CAROLINE BUGALA QUARTET

Photo : ©Studio-le-Carre

Caroline Bugala speaks of her violin as her voice… A voice that allows her to go beyond the barrier of words. Her early love of Romantic music and Gypsy music led her to cross paths with emblematic musicians such as Roby Lakatos, Maxim Vengerov, soprano Caroline Casadesus, and the Manouche musicians of the ensemble Am Ketenes. While taking part in a masterclass led by Didier Lockwood, the master noticed the still very young student and decided to take her under his wing. He would become her guide in learning the codes of African-American music during the years that followed their meeting.
After several years of performing as a sideman, the desire to become a leader in order to choose her own repertoire and perform her own compositions was very much there. The quartet was born. With this project, Caroline Bugala seeks to create a fusion between jazz and rock without denying her Gypsy influences…

“Very few people know this, but Gypsy culture has Indian origins. Some nomads left India to reach the Iberian Peninsula by way of North Africa. They contributed to the birth of Gypsy music. Others crossed Eastern Europe to reach France and created Manouche culture. In both of these cultures, there is an acute demand for rhythm.” It is this rhythmic requirement that we discover in Caroline Bugala’s music, as she has always regarded rhythm as an inexhaustible tool for musical development.
But we are also struck by her constant search for new timbres and by the great aesthetic freedom that characterises her work. “I have always admired free artists like Björk, her freedom in melodies, her sounds… She always goes further, placing no barriers on herself, cultural or otherwise.”

We are very proud to welcome Caroline and her musicians, she who has settled in Limousin in recent years to draw from and nourish her work and reflections with the sole purpose of sharing them. Prepare yourself for a first-class journey into the land of tribal energies.

Line-up :
Caroline Bugala – compositions, violin
Philippe Parant – guitar
Victor Pierrel – bass
Tom Moretti – drums