::: EXCLUSIVE
Brand new project from Afro-pean duo Les Nubians. They recently talked with Radiofrance Internationale about their long-awaited follow up to 2003's One Step Forward, a cutting-edge spoken word ensemble project entitled Echos: Chapter One. The following is an interview translated into English from French radio. Enjoy!





Les Nubians
Echos: Chapter One

Source: http://www.rfimusique.com...e_7659.asp

Paris, 11/01/2006 - Two years after their acclaimed album One Step Forward, sisterly double act Les Nubians have completed an innovative spoken word project. Echos is an album of contemporary slam and urban poetry, recorded between Paris, Bordeaux, Marseilles, New York, London and San Francisco, with cutting-edge young French and American poets. Despite having sold hundreds of thousands of albums worldwide, Célia and Hélène Faussart took five years to get a record company interested in their new venture. RFI Musique hooked up with the slam sisters themselves.



RFI Musique: Your Afro-futurist project Echos was apparently inspired by a trip to Egypt to celebrate New Years Eve 1999-2000
Hélène: We went on a boat trip down the Nile to Nubia and it was as if the pieces of a puzzle just fell into place. I started thinking about a recent tour wed done of the States where wed invited local poets to come up and join us on stage in all the different towns we played in. I was really touched by that experience, hearing their poetry and discovering all these very different personalities and the way they used language. Thats why the project ended up being called Echos its bilingual and reflects the interplay between two cultures. Experiencing the sheer force and vitality of the American poetry scene made me discover that you could take a whole different approach to music. Its not just about writing songs you can create musical backgrounds to complement voice and words, using them the way a soundtrack carries a film.

Echos was released a long time after your original New Years trip to Egypt, wasnt it?
I actually went out to the States to record the American poets involved in the project in August 2000. When I got back I took the project to our record company, but they were very reticent and hesitant to do anything with it. I dont think they understood what we were trying to do, in fact. They claimed the album wasnt commercially viable, but the thing is at the same time over in the States, particularly since the success of Saul Williams, poetry had started to attract a real following. Theyd even introduced a "spoken word" category at the Grammy Awards. We forged ahead with our project anyway, going back down to Marseilles on our own to start creating musical backgrounds for the words. We worked with Mounir Belkhir, DJ Wamba and Yogi and spent an entire three months on it.
After that, it was a real uphill battle finding French partners for the project. We thought people would be interested in something that was trying to shake up and experiment with the French language. But, once again, it was the U.S. that opened doors for us, even though slam had taken root in France by then. Between the actual recording of Echos in 2000 and the release of the album now, Clia and I put out another album that paved the way for this one. We also created our own slam opera with artists like Grand Corps Malade and Delphine II. The show, which mixed slam with fashion, music and dance, was our attempt to make poetry less academic and elitist.

Echos is linked to the Nouveaux Griots collective you set up in Bordeaux ten years ago
The Nouveaux Griots is an organisation that aims to promote multi-ethnic urban cultures via gastronomy, concerts, workshops and encounters with different artists. Recently, we organised a concert with the Vibes Cameleon collective, with Razel, a member of the American rap group The Roots. The show was an absolute knockout. The audience was really receptive to the idea of an interactive performance and we discovered that poetry had a very different vibe live.

Basically, you discovered slamthanks to the Americans, is that right?
I actually prefer to use the term urban poetry rather than slam, which was originally used to describe these sort of verbal jousting matches. Ive always had a deep affinity for poetry. Ive always loved words. Even back at junior school, I loved classes where we had to recite stuff. Right now, in France, I have the impression that the scenes still in the process of construction. Its starting to find a real public now, though. And maybe one day soon record labels are going to start waking up and realising poetry is profitable!

There are a number of lesser-known artists on Echos, such as the poets Souleyman Diamanka and John Banza. But I believe you also thought about trying to get big-name rap stars to guest on the album
We originally invited Kery James on board, but he was in a period of questioning where he was going with his own work. Saul Williams was going to be involved, too, but then on recording day he became a dad! We worked with some very talented artists on the project and actually ended up recruiting our American collaborators via internet and e-mails. We spent a long while reading and listening to demos before deciding who we could get to come up on stage with us during our tour. Then, as a result of us meeting and befriending different artists, different names imposed themselves on the album.
Oxmo Puccino actually came along and joined us on stage at Le Bataclan (in Paris). He didnt really know how to position himself, whether he should rap or not. I think the whole experience blew him away in the end! I think hell probably be involved on the next Echos album after that.

Would you say this album, which was so long in the making, is different from other Nubian offerings?
No. Theres always a certain vibe and spirituality in our music that comes from the causes we defend. As Souleyman Diamanka says, "Inspiration is an angel who comes and whispers in your ear." In music and poetry theres always a dynamic working beyond the individual. Theres a freedom of spirit that acts upon the words and music, making them a soothing balm for the soul.

Les Nubians Echos (Naïve) 2005



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interview: Elodie Maillot
translation: Julie Street

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[Edited 2/24/06 2:33am]