Praful — Helvia Briggen

«The Silent Side of Satie» --2 WORLDS MEETING
The contemplative music of Erik Satie and other composers, revisited by Harp, Indian Bamboo Flute&Sax – where Classical Music meets and melts with World Music and Improvisation.

German-born Sax-&Bansuri (Indian Flute)- player Praful has made himself a name as an artist and pioneer in Jazz and different kinds of world music, while french harpist Helvia Briggen shares her music time beetween her concert career, her position as principal harpist in the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nice and her teaching career. Together, they have recorded a contemplative album with well-known pieces by French composer Erik Satie, enriched with a few pieces by other composers (Federico Mompou and Rentaro Taki) and own original material. This collection sounds unlike anything one has heard before: Praful improvises around Satie’s melodies with grace and skill, blowing new life into the century-old pieces and adding a new dimension to them. Helvia Briggen, with her harp and wonderful tone, provides him the safe base to take his adventurous flights. The Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes, with their thematic repeated loops, their constant regular beats and their deep silences, offer a perfect base for improvisation. While respecting the essence of Satie, the two take a lot of freedom changing and opening the structures. It is a tremendous pleasure to listen to them, no matter whether one knows the original music or not: one witnesses the meeting of two different worlds, beating as one heart.