Gilles Chabenat

Gilles Chabenat

Gilles Chabenat (* 1963 in Lignières , Cher département , Center-Val de Loire region , France) is a French musician, he plays electro-acoustic alto hurdy-gurdy and lives in Tours .

Live and act

Chabenat began playing traditional music on the hurdy-gurdy at the age of 13 with the Association d'art et tradition populaire les Thiaulins (founded in the Château du Plaix in Lignières). After lessons with Georges Simon, he won several folk music prizes, including first place in the Virtuoso Concours category at the Rencontres internationales de Luthiers et Maîtres Sonneurs in Saint-Chartier in 1981 , and continued to devote himself particularly to the traditional music of his region. In the 1980s he wrote several pieces that became the standards of French folk music (e.g. Organdi , La grand'bête , Carrée de Vouvrai , Les Poules Huppées ).

Then he began to deal with the electro-acoustic hurdy-gurdy and its new possibilities. The music and playing technique of Valentin Clastrier and his influence on the further and new development of the instrument, implemented here by the instrument maker Denis Siorat, which made the integration of the instrument into the music of other, modern styles possible ( De l'eau et des amandes , 1995; Mouvements Clos , 2001; Traité des songes , 2004).

Gilles Chabenat has worked for twelve years with the Corsican group I Muvrini and artists such as Véronique Sanson , Florent Pagny , Stephan Eicher , Jean-Jacques Goldman , Sting , Frédéric Paris , Edouard Papazian , Alain Bonnin and Gabriel Yacoub since 1992 , and more recently with Jazz musicians like Vincent Mascart , Jacques Mahieux , Alain Bruel , François Thuillier , Alain Gibert and Jean-Marc Padovani . Further works include a jazz poem by Enzo Corman and the music composed by Jannick Top for Pierre Jolivet's feature film Le frère du guerrier / The Warrior's Brother (2002).

Discography

• Les écoliers de Saint-Genest (1983)
• Bleu nuit (1988)
• De l'eau et des amandes (1995) with Frédéric Paris
• Mouvements Clos (2001)
• Traité des songes (2002) with Edouard Papazian
• Trame (2004) with Alain Bonnin
• Tour à tour (2006) with Patrick Bouffard
• Trame Trio (2009) with Alain Bonnin, Roger Biwandou and Catherine Paris
• La fontaine troublée (2011) with Évelyne Girardon, Soig Sibéril, Norbert Pignol, Estelle Amsellem, Richard Monségu, Soraya Mahdaoui, Cécile Bach and Marion Soulette

Participations (selection)

• Rue de l'oiseau (1987) with Frédéric Paris (Gilles Chabenat: Piano)
• Noi (1993) with I Muvrini
• Curagiu (1995) with I Muvrini
• Leia (1998) with I Muvrini
• Ilmatar (2000) with Värttinä
• Falling Tree (2001) with Didier François
• L'Arrosoit & Le Mirliton (2005) with the Ensemble de Jean-Marc Padovani
• La Charmeuse de Serpents (2006) with the Ensemble d'Eric Montbel
• Nohant (2006) with Les Thiaulins de Lignières
• Dans l'oubli du sommeil (2007) with Didier François
• Live en Flandre (2007) with Wim Claeys, Maarten Decombel and Frédéric Paris
• De la nature des choses (2008) with Gabriel Yacoub

Compilations (selection)

• Entre chien et loup (2004)

Publications

• Musiques pour vielle à roue (1998), AMTA collection, ISBN 2-9507682-1-0 . (Notes of the pieces on Les écoliers de Saint-Genest , Bleu nuit and De l'eau et des amandes )
• Cahier de Répertoire (2001), AMTA
• Nohant - Les Thiaulins de Lignières (2006), Parsiparla

Web links

• www.gilleschabenat.com official website (English, French)
• Gilles Chabenat's Myspace page
• www.thiaulins.com Association d'art et tradition populaire les Thiaulins