements –
the songs, singing on his own (with the exception of “Machins Choses”, which features Kid A) as well
as his large collection of instruments – had been tried and tested live. At his disposal he has a piano, a
synthesiser, a loop station on the right, a bass pedalboard on the left, percussions… And his voice of
course, more assured than ever. Not so much in terms of technique as in terms of how he deals with
the attention it attracts to him as a performer, more so than his multi-instrumental approach, which he
doesn’t want to become a reductive gimmick. Added to the strength of his instruments and his
compositions comes that intense voice, which seems to pour out directly from the core of his chest in a
sequence of rising modulations.
This project is now central to his life. But for the next record, he will not be alone. He is so personally
involved in his music that he says he only plays with those closest to him. “ Requiem’ perfectly
illustrates this, mixing a theme by Rami with an excerpt from one of Marcel’s songs. When the three
of them play together, as they did at Les Bouffes du Nord for instance, their individual journeys offset
each other remarkably, within a family where all is not necessarily expressed through words. Bachar
can now enjoy this serenely thanks to a newfound sense of harmony which keeps him from reaching
breaking point. He has struggled a great deal, both internally and against the image that others had or
he felt they had of him. But life offers some respite from time to time, enabling us to stop fighting and
Promo contact: Julien Gagnebien / [email protected]
C/O Tim Schäfer - Zehdenicker Straße 8 - 10119 Berlin - Germany
T: +49(0)30 53163005/ P: +49(0)17620924812
BACHAR MAR-KHALIFÉ
« Who’s gonna get the ball from behind the wall of the garden today? »
Cat. Number : iF1022 (CD)
Spring 2013
look around, to grow up. And to become, in turn, a mentor. On “K-Cinerea”, Bachar speaks as a
young father to a son about birth and the worlds it conjures up.
One evening, while partying at Francesco Tristano’s –
who introduced him to minimal techno – he heard
“Mirror Moon”, a song by his father, that Francesco
was mixing with electro. This song, based on a rhythmic
cell, has strong interconnections with electronic music as
Bachar’s hybrid rework makes as clear as day.
This is followed by “Machins Choses”, one of
Gainsbourg’s magical B sides, revisited here with the
help of Kid A, whom Bachar met through Agoria and
InFiné. This version replaces the original’s casual
manner for the uncertainty and doubt of their generation,
in times that Bachar sees as more troubled than 1960-era
France.
All these songs haunt him so that they seem to come
straight from the gut, as though he had to get them out of
his system. Like a pleasure closely linked to pain. The pleasure of baring one’s soul, saying something
no matter what, being sincere with oneself and with others. Even if that means being impossible to
classify, not knowing which genre one’s music will come under. Nevermind… “Everything boils
down to percussion” anyway! Including his very surname, with the word “Mar” being yet another
trace, and an ironical one, of his multi-faceted nature. In the Khalifé family’s native land are many
saints, many “Mar”s. And he also shares a middle name with his brother: Marcel. An arbitrary prefix
that allows him a certain degree of ubiquity.
As Greek historian Thucydides once said, “Being idle or being free, you must choose”. Armed with a
little inquisitiveness, we are set to gain in strength, beauty and freedom by listening to Bachar MarKhalifé!
TRACKLISTING : 1. Memories / 2. Yas Nas / 3. Mirror Moon / 4. Machins Choses Feat Kid A / 5.
Marea Negra / 6. Xerîbî / 7. Progreria (solo version) / 8. Requiem / 9. K-Cinerea / 10. Distance (solo
version)
Promo contact: Julien Gagnebien / [email protected]
C/O Tim Schäfer - Zehdenicker Straße 8 - 10119 Berlin - Germany
T: +49(0)30 53163005/ P: +49(0)17620924812