Ravi Prasad - Agenda
Agenda
Tandem
Ravi Prasad and Kiko Ruiz : guitar flamenco / chant, flute and Indian percussions.
Vocal duet, flute and Indian percussions – flamenco guitar.
Produced by Ravi Prasad and Kiko Ruiz / Archipel &Compagnie/ Juste une attitude.
Album released next spring – tour summer 2007 and season 2007-2008.
Samples : Nihure - Valse à Ravi - Florès - Tandem.
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A dialog between flamenco and the voice of India, by two unusual artists.
Lyricism and fusion characterize this adventure whose origins are rooted in a friendly and musical encounter that took place during « Ponguël, the legend of Kerala », created by Ravi Prasad in 2004.
Here Ravi Prasad creates with Kiko Ruiz a dialogue where both composers and performers deliver their expression with great simplicity and elegance without losing the spontaneous pleasure they feel while improvising. It is for Ravi Prasad the complement of a first adventure with Pedro Soler’s raw flamenco, the follow up of his quest for his origins from India to Andalusia.
Two distinct worlds responding to each other and blending fluidly, betting on generosity and harmony, far away from the clichés often associated with Indian music and flamenco tradition.
Vigorous from a rhythm point of view, with a subtle writing, the opus reveals melodic treasures through eight irresistible ballads and songs. This journey seems familiar but then one realizes that the two accomplices embarked us towards unknown grounds and opened up new horizons. It is in a spirit of instinctive complicity and the pleasure of the encounter that this dialogue is being translated into a luminous show where Ravi Prasad’s singing unfolds on Kiki Ruiz’s guitar chords.
This is how "Tandem" has been elaborated : Ravi Prasad and Kiko Ruiz go beyond the cultural dimension in order to reach a universal dimension... through lullabies, waltzes and other ritornellos with an obvious and disconcerting interbreeding of sounds.
Kiko Ruiz
At the age of nine, Kiko Ruiz seriously injured his left hand. His father, an uncontested “aficionado”, imagines a game for his son who may lose the use of his left hand: he gives him a guitar and teaches him a few chords. This is the beginning of a great love story between Kiko and his guitar. And the story truly begins on stage with Bernardo Sandoval, who has been his friend and accomplice since then, and with whom he co-writes “Mano Hermano” a few years later. In 1977, the young prodigy wins an award for a tribute to Pablo Casal at the Casa de España in Toulouse (an achievement he reiterates in 1992 when he wins an award at the international flamenco guitar competition of Nîmes). In 1982, he is only 16 years old; his passion for flamenco impels him to move to Seville, Andalusia, where he makes a major encounter with guitarist Manolo Sanlucar who becomes his mentor. He teaches Kiko not only pure technique but also a true life philosophy. It is a more self-assured young man who moves back to France in 1984. He gets back in touch with Bernardo Sandoval and Pascal Rollando (percussionist) to set up an incredible trio who opens up for Jacques Higelin, Didier Lockwood, Michel Jonasz or Carlos Benavent before trying musical creation of shows such as “Tauromagie”, “Garonalquivir”, “Flamenco” (with dancer Ana Yerno) or more recently “Flamenkiko”. Having matured after spending much time on tour and numerous collaborations, he finally releases his first solo album “Cuerda y Madera” in 1998 in which he finally dares to unveil his fiery soul. His encounter with contrabassist Renaud Garcia-Fons is the beginning of a new artistic adventure. In 2002 they set up a trio with Negrito Tresante which touches the jazz-fusion world, then “Cachito de Vida” Kiko’s second solo album is being released in 2005, in collaboration with Renaud Garcia-Fons and singer Blas Cordoba. The complicity between both men continues with the album “Navigator” on which the contrabassist welcomes Kiko to a breathtaking quintet. Concerning “Flamenkiko” wrote: “I dream that my notes can cross the walls of all the ghettos of the world. I dream of blends with incredible colours”. Music is like a link, a flame burning in this free man’s heart, carried by “the black breath of the gypsy people”.
