The Senegalese singer-songwriter Wasis Diop is a rare and meticulous artist. He has chosen French for the elegant poetry of his latest album De la Glace dans la Gazelle, released on CD in Spring 2021. Here, each syllable is chosen for both its meaning and its musicality. And each word is magnified by his deep, sensual and haunting voice; and by his hypnotic guitar. This album will be available on vinyl on November 5th, 2021.
Wasis Diop’s previous album Séquences (2014) brought together some of his compositions for the cinema, but he had not offered us any new songs since the release of Judu Bek in 2008. De la Glace dans la Gazelle was worth waiting for. With a poetic modesty, he evokes our current problems and difficulties: refugees (Voyage à Paris), the pandemic (Ame Ly Pandémie), the plagues that are falling on Africa; climate change (De la glace dans la gazelle) the economic problems that push men to lose their natural reference points (Parler) and some women to resort to a troubled game of money to feed their loved ones (Anna Mou), while the powerful lock themselves up in excess (Le Cimetière des Gratte Ciels).
But it is also a nod to the richness of African culture. We meet the founder of the Mandingo empire (Sunjata) and the women who made his legend: Sunjata Keïta’s mother (Sogolon) and his sister Nana Triban (L’Ergot de Coq). We also meet yesterday’s heroes such as the drummer Doudou N’Diaye Rose, creator of the national rhythm of Senegal (La Rose Noire) or Jean Rouch, French filmmaker and anthropologist (Le Sigui de Jean Rouch). In the song (Y’a Bon Diop), the singer refers to his grandfather, Djibril Diop Mambéty, a Senegalese rifleman in the First World War and the namesake of Wasis’ late brother, one of the most influential African filmmakers of his generation.
De la Glace dans la Gazelle is also the occasion to reunite a father and his daughter, Mati Diop, the young and talented film director, who authored the video Voyage à Paris.
« Stories that sound like fairy tales, strewn with phrases that resonate like proverbs, songs in French, sparkling with metaphors. »
LE MONDE (FR)
« His beautiful, gravelly voice is attracted by the depths , like an Alain Bashung carting his melancholy around the Île Saint-Louis. »
TÉLÉRAMA (FR)
« One of the greatest composers of the African continent makes his return with ‘De la Glace dans la Gazelle’. »
TV5 MONDE (FR)
« Listening for the first time to an album by the poet of words and sound Wasis Diop, is an experience. As with Leonard Cohen, Kate Bush or Joni Mitchell, it feels like walking into a temple. »
RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE (FR)
« The Senegalese singer Wasis Diop has a remarkable style of singing that comes close to talking. With his dark voice and calm diction, he reminds one of Leonard Cohen, but in French and with music that subtly reveals influences from all over the world. Controlled, poetic big-city music that does not intrude, but with fine details in the arrangements is exciting from beginning to end. »
TROUW MAGAZINE (NL)
« On ‘De La Glace Dans La Gazelle’, the Senegalese singer-songwriter Wasis Diop, who lives in Paris, elegantly mixes modern chansons, jazz and afropop. An album that can only be made by someone from a developing country who has found his place in the West. »
HEAVEN MAGAZINE (NL)
« It is the varied arrangements that make ‘De La Glace Dans La Gazelle’ a pleasant listening session. »
MIXED WORLD MUSIC (NL)
« …a boundless singer of Chansons….a beautiful album. »
FESTIVAL INFO (NL)
« …you hear a very low, dark voice, which tells and recites rather than sings and thus creates an atmosphere in which you, as a listener, immediately feel calm and good. »
ROOTSTIME (BE)
Contacts:
PROMO : MARINO LE BLEIS
marino@lollypopcommunication.com
+336 45 63 22 18
PUBLISHING : CYRIL DOHAR
cyril.dohar@editeraparis.com
+331 41 05 40 62
MDC : MAGGIE DOHERTY
maggie.doherty@music-mdc.com
+331 42 01 95 36
