After two years of concert silence due to the pandemic, many musicians finally reached the other side and are back performing on stages worldwide. Among them is guitarist Pierre Bensusan. On March 12, 2020, he was scheduled to appear on “City Lights” ahead of his Atlanta concert, but the world shut down. Now, the Algerian-born French-Algerian guitar virtuoso is back on tour for his long-awaited album “Azwan.” After the long postponement, he recently joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to talk about his new record and the thrill of bringing it to live audiences.
Interview highlights:
The meaning of “Azwan”:
“When you hear it, the music, or the words, reflect to some places in North Africa or in the Middle East. It could be an Arabic word. In fact, there is an Arabic word sounding alike, and a lot of Arabic words have Celtic roots, mind you, so it’s funny because ‘Azwan’ also sounds Celtic,” Bensusan explained.
He continued, “I wanted to have in the title of this new album a notion of unity; of ‘Everything is connected together.’ And it was long before the pandemic that this title came about. What was amazing is that the pandemic has completely put that word into the light because the pandemic showed us how interconnected we all are. Our planet is fragile and vulnerable; how we are all depending on each other. And in fact, in my title, I want you to show just that — the unity, the fact that we are all interconnected and that everything is ‘as one.’”
Moved to create music, unbound by genre or convention:
“When I picked up the guitar, I taught myself how to play, and I went straight to doing my own things, you know, writing my own songs, writing lyrics,” said Bensusan. “Then I discovered folk music, and I mixed it with the classical music, after [learning] piano. And then I went to British folk music, and I started to listen to the guitar as an instrumental vessel, and I really had music in me that wanted to come out. I didn’t know how to name it.”
“It’s funny because I do love all those musical idioms. I feel, as a musician — and a lot of musicians will feel exactly the way I do … in our heart, we never look at music in genre. We look at music, everything that contains a musical universe within is dignified is worth giving it a listen. So we are, in fact, always fusion-ing sound, cultures, roots, geography together,” Bensusan mused. “Things incubate for a long, long time sometimes, and they come out as if it were natural, but they have been, in fact, in a sort of alchemy movement for many, many years. And when it comes out, it’s fresh, it’s new, it’s ready, but it took a while to grow … I feel music for me is a bit like that.”
Blurred lines between improvisation and composition:
“Improvisation is just a compliment of the composition. In fact, it should not sound like an improvisation. It should sound like something which has been thought out and composed,” said Bensusan. “This is what the great Debussy used to say: ‘Good music should sound like it’s all improvised, and a good improvisation should sound like it has been composed.’ And another friend of mine, a great jazz guy, said, ‘You cannot improvise a good improvisation.’”
“All the music I play comes from improvisations, comes from imagination, comes from letting myself go with the flow, and no barriers, and no instrument, no limitations. Let’s just imagine what we want, and the sky is the limit. And then you take the things down to your instrument. and you understand the gravity of what you are. You are confronted with your limitations, your technical limitations. And then this is when, in fact, all the work starts. You put in fingerings and arrangements — all your imagination, which has nothing to do with your guitar … So this is what I’m trying to do — to twist my guitar so that it can contain all my imagination.”
Pierre Bensusan’s new album “Azwan” is out now and available to stream through his website, www.pierrebensusan.com.
