The Sound Braka

Multi-instrumentalist and composer, Temelkovski, has recently brought out his first album, a captivating suite of soulful melodies, intoxicating rhythms and highly versatile improvisations. Hailing from Grenoble in the French Alps, Temelkovski grew up in a Macedonian family, open to the rich ethnic influences of his neighbourhood and bathed in an all-Balkan passion that one finds in Gypsy brass bands. A renowned bass player and beatboxer in France, he moves with ease to percussion, mandola and viola.

Temelkovski invited his ‘brothers of sound,’ as he calls the ten virtuosi on his album, to colour his musical travelogue. From Balkan exuberance to the interiority of Cape Verdean saudade or Argentinian tango, from the serenity of Hindustani sequences to the contagious groove of Latin jazz, Temelkovski has built a luminous nomadic musical patchwork with four soloists who form the core of the project. Pakistani Ashraf Sharif Khan subtly intervenes on his sitar and three French top jazzmen – Jean-François Baëz (who poetically plays accordion), Jean-Charles Richard with passionate velocity on saxophones and Jean-Marie Machado brings a Cuban touch on piano. Among the eight tracks one can mention ‘Manzanilla’, where Syrian ney (flute) player, Iyad Haimour, adds a hypnotic Oriental melody to an off-beat tango and ‘Odimé Siné’ where Bengali Shyam Goswami superbly sings in the khyal tradition in this spiritual ballad.