Swiss artists at Printemps de Bourges 24.4. – 28.4.2013
Le Printemps de Bourges is a yearly music festival hugely popular amongst concert-goers as well as business representatives (not that the two are mutually exclusive!). Situated at the heart of France, the city centre of Bourges for almost a whole week is turned into one big musical stage. The scheduled music program starts early in the afternoon and takes place in eleven different venues, offering a rich variety of newcomers as well as established artists. Additionally, more than twenty bars in the centre of town offer live music from noon to midnight.
Once again, several Swiss artists have been invited to perform at Printemps de Bourges which this year takes place between Tuesday, 23 April and Sunday, 28 April. La Gale, the outspoken and ground-breaking rapper, is appearing under the “Inouies du Printemps de Bourges” banner in the category “hip-hop” on Wednesday, 24 April.
Aloan will be presenting the cinematic wide-screen sound of their new album “No Fear, No Bravery” on Friday, 26 April on the “Pression Live” stage.
Last but by no means least, the much-travelled Sophie Hunger will make a highly anticipated return to Bourges with a bunch of new songs from her recent fifth album, “The Danger of Light”. She will be appearing at l’Auditorium on Thursday, 25 April.
In the further programme of Printemps de Bourges: "Les Petits Chanteurs à la Gueule de Bois" http://www.pcgb.ch
The association of Swiss Music Export with Printemps de Bourges dates back as far as 2004. Ever since then, SME has supported concerts of Swiss artists at this festival and organised networking events to facilitate the contact between Swiss, French and other European music business professionals. “SME is a very dynamic export office with a large artist suggestion each year,” says Aziliz Benech from the event’s coordinators, MaMA Event. “SME is more than an export office, a link between Swiss music industry and other countries trying to innovate every year.” Once again, SME, with logistical support of ASVM/Chat Noir, will organise a networking event this year, a traditional raclette taking place during the Pot des Antennes.
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Artist information:
With a Swiss father and a Lebanese mother, Lausanne-based rapper La Gale, aka Karine Guignard, has always had a sharp eye for the border areas between cultures. Having been a punk fan throughout her teenage years, she discovered rap through the French hip-hop group La Rumeur. In 2010 it was two members of this group, Hamé and Ekoué, who helped to launch La Gale’s second career as an actress, casting her in the lead role for their television film “Dans l’Encre”, shown on Canal+. In 2012, she featured in another film, the Swiss cinema movie “Opération Libertad”, before she released her debut album as a rapper, “La Gale” (Vitesse Records). Her lyrics, often acerbic critiques of all kinds of status quo, are served up with an unusual combination of hip-hop and electro beats.
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Aloan began shortly after the turn of the millennium as the project of one man and a plethora of guest musicians and voices. Composer, producer and drummer Alain Frey released two albums – “Palmyr”, 2002, “We Play”, 2005 – with a constantly shifting cast of contributors, before he found the perfect voices for his musical vision: Lyn M., whose voice can go from a whisper to a scream in a heartbeat, and the laconically sonorous rapper MC Granite. Two more albums followed – “Better in Springtime”, 2007, and “Pretty Freaks”, 2009 – each more successful in terms of charts as well as radio plays than the preceding one. Aloan were nominated for a Swiss Music Award in 2011 and 2013. They were voted Swiss Top Band 2010 by Radio DRS3 and won the 2008 newcomer award of the SUISA Foundation. Their new album “No Fear, No Bravery” (Barbarella Records) demonstrates a fine ear for unusual combinations of style and instruments – there are hints of rockabilly, but also hip-hop, Ennio Morricone as well as soul. Augmented by several guest musicians, the core trio of Frey, Lyn M and MC Granite are a spectacular live experience.
http://www.aloan.ch/index.php/en/
Much has happened since Sophie Hunger first appeared at Printemps de Bourges in 2009. Her debut album “Sketches on Sea” (2006) was very much a DIY affair, produced and released by Sophie on her own. However, her unusual way with chords, words and arrangements garnered a lot of attention, and only a few months later she was already supporting the likes of Eric Truffaz, the Young Gods and Stephan Eicher on tour – this with an unusual, though typical band line-up of a trombonist, a flutist/guitarist and the backing vocalist Evelinn Trouble. Progress, both artistic and commercial, was swift. Her third album “Monday’s Ghost” reached the top of the Swiss charts, also gaining a release in several other European territories. About “The Danger of Light”, released internationally early in 2013, The Sunday Times in London wrote this: "The Danger of Light is a fiercely individual album. The instrumental textures are rich and varied. Her voice is as big as those of her heroes, but clearly her own, and her subjects – religion, revolution, romance – illuminate dark corners of the heart with a ready wit and passion. Fearless and fabulous she is an "artist sans frontière"."
SME sponsored Sophie Hunger’s very first performance abroad at the “Swiss Music Rendez-Vous” in Paris in 2007 and subsequently supported her throughout the early years of her career.
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