Gregory Dargent — “Soleil d’hiver” / opening set: Fausto Sierakowski
After an opening set by saxophonist Fausto Sierakowski, French musician Gregory Dargent presents at KET the audiovisual composition “Soleil d’hiver” (“Winter Sun”), with oud solos, electronic effects, magnetic films and images.
Contemporary but also perfectly rooted in the expression of the oud, the solo “Soleil d’hiver” is a search on memory, loss, and a creation that goes back to its history: the story of the son of a man who left Algeria at a young age, during the war, and who for years had buried his history.
Grégory Dargent is preparing this project by carrying out numerous residencies and concerts throughout 2024 in France, the Middle East, Greece – at the Cité de la Musique in Marseille, the IRTIJAL festival and the Palais Boutros in Beirut, Algiers, Istanbul, Cairo, Tunis, Berlin and Strasbourg, the city where he lives and from which he regularly leaves for long musical journeys.
The “Winter Sun” is supported by the City of Strasbourg and the Grand Est Region of France.
The oud player, electric guitarist, composer, director and photographer Gregory Dargent cultivates his music and identity through improvisational music, Tuareg trance, jazz, Turkish makam, minimalist music, pop, African-American songs or French chansons. From Hijâz’Car to Babx, from singer Houria Aïchi to Camelia Jordana, from Electrik GEM to Rachid Taha, from the “H” trio to Manu Théron’s Sirventés, from contemporary music to contemporary choreography, from acoustic oud to the hardest electric guitars, Gregory directs, accompanies, composes, reflects, questions, digs, makes mistakes, orchestrates and tirelessly shares his musical and photographic passions.
Fausto Sierakowski was born in 1988 in Paris and grew up in Rome. In 2009, he obtained a diploma in Classical Saxophone (Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia) and, in 2012, a Master’s degree in contemporary improvisation at the New England Conservatory. During his stay in America and until his return to Europe in 2014, he performed and recorded with musicians such as Matt Moran, Anthony Coleman, Joe Morris, Matt Darriau, Satoshi Takeshi, Hayden Chisholm and Axel Dörner. In 2016, he moved to Greece to study classical Ottoman music and oud with Eugene Voulgaris. Since then, he has participated in the ensembles of Eugene Voulgaris, Yannis Dionysiou, as well as in the Fausto Sierakowski Trio (with Panagiotis Kaitatzis and Stratis Skourkeas) and People of the wind (with Alexandros Rizopoulos and James Wylie).