A utopia in the strictest sense of the word, the 99 is a French department that doesn't actually exist. The last entry in the list the French administration uses to determine where people are from, it includes everyone, French citizens or not, who was born abroad. The natives of the 99 would therefore be beings without a country, brought together by a term that leaves them nothing in common but the idea that they're from somewhere else, different. Since neither of those things scare him, Marc Nammour questions the political and poetic meanings of the number 99: the impossible inventory of what makes an identity and the certainty of being in movement, of having come or left or travelled through a land or a sea, through different cultures and traditions. With them, the chords played by Lorenzo Bianchi-Hoesch, Jérôme Boivin, and Amir ElSaffar, the products of never-ending exchange, give us a glimpse of the political harmony that could arise from the acceptance of the complex nature of each and every one of us. No need for a passport here, no need to be afraid of what's different: the instruments and voices find inspiration in times, languages, and regions of the world in which borders, even those made of barbed wire, will never be able to prevent the meeting of influences and the mutual enrichment that ensues.
This project is dedicated to Frédéric Deval, who took part in its conception and who passed away on March 27, 2016.

Composer and singer Lorenzo Bianchi-Hoesch bases his work on electronic experimentation and improvisation, which he then incorporates into many different forms of performing art throughout the world.

Jérôme Boivin, who plays the double bass, the bass, and keyboards, is a member of the bands La Canaille and Java, and a co-founder of the studio Music Unit. He has also worked in the theatre, notably with director Gildas Milin.

A virtuoso on the trumpet and the santur, Amir ElSaffar likes to draw on classical and contemporary forms to compose harmonies that reinvent and mix jazz and Iraqi maqam.