LINE UP
Emile Parisien: saxophone
Leila Martial: vocals
Tony Paeleman: keyboards
Anne Paceo: drums
Guest: Adrien Soleiman – saxophone and keyboards
A fourth explosive album with electric influences. Between songs and instrumental escapades, earthy rhythms and libertarian breaths, Circles unfolds an organic, poetic, and inspired groove. Anne Paceo is joined by Emile Parisien (saxophone), Leila Martial (vocals), and Tony Paeleman (keyboards), leading a group emblematic of a new, inventive, and uninhibited generation of musicians.
Melodic pulses and distant wanderings… Visual contemplations and colorful inspirations… This is the very essence of Anne Paceo’s music. Keeping time as a way of bridging distances… Exploring rhythmic as well as geographic landscapes… Between north and south, Anne Paceo constantly travels the world in search of new cultures and sounds.
She has discovered over forty countries, seeking impressions, lands to contemplate, and sacred moments, eager to describe what moves her beyond borders, like the northern lights of a Polar Night in Norway, the reminiscence of her own roots on Tzigane, or the pagoda of Shwedagon, a Burmese wonder rising as a temple of serenity on Myanmar Folk Song.
Enriched by this openness to elsewhere, she now strives to explore new voices. These are the circular dynamics that shine through Circles, her latest formation carried by compositions born from a strange blossoming — a blossoming that crosses paths with a constant and perpetual (r)evolution, all in the continuity of a singular journey.
With the support of keyboardist Tony Paeleman and his eclectic and electronic distortions, saxophonist Émile Parisien and his fluid phrasing, and Leïla Martial and her vocal experiments, Anne Paceo plays with natural elements, the cycles of nature and time, between solar brightness (Sunshine) and paradoxically lunar shadow (Moons).
Circles is the result of four years of introspection, the outcome of a meditation on the scope of her playing — to be born again, and better reborn (Birth And Rebirth). Like the monarch butterflies of America, ephemeral migrants who, nonetheless, never seem to vanish.
Through organic, abundant, and generous music, she juggles joy and melancholy, cold and warmth, with smoothness throughout, giving ample space to those who accompany her. Like Triphase, her first steps toward freedom, and Yokaï, a symbol of her independence, Circles is more than just a band — it’s a new identity: a vulnerable self-exposure and a liberating leap. A desire to invite us to escape, into surreal sonic short films for silent landscapes (Toundra, Sables).
« Do not be arrogant. The perfect circle of the moon lasts only one night. » This quote from Japanese monk and painter Sengaï is the guiding thread for someone who composes always while traveling.
« With Circles, Anne Paceo invites us on a journey where cosmic rock meets soulful prayer, where cold steel funk can lead to strange extraterrestrial drifts, guiding us step by step toward another, unknown and fascinating territory. » – Les Inrocks
« Anne Paceo exalts the heartbeat rhythm, the sublimity of the inner song. » – L’Humanité
« Captivating » – Madame Figaro
« With Circles, Anne Paceo stands out as a leading creator capable of blending the art of songwriting with the evocative power of improvisation » – Jazzmag