Pierre Bastien and Michel Banabila return with Nuits Sans Nuit, their second collaboration following their Baba Soirée debut from 2023.
Recorded as an intuitive exchange between Rotterdam and Valencia, the album emerged from a simple ping-pong process: Banabila sculpted sounds and atmospheres, to which Bastien responded with his distinctive instrumental palette: flute-augmented cornet, mechanised log drum, and more. Mixed by Banabila, the result is a raw yet immersive work that resonates with a somnambulant, wide-awake presence.
Pierre Bastien: "The dreamlike quality of our recordings reminded me of a book I read years ago: ‘Nuits Sans Nuit Et Quelques Jours Sans Jour’ by Michel Leiris. Around that same time, some fifty years ago, I was playing in Nu Creative Methods with Bernard Pruvost, a duo that appears on the Nurse With Wound list. Since then, Pruvost has turned to painting, and his work is as dreamlike as our music. We asked him to contribute one of his paintings for the album cover."
"I don't know how to describe the feeling of these crazy times we live in," says Banabila. "Les plus désespérés sont les chants les plus beaux,” Bastien quotes De Musset.
Wordless yet deeply expressive, the album invites listeners into a space of contemplation, where meaning emerges through immersion — like ritual music carrying an unspoken message. Echoes of saudade, blues, fado, and soleá surface in the duo’s playful noise, reimagined through their singular vocabulary.
PIERRE BASTIEN
Cornet augmented with rotary flutes (1), Sintir (2), Rabab and pipe (3), Roll piano (4), Mechanized steel drums (5), Prepared cornet (2, 6, 10, 11), Mechanized log drum / Sanza / Hand drum (7), Cornet and mechanized zheng (8), Mangbetu harp kundi, Talking drum tama (9).
MICHEL BANABILA
Software instruments, Sampler, Melodica (9), Wooden flute (2), Found objects (1+11), Percussion (1, 2, 4), Field recording (5+6), Mexican Turtle Flute (9), E-bow effects (8), Voice (8), Mix.
Music for Somewhere, a dance performance by YYDC. Somewhere premiered at New York Live Arts June 06-20-2024.
Creative team:
Choreographer | Yue Yin
Rehearsal director | Grace WIthworth
Original Score | Michel Banabila
Lighting design | Solomon Weisbard
Set design | Striped Canary
Costume | Yue Yin and Mike Esperanza
Production manager | Tricia Toliver
Producer | YYDC, Yue Yin and Joseph Tedeschi
Casts:
Nat Wilson
Alexsander Sawder
Kristalyn Gill
Joan Dwiartanto
Sydney Chow
Sarah Allen
Corinne Lohner
D'Angelo Castro
The development and production of SOMEWHERE is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by the Chautauqua Institution, the Danse Mirage Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, and individual donors
(Photo by Alice Chacon)
(Photo by Alice Chacon)
Cover photo by Mike Esperanza.
Kamancheh on Lineage by Salar Asid.
Score composed and performed by Michel Banabila.
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/independent-works-somewhere
