Le Jardin d’Afrique_GB – Les Illuminations

JARDIN D’AFRIQUE

An original work by Benjamin Attahir

Le Jardin d’Afrique, lieu-dit pour un non-dit:
a publication that arose from multiple encounters.

First, there was the encounter that took place at Editions Al Manar between Rachid Koraïchi, Isabelle Junca and Aurélie Allexandre d’Albronn.
Then, there was a week spent in the Garden itself, somewhere outside time and space.

It was here that a silent dialogue began in front of the tombs, mingling with another kind, both fragile and respectful, where the voices of living migrants, the witness bearers, echoed those of the authors to weave the fabric of a book.

By the time the journey was over, a poetic form had taken shape: a combination of images, sounds and a rhythm, in homage to the place and its « shooting stars ».

A lyrical work by Benjamin Attahir:

« When I heard about the project by Les Illuminations based on Rachid Koraïchi’s Jardin d’Afrique, I immediately started reading the text and felt a call to action. Or rather, the pressing need to compose. Music is a language without borders; it has a universal reach, capable of conveying all our pain, a pain that howls into the void.

Three cellos, a woman’s voice, the triangle and the square that make up the figure seven of sacred architecture.

Instrumentation in multiples of three will serve to orchestrate and develop this first form, which I chose for its depth of tone and lyrical force.

Pain, then, but not only pain. The pain and hope of those who, while they live, weave their pathways into the tapestry of the written present.

I want to give voice to the potency of a powerful commitment to life, allowing it to resonate in this place of human connections. »

• Benjamin ATTAHIR | Composer