The Zebra's Stripes

White on black, or black streaked with white, a zebra’s stripes defy definition. This collaboration between TM+ and Print, The Zebra’s Stripes, likewise intertwines the poetry of two composers who are also two improvisers and two instrumentalists. Sylvain Cathala comes from the world of jazz, and Alexandros Markeas from the fringes of contemporary music.  Here they join forces, each with their zebra companions: winds, keyboard, bass, percussion, which are a little bit alike (black stripes on a white coat) and yet nonetheless different (white stripes on a black coat). Under the direction of a conductor who shares their passion, they combine to play a living music of today, with a taste for transgressing boundaries and opening new frontiers.

Energy, dynamism, friction – we hear the beating of the rhythms, the intensity of the breaths, the boundless trembling space of a collective vertigo in which all our bearings are lost.

It is written, and yet not totally. It is suddenly improvised. It jumps onto the tracks of great, pulsating rhythms, then shifts at random and bursts into asymmetry. It amuses along unexpected byways, then explodes at a moment’s spark, and finally regroups in a great, disheveled migration where the cycles and waves of sonic flow preserve the specificity of its sounds and timbres.