Survival kit: a tribute to the periphery. As a place to live, but also a posture to look at the world, the periphery is seen as a free zone. Going against standardised thought, it allows Serge Teyssot-Gay to escape the globalised world he regards as hostile. Escape, but never completely; the hostility created by standardisation and conformity is never-ending. With Cyril Bilbeaud, he had already highlighted this attraction for blind spots—or angle mort in French, the title of Zone Libre's first album—but for Kit de survie, he has invited artists from other peripheries from all over the world, from the edges of labelled genres. Akosh Szelevenyi's saxophone meets Médéric Colligon's brass instruments, Marc Nammour's voice meets Mike Ladd's, mixing with their hosts' riffs and patterns. This sextet likes to explore odd rhythms when our ears are used to a binary system that encourages Manicheism. Against the overwhelming means of expansion of the music industry, Kit de survie uses a weapon it cannot understand: the permanent invention that Serge Tayssot-Gay argues characterises those zones away from the centre. There, everything is built through coexistence and the preservation of differences, in a perpetual movement. Let the centre keep the norm; it is so poor compared to what the margins can do.
This project is dedicated to Frédéric Deval, who imagined it and who passed away on March 27, 2016.
Zone libre
Zone libre is first and foremost a meeting place for Serge Teyssot-Gay, guitarist, and Cyril Bilbeaud, drummer, who together recorded the albums Faire vibrer la chair, L'Angle mort, and Les Contes du chaos. Having always liked to play with guests, the band became known as PolyUrbaine—a portmanteau of “polyrythmie-des-zones-urbaines” (polyrhythm of the urban zones)—in 2013, when Marc Nammour and Mike Ladd joined the original core. The former writes and raps in French, the latter improvises and chants in English. Today, Zone libre has come up with Kit de survie thanks to Médéric Collignon, who plays the cornet, the saxhorn, and the bugle, and Akosh Szelevenyi, who plays the saxophone.
Distribution
Artistic direction Serge Teyssot-Gay
Poetry, rap Mike Ladd, Marc Nammour
And Akosh Szelevenyi (saxophone), Cyrille Bilbeaud (drums), Médéric Collignon (cornet, saxhorn, bugle), Serge Teyssot-Gay (electric guitar)
Production
Production Fondation Royaumont
Co-production Festival d'Avignon, Théâtre national de Strasbourg, Espace 1789 of Saint-Ouen
With the support of Adami, Sacem, Spedidam, Fondation Orange, Aéroports de Paris, Fondation Daniel & Nina Carasso, Région Île-de-France