Saturday, September 20
Sapnu fabrika
Lacplesa Str. 101
9:00 PM
Tickets: 3 and 5 Lats

World music concert
Thierry "Titi" Robin and Gulabi Sapera
Itinerant music from France, Andalusia, Rajasthan

France / India

Fragments in "RealAudio" format:
1. Thierry Robin - Pundela (feat Gulabi Sepera) [0,28 min] [370 KB]
2. Fragment - yakeen - from album Rakhi [0,32 min] [413 KB]
3. Fragment - rumal - from album Rakhi [0,32 min] [413 KB]

Download RealAudio Player from [Win] [MacOS]

Musicians:
Gulabi Sapera - dance, vocals
Thierry "Titi" Robin - bouzouki, oud, acoustic guitar
Farid "Roberto" Saadna - vocals, acoustic guitar, palmas
Renaud Pion - base clarinet, cor anglais, sax tenor
Francis Varis - accordion
Pascal "Kalou" Stalin - bass guitar, back vocals
Zé Luis Nascimento - percussions

Discography:
Gitans 1993
Le Regard Nu 1996
Payo Michto 1997
Kali Gadji 1998
Un Ciel de Cuivre 2000
Rakhi 2002

Supported by the Centre Culturel Francais,
Universal Baltic Sound and NA

Photo © Vero Guillien

The most interesting and brilliant person in the French world music scene is Thierry "Titi" Robin (born in 1957) better known in music circles as the "White Gypsy". Robin initially played Rumba Catalana, but later turned to the roots of Gypsy music - Indian, Arabic and Flamenco culture. He is a pure self-taught talent, has never studied at a music school. He plays oud, guitar and bouzouki (a small string instrument favoured by African and Egyptian gypsies). This is the music in which Flamenco, African music, French pub romances and sad Arabic melodies meet. Performing on the stage together with Robin will be dancer and singer Gulabi Sapera from Rajasthan desert region in the Northwest of India. Gulabi comes from the Saper caste. It is a nomadic tribe - musicians and snake charmers, their status in India resembles that of Gypsies in Europe. Gulabi herself has not only snake's grace and talent to dance hours on end without stopping, but also a charming voice. The artists met in France and now for ten years have been involved in various joint projects. Their performance is like a magic trip in a thousand years' old past of the Gypsy nation.

Links
www.blueline.fr (management)
www.mondomix.com (world music portal)
www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2003/03/17/stories/2003031701820200.htm (Indian press about Robin & Sapera)

Critics about Roben & Sapera

"He has been at the centre of several cross-cultural music events and recordings and is one of the most interesting musicians on the French World Music scene."	Photo © Vero Guillien
The Rought Guide to World Music
"Intuitive and talented."
Le Parisien
"The history of man, intimacy, live emotions, a bridge between him and others. Itinerant music."
ELLE
"Hers is a fairy tale fling to fame; his is a blessing of the muses. For how can one explain two diametrically placed persons meeting on the musical firmament. She hails from the remote tribal region of Rajasthan in India and he belongs to the fashion rich France. The cordon of language between the two is as thick and hard as the Great Wall of China. Yet they communicate, collaborate and create some of the best contemporary music one can ever get to hear. She is Gulabi Sapera, the girl who had danced her way into the western hearts way back in the 80s. He is Thierry Robin whose life is tuned to bringing a synthesis of the east with West through music. Together they perform, reaching out to the world at large and attesting that art recognises no boundaries, no barriers."
The Hindu, 17.03.2003.
"Thierry Robin is a discovery for me. I hear and feel the gypsy heart and passion in his music, yet there is an originality and a "modernity" that goes far beyond the gypsy music we can hear around. Singing in few different languages, the influences of his music are as well diverse, fusing styles from many different musical backgrounds, being Spanish, Arabian and more, as is common from gypsy musicians. The voice is raucous yet captivating. Moreover, I feel it is the perfect music to hear and sing at night around a fire, as gypsies are sometimes portrayed."
Bruno Deschenes, All Music Guide

back