From raga to rumba, from jungle to gnaoui, Bumcello’s inspiration knows no bounds. The percussionist Cyril Atef and the cellist Vincent Segal improvise with complete freedom.
Free spirits from the start, capable of excelling in all musical genres, Bumcello delights in stirring and molding everything that comes to mind, between the ears and in their hands.
With Lychee Queen, their sixth album, Atef and Segal’s free expression reaches yet again a higher dimension. Until now, Bumcello’s music was generally considered a powerful and intoxicating cocktail, providing those who consumed it with a prolonged sensory intoxication. This time, the thrill is still present, but the “alcohol” causing it doesn’t quite have the same composition. More refined than in the previous album, the sound material of Lychee Queen has the amber hue, light bouquet, and lingering taste of the best Californian liqueurs. Atef and Segal have remained true to their instinctive approach to musical gesture.
Exploiting all the resources of their telepathic relationship, they improvised and laid the foundations for the tracks of this new opus in three days, in a Parisian studio. Lychee Queen is a constant theater of miraculous encounters of balance and intelligence. With this album that casts a wide net but with unwavering finesse, Bumcello confirms that they have managed to invent a music that connects people and unites tastes.
As the opening act, Merakhaazan, a solo project revolving around the double bass and its sound possibilities. It is used as a sound generator rather than just an accompaniment instrument. Percussions, riffs, solos, sound effects, and more result in unique compositions through the layering of successive textures. Hypnotic music, electro-acoustic textures, emphasized saturations, or classic melodic lines, MERAKHAAZAN integrates elements of an eclectic and open musical culture. Thus, influences of rock, electro, certain ethnic music, classical and contemporary, and film scores can be found, whose mixed elements generate an unclassifiable music.
