Altiplanos

Solilai

Musiques

Pres de Paris

Some guitarists have become fluent in the musical language of their time and place. Of these men and women, there are some who take in music from beyond their own surroundings and give birth to new musical ideas, brave compositions, and inventive playing styles. Most rare, however, are those artists who do all these things and continue to listen to their hearts, who compose beyond the limitations of their instrument, and who improvise without fear. Rare indeed, Pierre Bensusan is a guitarist, a composer, a man who constantly explores the depth of his own voice. In doing so, his music, (or as he says, his work) seems to come from a source much greater than the hands and voice of one man.

If “world music” is music that pays tribute to the spirit of a collection of human beings through distinct rhythms, traditional instruments and harmonic colors, Pierre Bensusan can be recognized as one of the most eloquent and diverse world musicians of our time. In his solo concerts that could last nearly 3 hours, and take the listener throughout the palette of emotions, between anxiety, serenity and deep joy, Bensusan weaves together the music from so many lands and so many times in history, no list of reasonable length here would suffice. And for each piece Bensusan describes as being influenced by “a man from Iraq”, or the middle-ages, or the essence of the Brazilian culture, each piece is informed by much more. None can be isolated as simply “Brazilian” or “French”; rather, they represent our world in its current state, a world sharing itself, fusing cultures together in ways we have never experienced.