Under the Shadow: Carlos Mena

Carlos Mena (countertenor), Ghalmia Senouci (alto), Thomas Maeder (saxophones), Juan Munguía (bugle), David Tixier (piano), Olivier Magarotto & Salvatore Reitano (Hammond organs), Andi Pupato (percussions), Cyril Regamey & Francis Stoessel (drums) & Jacques Beaud (bass, direction)

Disfonik Orchestra

• Shall I Sue; King Henry; Never Come Back Again; A Prayer; When I am Laid in Earth; 1080 love; Let Me Die Alone; White as Lilies; Land of Darkness

From the first piece, 'Shall I Sue', which introduces us to the aesthetic concept of the disc, to the sublime 'When I am laid in Earth', Dido's final lament, the unique voice of internationally renowned countertenor Carlos Mena enhances Jacques Beaud's arrangements. As a countertenor himself, Beaud lends his voice to the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne conducted by Michel Corboz and Daniel Reuss; and, as a bass player, he shares the stage with prestigious jazzmen. What Jacques Beaud offers here is a very personal approach to the encounter between free jazz, improvisation and classical music. Carlos Mena captivates by the purity of his timbre and hypersensitive musicality, offering a performance in keeping with the concept of Purcell’s 'Dido and Aeneas', an opera halfway between the English masque and the Italian cantata, already considered a hybrid genre at the time.